Identities for minors of the Laplacian, resistance and distance matrices

It is shown that if L and D are the Laplacian and the distance matrix of a tree respectively, then any minor of the Laplacian equals the sum of the cofactors of the complementary submatrix of D, up to sign and a power of 2. An analogous, more general result is proved for the Laplacian and the resistance matrix of any graph. A similar identity is proved for graphs in which each block is a complete graph on r vertices, and for q-analogues of such matrices of a tree. Our main tool is an identity for the minors of a matrix and its inverse.     

Intervals of totally nonnegative matrices

Totally nonnegative matrices, i.e., matrices having all their minors nonnegative, and matrix intervals with respect to the checkerboard ordering are considered. It is proven that if the two bound matrices of such a matrix interval are nonsingular and totally nonnegative (and in addition all their zero minors are identical) then all matrices from this interval are also nonsingular and totally nonnegative (with identical zero minors).     

Determinant identities for Laplace matrices

We show that every minor of an n×n Laplace matrix, i.e., a symmetric matrix whose row- and column sums are 0, can be written in terms of those minors that are obtained by deleting two rows and the corresponding columns. The proof is based on a classical determinant identity due to Sylvester. Furthermore, we show how our result can be applied in the context of electrical networks and spanning tree enumeration.     

Required nonzero patterns for nonsingular sign regular matrices

An n×n real matrix is called sign regular if, for each k(1?k?n), all its minors of order k have the same nonstrict sign. The zero entries which can appear in a nonsingular sign regular matrix depend on its signature because the signature can imply that certain entries are necessarily nonzero. The patterns for the required nonzero entries of nonsingular sign regular matrices are analyzed.     

Characterizations of rectangular totally and strictly totally positive matrices

An n×m real matrix A is said to be totally positive (strictly totally positive) if every minor is nonnegative (positive). In this paper, we study characterizations of these classes of matrices by minors, by their full rank factorization and by their thin QR factorization.     

When the positivity of the leading principal minors implies the positivity of all principal minors of a matrix

An n-by-n real matrix A enjoys the “leading implies all” (LIA) property, if, whenever D   is a diagonal matrix such that A+D$A+D$ has positive leading principal minors (PMs), all PMs of A are positive. Symmetric and Z-matrices are known to have this property. We give a new class of matrices (“mixed matrices”) that both unifies and generalizes these two classes and their special diagonal equivalences by also having the LIA property. “Nested implies all” (NIA) is also enjoyed by this new class.     

Multiple LU factorizations of a singular matrix

A singular matrix A may have more than one LU factorizations. In this work the set of all LU factorizations of A is explicitly described when the lower triangular matrix L is nonsingular. To this purpose, a canonical form of A under left multiplication by unit lower triangular matrices is introduced. This canonical form allows us to characterize the matrices that have an LU factorization and to parametrize all possible LU factorizations. Formulae in terms of quotient of minors of A are presented for the entries of this canonical form.     

Principal minors, Part II: The principal minor assignment problem

The inverse problem of finding a matrix with prescribed principal minors is considered. A condition that implies a constructive algorithm for solving this problem will always succeed is presented. The algorithm is based on reconstructing matrices from their principal submatrices and Schur complements in a recursive manner. Consequences regarding the overdeterminancy of this inverse problem are examined, leading to a faster (polynomial time) version of the algorithmic construction. Care is given in the MATLAB^® implementation of the algorithms regarding numerical stability and accuracy.     

Interlacing properties of the eigenvalues of some matrix classes

We establish the eigenvalue interlacing property (i.e. the smallest real eigenvalue of a matrix is less than the smallest real eigenvalue of any of its principal submatrices) for the class of matrices introduced by Kotelyansky (all principal and almost principal minors of these matrices are positive). We show that certain generalizations of Kotelyansky and totally positive matrices possess this property. We also prove some interlacing inequalities for the other eigenvalues of Kotelyansky matrices.     

Embedding polynomial matrices of one variable

A non square matrix with coefficients in K[z] can (if a condition on its minors is satisfied) be embedded into a square matrix with determinant 1. Finding theoretically and in an algorithmic way an embedding of small degree is solved by a construction with vector bundles on the projective line over K.     

