English

Sign regularity preserving linear operators

Functional Analysis 2025-10-14 v3

Abstract

A matrix ARm×nA\in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n} is strictly sign regular/SSR (or sign regular/SR) if for each 1kmin{m,n}1 \leq k \leq \min\{m,n\}, all (non-zero) k×kk\times k minors of AA have the same sign. This class of matrices contains the totally positive matrices, and was first studied by Schoenberg in 1930 to characterize variation diminution, a fundamental property in total positivity theory. In this article, we classify all surjective linear mappings L:Rm×nRm×n\mathcal{L}:\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}\to\mathbb{R}^{m\times n} that preserve: (i) sign regularity and (ii) sign regularity with a given sign pattern, as well as (iii) strict versions of these.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.02428,
  title  = {Sign regularity preserving linear operators},
  author = {Projesh Nath Choudhury and Shivangi Yadav},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.02428},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Final version, to appear in Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. 20 pages, no figure

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:04:09.599Z