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Talk:Sylvester's law of inertia

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345:. I don't think the above statement is in need of a reference because, for anyone who knows what an eigendecomposition of a matrix is, it's an elementary, obvious statement. For anyone who doesn't know what eigenvalues are, it's unintelligible and no reference could redeem it. Symmetric matrices loom large in eigenvalue studies. I'm well able to forgive your ignorance about this but I also believe you shouldn't be spending your time editing this kind of material -- I believe you'd be better off spending your time learning it, or else editing other material where you're more knowledgeable. 511:. It seems to be true for all fields, with characteristic 2 only having the quirk that not all symmetric bilinear forms can be diagonalized, so I suppose a signature is difficult to define for those that cannot. Perhaps we could put it in, and hope someone will reference it? There are a few caveats to mention, such as with complex numbers, where every number is a square, so the signature and rank are the same (only the number of 0s and 1s count, not −1s). Unfortunately, I do not have enough knowledge to include this all in the article. — 84: 74: 53: 22: 197:
According to Horn and Johnson Thm 4.5.8, Sylvester's law of inertia says two Hermitian matrices A and B are unitarily similar iff they have the same inertia. If I'm not mistakened, what is here is trivial-- eigenvalues don't change under similarity transforms, so of course the inertia doesn't change.
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Is there any published work on the generalization to arbitrary fields (presumably with the exception of fields of characteristic 2)? This seems fairly straightforward, and seems like an appropriate generalization to include in this article.
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s eigenvectors. When two or more of the eigenvalues along the diagonal have the same value, the associated eigenvectors can form combinations that are eigenvectors too. Other than that, the eigenvectors are unique for a given symmetric
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Apart from the tone being more appropriate for a textbook than for an encyclopedia (where results are usually stated without proof), I wonder whether this description is correct, since the diagonalization for eigenvalues usually has
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Hello Sorry but i am always looking for more general definitions. On one hand this avoids confusion, on the other hand it becomes increasingly difficult to understand a simple case of something.
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If a change of coordinate sends a vector x to xS then a bilinear form expressed xAx^T will change to xSA(xS)^T = x(SAS^T)x^T. The effect is the same as changing A to SAS^T.
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That seems to confirm it (for all fields), and I can see smatterings of this in various books, but I don't see anything that I can interpret directly. See, for example,
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I am confused about the statement that S A S^T can be interpreted as a change of basis. Should it not be S A S^-1? This appears also in another comment below.
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on the right side. If the passage is OK, please forgive my ignorance; but perhapt it should be rephrased and provided with a reference. All the best, --
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The current section entitled "Statement in terms of eigenvalues" doesn't actually state the law -- added a concise statement along with a reference.
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The matrix in question is symmetric, and the eigendecompositon of a symmetric matrix is of the form QDQ, as stated at
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Someone just added this explanation to the statement that "the law can be formulated in terms of the eigenvalues":
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Sorry, I forgot that the matrix was symmetric. I will try to restore the paragraph. All the best, --
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on Knowledge. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join
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http://mathoverflow.net/questions/105870/over-which-fields-is-the-sylvester-law-of-inertia-valid
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can have no effect, since two negatives multiplied together produces a positive. The matrix
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article, only uses ordered fields, and orthogonal basisses. Eigenvalues need not exist.
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I agree with this, and I'm going to change the statement of the theorem to one based on
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The Collected Mathematical Papers of Leonard Eugene Dickson, Volume 6, p. 330
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The simplest thing would be to clarify by making A symmetric at the outset.
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except that each eigenvector can be rescaled and sign-flipped arbitrarily.
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Nice idea! I think a good starting point could be this answer at MO:
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This isn't as clear as it might be. Nowhere is it said that A is a
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Why is S^T interpreted as a change of basis as opposed to S^-1?