Green’s matrices

Our goal is to identify and understand matrices A that share essential properties of the unitary Hessenberg matrices M that are fundamental for Szegö’s orthogonal polynomials. Those properties include: (i) Recurrence relations connect characteristic polynomials {r_k(x)} of principal minors of A. (ii) A is determined by generators (parameters generalizing reflection coefficients of unitary Hessenberg theory). (iii) Polynomials {r_k(x)} correspond not only to A but also to a certain “CMV-like” five-diagonal matrix. (iv) The five-diagonal matrix factors into a product BC of block diagonal matrices with 2 × 2 blocks. (v) Submatrices above and below the main diagonal of A have rank 1. (vi) A is a multiplication operator in the appropriate basis of Laurent polynomials. (vii) Eigenvectors of A can be expressed in terms of those polynomials.Conditions (v) connects our analysis to the study of quasi-separable matrices. But the factorization requirement (iv) narrows it to the subclass of “Green’s matrices” that share Properties (i)-(vii).The key tool is “twist transformations” that provide 2ⁿ matrices all sharing characteristic polynomials of principal minors with A. One such twist transformation connects unitary Hessenberg to CMV. Another twist transformation explains findings of Fiedler who noticed that companion matrices give examples outside the unitary Hessenberg framework. We mention briefly the further example of a Daubechies wavelet matrix. Infinite matrices are included.     

Principal minors, Part I: A method for computing all the principal minors of a matrix

An order O(2ⁿ) algorithm for computing all the principal minors of an arbitrary n × n complex matrix is motivated and presented, offering an improvement by a factor of n³ over direct computation. The algorithm uses recursive Schur complementation and submatrix extraction, storing the answer in a binary order. An implementation of the algorithm in MATLAB® is also given and practical considerations are discussed and treated accordingly.     

Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices whose entries are 0 or 1 in Modulus

We show that a matrix is a Hermitian positive semidefinite matrix whose nonzero entries have modulus 1 if and only if it is similar to a direct sum of all I's matrices and a 0 matrix via a unitary monomial similarity. In particular, the only such nonsingular matrix is the identity matrix and the only such irreducible matrix is similar to an all l's matrix by means of a unitary diagonal similarity. Our results extend earlier results of Jain and Snyder for the case in which the nonzero entries (actually) equal 1. Our methods of proof, which reiy on the so called principal submatrix rank property, differ from the approach used by Jain and Snyder.     

Temperley-Lieb Immanants

We use the Temperley-Lieb algebra to define a family of totally nonnegative polynomials of the form . The cone generated by these polynomials contains all totally nonnegative polynomials of the form , where, are matrix minors. We also give new conditions on the sets I,...,K′ which characterize differences of products of minors which are totally nonnegative. Received September 30, 2004     

Total nonpositivity of nonsingular matrices

In this paper, nonsingular totally nonpositive matrices are studied and new characterizations are provided in terms of the signs of minors with consecutive initial rows or consecutive initial columns. These characterizations extend an existing characterization that uses some restrictive hypotheses.     

Totally nonnegative cells and matrix Poisson varieties

We describe explicitly the admissible families of minors for the totally nonnegative cells of real matrices, that is, the families of minors that produce nonempty cells in the cell decompositions of spaces of totally nonnegative matrices introduced by A. Postnikov. In order to do this, we relate the totally nonnegative cells to torus orbits of symplectic leaves of the Poisson varieties of complex matrices. In particular, we describe the minors that vanish on a torus orbit of symplectic leaves, we prove that such families of minors are exactly the admissible families, and we show that the nonempty totally nonnegative cells are the intersections of the torus orbits of symplectic leaves with the spaces of totally nonnegative matrices.     

Inverting linear combinations of identity and generalized Catalan matrices

We introduce the notion of the generalized Catalan matrix as a kind of lower triangular Toeplitz matrix whose nonzero elements involve the generalized Catalan numbers. Inverse of the linear combination of the Pascal matrix with the identity matrix is computed in Aggarwala and Lamoureux (2002) [1]. In this paper, continuing this idea, we invert various linear combinations of the generalized Catalan matrix with the identity matrix. A simple and efficient approach to invert the Pascal matrix plus one in terms of the Hadamard product of the Pascal matrix and appropriate lower triangular Toeplitz matrices is considered in Yang and Liu (2006) [14]. We derive representations for inverses of linear combinations of the generalized Catalan matrix and the identity matrix, in terms of the Hadamard product which includes the Generalized Catalan matrix and appropriate lower triangular Toeplitz matrix.     

Some results on symplectic matrices

The principal results are that if A is an integral matrix such that AA^T is symplectic then A = CQ, where Q is a permutation matrix and C is symplectic; and that if A is a hermitian positive definite matrix which is symplectic, and B is the unique hermitian positive definite pth.root of A, where p is a positive integer, then B is also symplectic.