English

Positivity of GCD tensors and their determinants

Rings and Algebras 2025-11-10 v2

Abstract

Let S={s1,s2,,sn}S=\{s_{1},s_{2},\ldots,s_{n}\} be an ordered set of nn distinct positive integers. The mmth-order nn-dimensional tensor T[S]=(ti1i2im),T_{[S]}=(t_{i_{1}i_{2}\ldots i_{m}}), where ti1i2im=GCD(si1,si2,,sim),t_{i_{1}i_{2}\ldots i_{m}}=GCD(s_{i_{1}},s_{i_{2}},\ldots,s_{i_{m}}), the greatest common divisor (GCD) of si1,si2,,s_{i_{1}},s_{i_{2}},\ldots, and sims_{i_{m}} is called the GCD tensor on SS. The earliest result on GCD tensors goes back to Smith [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., 1976], who computed the determinant of GCD matrix on S={1,2,,n}S=\{1,2,\ldots,n\} using the Euler's totient function, followed by Beslin-Ligh [Linear Algebra Appl., 1989] who showed all GCD matrices are positive definite. In this note, we study the positivity of higher-order tensors in the kk-mode product. We show that all GCD tensors are strongly completely positive (CP). We then show that GCD tensors are infinite divisible. In fact, we prove that for every positive real number r,r, the tensor T[S]r=(ti1i2imr)T_{[S]}^{\circ r}=(t^{r}_{i_{1}i_{2}\ldots i_{m}}) is strongly CP. Finally, we obtain an interesting decomposition of GCD tensors using Euler's totient function Φ\Phi. Using this decomposition, we show that the determinant (also called hyperdeterminant) of the mmth-order GCD tensor T[S]T_{[S]} on a factor-closed set S={s1,,sn}S=\{s_1,\dots,s_n\} is i=1nΦ(si)(m1)(n1)\prod\limits_{i=1}^{n} \Phi(s_{i})^{(m-1)^{(n-1)}}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.24053,
  title  = {Positivity of GCD tensors and their determinants},
  author = {Projesh Nath Choudhury and Krushnachandra Panigrahy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.24053},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Final version, to appear in Linear Algebra and its Applications. 14 pages, no figure