15: 101:, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of 268:can also be diagonalized by any matrix of the form 229:and emphasize the difference you pointed out. 8: 379:Restored it, please check. By the way, the 19: 47: 178:much more general and without eigenvalues 185:Anyway, the form of the law i use in my 49: 276:is any diagonal matrix at all, i.e., 7: 95:This article is within the scope of 38:It is of interest to the following 471:Generalization to arbitrary fields 14: 538:Low-priority mathematics articles 115:Knowledge:WikiProject Mathematics 533:Start-Class mathematics articles 118:Template:WikiProject Mathematics 82: 72: 51: 20: 383:article was incorrect: it said 240:Diagonalization for eigenvalues 135:This article has been rated as 381:eigendecomposition of a matrix 343:Eigendecomposition_of_a_matrix 252:be a matrix that diagonalizes 1: 448:15:38, 31 January 2014‎ (UTC) 109:and see a list of open tasks. 465:19:15, 31 January 2014 (UTC) 401:20:58, 17 January 2010 (UTC) 375:20:32, 17 January 2010 (UTC) 355:18:00, 17 January 2010 (UTC) 332:18:01, 16 January 2010 (UTC) 234:18:54, 6 October 2007 (UTC) 554: 418:01:37, 10 March 2018 (UTC) 227:congruence transformations 516:02:38, 10 July 2015 (UTC) 218:22:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC) 174:09:37, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) 134: 67: 46: 499:23:58, 9 July 2015 (UTC) 481:21:54, 8 July 2015 (UTC) 141:project's priority scale 187:Symmetric bilinear form 98:WikiProject Mathematics 28:This article is rated 204:comment was added by 121:mathematics articles 391:. All the best, -- 284:is diagonal. Since 389:orthonormal matrix 264:is diagonal. Then 193:different theorem? 90:Mathematics portal 34:content assessment 451: 434:comment added by 385:orthogonal matrix 221: 155: 154: 151: 150: 147: 146: 545: 450: 428: 199: 172:Charles Matthews 159:symmetric matrix 123: 122: 119: 116: 113: 92: 87: 86: 76: 69: 68: 63: 55: 48: 31: 25: 24: 16: 553: 552: 548: 547: 546: 544: 543: 542: 523: 522: 473: 429: 425: 292:, the signs in 242: 200:—The preceding 195: 180: 120: 117: 114: 111: 110: 88: 81: 61: 32:on Knowledge's 29: 12: 11: 5: 551: 549: 541: 540: 535: 525: 524: 521: 520: 519: 518: 502: 501: 472: 469: 468: 467: 424: 421: 406: 405: 404: 403: 362: 361: 360: 359: 358: 357: 311: 310: 241: 238: 237: 236: 194: 191: 179: 176: 163:quadratic form 153: 152: 149: 148: 145: 144: 133: 127: 126: 124: 107:the discussion 94: 93: 77: 65: 64: 56: 44: 43: 37: 26: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 550: 539: 536: 534: 531: 530: 528: 517: 514: 510: 506: 505: 504: 503: 500: 496: 492: 491:Saung Tadashi 489: 485: 484: 483: 482: 479: 470: 466: 462: 458: 454: 453: 452: 449: 445: 441: 437: 433: 422: 420: 419: 415: 411: 402: 398: 394: 390: 386: 382: 378: 377: 376: 372: 368: 364: 363: 356: 352: 348: 347:Seanwal111111 344: 340: 339: 338: 337: 336: 335: 334: 333: 329: 325: 321: 317: 308: 303: 299: 295: 291: 287: 283: 279: 275: 271: 267: 263: 259: 255: 251: 247: 246: 245: 239: 235: 232: 228: 224: 223: 222: 219: 215: 211: 207: 203: 192: 190: 188: 183: 177: 175: 173: 169: 166: 164: 160: 142: 138: 132: 129: 128: 125: 108: 104: 100: 99: 91: 85: 80: 78: 75: 71: 70: 66: 60: 57: 54: 50: 45: 41: 35: 27: 23: 18: 17: 474: 430:— Preceding 426: 407: 393:Jorge Stolfi 387:, should be 367:Jorge Stolfi 324:Jorge Stolfi 319: 318:rather than 315: 312: 306: 301: 300:consists of 297: 293: 289: 285: 281: 277: 273: 269: 265: 261: 257: 253: 249: 243: 196: 184: 181: 170: 167: 156: 137:Low-priority 136: 96: 62:Low‑priority 40:WikiProjects 457:Deltahedron 112:Mathematics 103:mathematics 59:Mathematics 30:Start-class 527:Categories 410:Adam Marsh 444:contribs 436:Rejapoci 432:unsigned 256:, i.e., 231:Akriasas 214:contribs 206:Swiftset 202:unsigned 513:Quondum 478:Quondum 139:on the 272:where 36:scale. 278:WQAQW 495:talk 461:talk 440:talk 414:talk 397:talk 371:talk 351:talk 328:talk 248:Let 210:talk 290:DWW 286:WDW 282:WDW 258:QAQ 131:Low 529:: 497:) 463:) 446:) 442:• 416:) 399:) 373:) 353:) 330:) 302:A' 288:= 280:= 270:WQ 260:= 216:) 212:• 493:( 476:— 459:( 438:( 412:( 395:( 369:( 349:( 326:( 320:S 316:S 307:A 298:Q 294:W 274:W 266:A 262:D 254:A 250:Q 220:. 208:( 143:. 42::

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