Related papers: A note on sums of three square-zero matrices

We study {\em sign-restricted matrices} (SRMs), a class of rectangular $(0, \pm 1)$-matrices generalizing the alternating sign matrices (ASMs). In an SRM each partial column sum, starting from row 1, equals 0 or 1, and each partial row sum,…

Given a finite set of roots of unity, we show that all power sums are non-negative integers iff the set forms a group under multiplication. The main argument is purely combinatorial and states that for an arbitrary finite set system the…

A real $n$-by-$n$ idempotent matrix $A$ with all entries having the same absolute value is called {\it absolutely flat}. We consider the possible ranks of such matrices and herein characterize the triples: size, constant, and rank for which…

Let $p$ be any odd prime number. Let $k$ be any positive integer such that $2\leq k\leq [\frac{p+1}3]+1$. Let $S = (a_1,a_2,...,a_{2p-k})$ be any sequence in ${\Bbb Z}_p$ such that there is no subsequence of length $p$ of $S$ whose sum is…

Any non-degenerate quadratic form over a Hilbertian field (e.g., a number field) is isomorphic to a scaled trace form. In this work we extend this result to more general fields. In particular, prosolvable and prime-to-p extensions of a…

A hollow matrix is a square matrix whose diagonal entries are all equal to zero. Define $\lambda^* = \rho^{1/2} + \rho^{-1/2} \approx 2.01980$, where $\rho$ is the unique real root of $x^3 = x + 1$. We show that for every $\lambda <…

We propose a graph theoretic approach to determine trace of product of two permutation matrices through a weighted digraph representation of the permutation matrices. Consequently, we derive trace-zero doubly stochastic (DS) matrices of…

We estimate character sums with n!, on average, and individually. These bounds are used to derive new results about various congruences modulo a prime p and obtain new information about the spacings between quadratic nonresidues modulo p.…

Let \svec = (s_1,...,s_m) and \tvec = (t_1,...,t_n) be vectors of nonnegative integer-valued functions of m,n with equal sum S = sum_{i=1}^m s_i = sum_{j=1}^n t_j. Let M(\svec,\tvec) be the number of m*n matrices with nonnegative integer…

Let $\mathscr{A}$ be a nonempty set of infinite matrices of linear operators between two topological vector spaces. We show that a sequence is uniformly $\mathscr{A}$-summable if and only if it is $B$-summable for all matrices $B$ of linear…

We initiate a study of the zero-nonzero patterns of n by n alternating sign matrices. We characterize the row (column) sum vectors of these patterns and determine their minimum term rank. In the case of connected alternating sign matrices,…

A ring is called a commutator ring if every element is a sum of additive commutators. In this paper we give examples of such rings. In particular, we show that given any ring R, a right R-module N, and a set X, End_R(\bigoplus_X N) and…

We study multiplicative nested sums, which are generalizations of harmonic sums, and provide a calculation through multiplication of index matrices. Special cases interpret the index matrices as stochastic transition matrices of random…

We study triples {a,b,c} of distinct nonzero rational numbers such that a+1,b+1,c+1,ab+1,ac+1,bc+1 and abc+1 are all perfect squares. We prove that there exist infinitely many such triples. In contrast, we show that no triple of positive…

The crossing matrix of a braid on $N$ strands is the $N\times N$ integer matrix with zero diagonal whose $i,j$ entry is the algebraic number (positive minus negative) of crossings by strand $i$ over strand $j$ . When restricted to the…

Let s,t,m,n be positive integers such that sm=tn. Let M(m,s;n,t) be the number of m x n matrices over {0,1,2,...} with each row summing to s and each column summing to t. Equivalently, M(m,s;n,t) counts 2-way contingency tables of order m x…

Sums-of-squares formulas over the integers have been studied extensively using their equivalence to consistently signed intercalate matrices. This representation, combined with combinatorial arguments, has been used to produce…

We will use commutators to provide decompositions of $3\times 3$ matrices as sums whose terms satisfy some polynomial identities, and we apply them to bounded linear operators and endomorphisms of free modules of infinite rank. In…

Let $\Omega_n$ denote the class of $n \times n$ doubly stochastic matrices (each such matrix is entrywise nonnegative and every row and column sum is 1). We study the diagonals of matrices in $\Omega_n$. The main question is: which $A \in…

Let S=(s_1,s_2,..., s_m) and T = (t_1,t_2,..., t_n) be vectors of non-negative integers with sum_{i=1}^{m} s_i = sum_{j=1}^n t_j. Let B(S,T) be the number of m*n matrices over {0,1} with j-th row sum equal to s_j for 1 <= j <= m and k-th…