English

A double Sylvester determinant

Rings and Algebras 2026-04-16 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

Given two (n+1)×(n+1)\left( n+1\right) \times\left( n+1\right)-matrices AA and BB over a commutative ring, and some k{0,1,,n}k\in\left\{ 0,1,\ldots,n\right\}, we consider the (nk)×(nk)\dbinom{n}{k}\times\dbinom{n}{k}-matrix WW whose entries are (k+1)×(k+1)\left( k+1\right) \times\left( k+1\right)-minors of AA multiplied by corresponding (k+1)×(k+1)\left( k+1\right) \times\left( k+1\right)-minors of BB. Here we require the minors to use the last row and the last column (which is why we obtain an (nk)×(nk)\dbinom{n}{k}\times\dbinom{n}{k}-matrix, not an (n+1k+1)×(n+1k+1)\dbinom{n+1}{k+1}\times\dbinom{n+1}{k+1}-matrix). We prove that the determinant detW\det W is a multiple of detA\det A if the (n+1,n+1)\left( n+1,n+1\right)-th entry of BB is 00. Furthermore, if the (n+1,n+1)\left( n+1,n+1\right)-th entries of both AA and BB are 00, then detW\det W is a multiple of (detA)(detB)\left( \det A\right) \left( \det B\right). This extends a previous result of Olver and the author ( arXiv:1802.02900 ).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.11109,
  title  = {A double Sylvester determinant},
  author = {Darij Grinberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.11109},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages. Slightly more detailed version available as ancillary file. Comments are welcome! v3 corrects some typos and updates references

R2 v1 2026-06-23T07:27:40.746Z