Related papers: Zero-sum squares in bounded discrepancy {-1,1}-mat…

We show that every principal submatrix of a square matrix $A$ with only entries in $\{0,1,-1\}$ has even rank if and only if $A$ is skew-symmetric up to multiplication of rows/columns by $-1$.

In order to find a suitable expression of an arbitrary square matrix over an arbitrary finite commutative ring, we prove that every such a matrix is always representable as a sum of a potent matrix and a nilpotent matrix of order at most…

A zero-sum sequence over ${\mathbb Z}$ is a sequence with terms in ${\mathbb Z}$ that sum to $0$. It is called minimal if it does not contain a proper zero-sum subsequence. Consider a minimal zero-sum sequence over ${\mathbb Z}$ with…

A matrix is homogeneous if all of its entries are equal. Let $P$ be a $2\times 2$ zero-one matrix that is not homogeneous. We prove that if an $n\times n$ zero-one matrix $A$ does not contain $P$ as a submatrix, then $A$ has an $cn\times…

Let $r$ and $k$ be positive integers with $r \mid k$. Denote by $S_{\mathrm{\mathfrak{z}}}(k;r)$ the minimum integer $n$ such that every coloring $\chi:[1,n] \rightarrow \{0,1,\dots,r-1\}$ admits a solution to $\sum_{i=1}^{k-1} x_i = x_k$…

We investigate the number of symmetric matrices of non-negative integers with zero diagonal such that each row sum is the same. Equivalently, these are zero diagonal symmetric contingency tables with uniform margins, or loop-free regular…

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…

We consider real orthogonal $n\times n$ matrices whose diagonal entries are zero and off-diagonal entries nonzero, which we refer to as $\mathrm{OMZD}(n)$. We show that there exists an $\mathrm{OMZD}(n)$ if and only if $n\neq 1,\ 3$, and…

We discuss the problem of finding distinct integer sets $\{x_1,x_2,...,x_n\}$ where each sum $x_i+x_j, i \ne j$ is a square, and $n \le 7$. We confirm minimal results of Lagrange and Nicolas for $n=5$ and for the related problem with…

A conjecture of Barrett, Butler and Hall may be stated as follows: If $n \geq 3$ and $A \in \{0,1\}^{n \times n}$ (the family of $n \times n$ 0--1 matrices) is a nonsingular symmetric matrix, then the following two statements are…

An alternating sign matrix, or ASM, is a $(0, \pm 1)$-matrix where the nonzero entries in each row and column alternate in sign. We generalize this notion to hypermatrices: an $n\times n\times n$ hypermatrix $A=[a_{ijk}]$ is an {\em…

Let $x_{1},x_{2},\ldots,x_{n}$ be $n$ numbers, and $y_{1},y_{2},\ldots,y_{n}$ be $n$ further numbers chosen such that all $n^{2}$ pairwise sums $x_{i}+y_{j}$ are nonzero. Consider the $n\times n$-matrix \[ C:=\left(…

This paper studies the set of $n\times n$ matrices for which all row and column sums equal zero. By representing these matrices in a lower dimensional space, it is shown that this set is closed under addition and multiplication, and…

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 <…

A problem in zero-sum theory is to determine all pairs $(k,n)$ for which every minimal zero-sum sequence of length $k$ modulo $n$ has index $1$. While all other cases have been solved more than a decade ago, the case when $k$ equals $4$ and…

Let $(\Gamma,+)$ be an Abelian group of order $n^2$. A $\Gamma$-magic square of order $n$ is an $n\times n$ array whose entries are pairwise distinct elements of $\Gamma$ such that all row sums, column sums, and the two main diagonal sums…

A well-known result of Murray Marshall states that every $f \in \mathbb{R} [X,Y]$ non-negative on the strip $[0,1] \times \mathbb{R}$ can be written as $f= \sigma_0 + \sigma_1 X(1-X)$ with $\sigma_0, \sigma_1$ sums of squares in $\mathbb{R}…

The independence number of a square matrix $A$, denoted by $\alpha(A)$, is the maximum order of its principal zero submatrices. Let $S_n^{+}$ be the set of $n\times n$ nonnegative symmetric matrices with zero trace. Denote by $J_n$ the…

Consider the $n$th degree polynomial equation, $X^n+A_{n-1}X^{n-1}+...+A_1X+A_0=0$ over the ring of 2 by 2 complex matrices. If this equation has more than ${2n \choose 2}$ solutions, then it has infinitely many solutions. We show here that…

In this paper, we investigate the conditions under which a diagonal quadratic form $\sum_{i=1}^{m}a_i X_i^2$ represents every $n \times n$ integral matrix, where $a_i$ ($1 \leq i \leq m$) are integers. For $n=2$, we give a necessary and…