Related papers: Sums of hermitian squares and the BMV conjecture
Lieb and Seiringer stated in their reformulation of the Bessis-Moussa-Villani (BMV) conjecture that all coefficients of the polynomial p(t)=Tr[(A+tB)^m], where A and B are positive semidefinite matrices of the same size and m an arbitrary…
We show that the polynomial S_{m,k}(A,B), that is the sum of all words in noncommuting variables A and B having length m and exactly k letters equal to B, is not equal to a sum of commutators and Hermitian squares in the algebra R<X,Y>…
A long-standing conjecture asserts that the polynomial \[p(t) = \text{Tr}[(A+tB)^m]\] has nonnegative coefficients whenever $m$ is a positive integer and $A$ and $B$ are any two $n \times n$ positive semidefinite Hermitian matrices. The…
Consider the polynomial $tr (A + tB)^m$ in $t$ for positive hermitian matrices $A$ and $B$ with $m \in \N$. The Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture (in the equivalent form of Lieb and Seiringer) states that this polynomial has nonnegative…
The Bessis-Moussa-Villani (BMV) conjecture, originating in quantum statistical mechanics, was proved by Stahl after an influential reformulation by Lieb and Seiringer. A later refinement asks whether the normalized average over all words…
Consider the polynomial $tr (A + tB)^m$ in $t$ for positive hermitian matrices $A$ and $B$ with $m \in \N$. The Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture (in the equivalent form of Lieb and Seiringer) states that this polynomial has nonnegative…
It is shown that the polynomial \[p(t) = \text{Tr}[(A+tB)^m]\] has positive coefficients when $m = 6$ and $A$ and $B$ are any two 3-by-3 complex Hermitian positive definite matrices. This case is the first that is not covered by prior,…
We show that Connes' embedding conjecture on von Neumann algebras is equivalent to the existence of certain algebraic certificates for a polynomial in noncommuting variables to satisfy the following nonnegativity condition: The trace is…
We study sum-of-squares representations of symmetric univariate real matrix polynomials that are positive semidefinite along the real line. We give a new proof of the fact that every positive semidefinite univariate matrix polynomial of…
It is shown that the polynomial $\lambda(t) = {\rm Tr}[(A + tB)^p]$ has nonnegative coefficients when $p \leq 7$ and A and B are any two complex positive semidefinite $n \times n$ matrices with arbitrary $n$. This proofs a general…
The Bessis-Moussa-Villani conjecture states that the trace of $\exp(A-tB)$ is, as a function of the real variable $t$, the Laplace transform of a positive measure, where $A$ and $B$ are respectively a hermitian and positive semi-definite…
We define a word in two positive definite (complex Hermitian) matrices $A$ and $B$ as a finite product of real powers of $A$ and $B$. The question of which words have only positive eigenvalues is addressed. This question was raised some…
Quillen proved that, if a Hermitian bihomogeneous polynomial is strictly positive on the unit sphere, then repeated multiplication of the standard sesquilinear form to this polynomial eventually results in a sum of Hermitian squares.…
We consider the problem of writing real polynomials as determinants of symmetric linear matrix polynomials. This problem of algebraic geometry, whose roots go back to the nineteenth century, has recently received new attention from the…
A generalized word in two positive definite matrices A and B is a finite product of nonzero real powers of A and B. Symmetric words in positive definite A and B are positive definite, and so for fxed B, we can view a symmetric word, S(A,B),…
We consider two seemingly unrelated questions: the relationship between nonnegative polynomials and sums of squares on real varieties, and sparse semidefinite programming. This connection is natural when a real variety $X$ is defined by a…
We develop the connection of Berg partitions with special substitution tilings of two tiles. We obtain a new proof that the number of Berg partitions with a fixed connectivity matrix is equal to half of the sum of its entries, \cite{S-W}.…
This paper introduces and develops the algebraic framework of moment polynomials, which are polynomial expressions in commuting variables and their formal mixed moments. Their positivity and optimization over probability measures supported…
We recall Vere-Jones's definition of the $\alpha$--permanent and describe the connection between the (1/2)--permanent and the hafnian. We establish expansion formulae for the $\alpha$--permanent in terms of partitions of the index set, and…
Let H be a positive semidefinite matrix partitioned into Hermitian blocks. Then, up to a direct sum operation, H is the average of matrices isometrically congruent to its partial trace. A few corollaries are given, related to important…