Questions tagged [matrices]

For any topic related to matrices. This includes: systems of linear equations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors (diagonalization, triangularization), determinant, trace, characteristic polynomial, adjugate and adjoint, transpose, Jordan normal form, matrix algorithms (e.g. LU, Gauss elimination, SVD, QR), invariant factors, quadratic forms, etc. For questions specifically concerning matrix equations, use the (matrix-equations) tag.

A matrix is a rectangular array of elements, usually numbers or variables, arranged in rows and columns. A matrix with $m$ rows and $n$ columns has $m \times n$ elements and is called an $m$ by $n$ matrix. Matrices are a part of .

Matrices can be added and subtracted. Furthermore, if they have compatible shapes, they can be multiplied. More precisely, given two matrices $A$ and $B$, the matrix $AB$ is defined when the number of columns of $A$ is equal to the number of rows of $B$. In particular, given a natural number $n$, any two matrices $A$ and $B$ with $n$ columns and $n$ rows can be multiplied in both ways (that is, both $AB$ and $BA$ exist).


For questions specifically concerning matrix equations, use the tag.

55954 questions
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Why is a BCCB matrix completely specified by its first column?

It is claim in some literature that a Block Circulant with Circulant Block (BCCB) matrix is completely specified by its first column.(e.g. here ) But I have a contradictory example: Let $c = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]^T$ be the first column of a BCCB…
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Checking psd-ness of matrix

I have the following problem and don't know how to proceed... I want to check if \begin{equation} \frac{1}{2}(B^\top A^\top A + A^\top A B) - \frac{1}{4}B^\top A^\top A A^\top (AA^\top AA^\top)^{-1}AA^\top A B \end{equation} is positive…
ITOEN
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Geometrical Interpretation of Matrix Multiplication

I am stuck up with this question from my Linear Algebra Assignment which states to explain geometrically why $$\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix}-1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} -1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1…
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How to find the eigenvectors of two closely related hermitian tridiagonal matrices

Given two tridiagonal hermitian matrices A,B with $a_i\in \mathbb{R}$ and $b_i\in \mathbb{C}$ as follows \begin{align} A= \begin{pmatrix} a_{1} & |b_1| & \cdots & 0 \\ |b_1| & a_{2} & \cdots & 0 \\ \vdots & \ddots & \ddots & |b_{n-1}| \\ …
user190080
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A way to split this determinant as a product of two?

The question asks if the det of the following 3*3 matrix is divisible by $$ x^4,x^3,x^2,x $$ $$ \begin{bmatrix} a^2+x^2 & ab & ac \\ ab & b^2+x^2 & bc \\ ac & bc & c^2+x^2 \\ \end{bmatrix} $$ I just shovelled through using the standard method and…
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Matrix/determinant inequality

I have studied the inequality that if $A-B$ is positive semi-definite, then $\det(A)\geq \det(B).$ I was trying to prove the other way around. That if we know that $A$ and $B$ psd and that $\det(A)\geq \det(B)$ then is $A-B$ psd? I was using…
seek
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Vector times symmetric matrix

For most of you here, this is probably quite basic. As for a symmetric matrix $A$ the first row equals the first column, multiplying the matrix with a column vector $b$ equals multiplying the transposed vector $b'$ with the symmetric matrix, i.e. if…
user70160
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Uniqueness of Cholesky factorization

I am given $A$ a symmetric positive definite matrix, and $U$ which the Cholesky factor of $A$. I am also told that if $V$ is an upper triangular matrix such that $A$ = $V^TV$. I have to show that there exists a diagonal matrix $D$ whose entries on…
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Prove that if A, B are n x n matrices and AB is a product of elementary matrices, then A is also a product of elementary matrices.

"Prove that if A, B are nxn matrices and AB is a product of elementary matrices, then A is also a product of elementary matrices." I found an answer that states "AB is a product of elementary matrices if and only if AB is invertible. AB invertible…
Hayden
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Matrix equation involving commutator

Given two matrices $N\times N$ $A,B$, is there some method to solve the matrix equation: $$e^{[A,B]}=A$$ where the symbol $[A,B]$ means the commutator of the two matrices: $[A,B]=AB-BA$? Thanks in advance.
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Why is the matrix [1,0;0,0] not positive definite?

If I take a vector v = [a,b], then isn't v.Mv = a^2, which is strictly greater than zero for all a and b not equal to zero?
Jeff
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how to find coordinate of unknown point given the distance against N known points

I am meeting with a problem, say I have already know the coordinates of N points (a1,a2,a3....) in 3D space. And I have a new point, say x. I only know the distances from x to the known N points. Is there an efficient method to find the coordinate…
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Evaluation the function of a positive definite matrix

Consider the following function: $f(K)= y^{T} K y-log(det(K)) $ Where $y \in R^n $ is a constant vector. $K$ is a positive definite matrix that has the properties: (1). The main diagonal entries of $K$ are 1, i.e $K_{i,i}=1 ; \forall…
Phong Le
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Finding the upper bound of the sum of inverse matrices

This question relates to my research, and I hope that you can give me a hand. It took me more than one weeks but I could not find a satisfactory answer. Let $X_1,X_2,..,X_k \in S^{n}_{++}$ are positive definite matrices, each matrix has size of $n…
Phong Le
  • 180
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To find the close form for the last value of a matrix product

Suppose I have two matrices $$A = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ a_2 & a_1\end{bmatrix}$$ $$B = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}$$ Then $AB^T = \begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ a_1\end{bmatrix}$, the last term is $a_1$ Now I expand matrix $A$ and $B$ a little bit…
Fraïssé
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