Shear mapping Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A horizontal shear fixes the horizontal axis pointwise and sends to . Its determinant is one and both eigenvalues are one. A nonzero shear preserves area but generally changes lengths and angles. Composing a shear with a planar rotation can produce a symmetric stretch; having determinant one alone does not make a linear map a shear.
In the optimal initial state for triangular stable shear, expansion of gives the displayed leading parameter with relative error . Keeping both terms distinguishes a large- shear regime from the limit at fixed . The latter direction is the largest-eigenvalue direction of the Hermitian part of ; the former can instead have large absolute time and substantial shear amplification even though is small.
For a real Ginzburg–Landau equation plane wave with amplitude squared , perturbing its amplitude and phase couples Fourier modes on either side of its carrier wavenumber. The displayed eigenvalues follow from the real-linear two-component perturbation equation. Their small- phase branch is , so the robust infinite-domain stable band is . On a finite periodic envelope domain only discrete are allowed; an instability requires an allowed with . Uniform amplitude perturbations alone cannot determine this Eckhaus instability.
Suppose has distinct eigenvalues over a field and commutes with . Each eigenspace of is one-dimensional. Since commuting maps preserve eigenspaces, acts as a scalar on each of them. The eigenvectors of give a common eigenbasis and hence simultaneous diagonalization. For real matrices, the result gives a real eigenbasis only if the eigenvalues of are real; otherwise it applies over .
To identify the physical channel of a single-qubit unitary gate, prepare each of the three positive Pauli matrix eigenstates and estimate each output Pauli expectation. Their nine means are
They determine the Bloch vector rotation , hence the channel on all states. If two gates have the same channel, their relative unitary commutes with all three Pauli matrices: commuting with forces it diagonal and commuting with forces equal diagonal entries. Thus they differ by a scalar global phase, proving uniqueness up to that phase. This procedure needs no controlled gate or eigenstate of the unknown gate. Estimating its bounded measurement means to error with fixed confidence uses order repetitions. It determines the relative eigenphases but cannot determine an overall eigenvalue phase from uncontrolled gate access alone.
If lies in the kernel of , then has no normalized quantum state. A request to produce that normalized vector with positive probability is consequently undefined. For example, on one qubit has distinct dyadic eigenvalues, but annihilates . The corrected filtering assertion requires ; it cannot be repaired by assigning a positive success probability to this input.
Singular value Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The singular values of a matrix measure stretching of Euclidean norm. They are the nonnegative square roots of the eigenvalues of , counting the diagonal slots of the singular value decomposition; when , has additional zero eigenvalues. Nonnegativity follows from , so is a positive semidefinite matrix. For the preceding matrix,
Both have eigenvalues , giving singular values . In particular,
Here the operator norm uses Euclidean norm: no unit vector stretches more than fivefold. Zero singular values identify lost directions; the number of positive singular values equals the matrix rank. This summarizes both amplification and information loss with nonnegative numbers.[ref]
Small positive singular values also explain sensitivity in an inverse problem. For a square invertible matrix, the matrix inverse sends to : a weak forward response becomes strong inverse amplification. The condition number for Euclidean norm is , equal to in our example. To see a larger effect, keep the same right singular vectors but change the second singular value to :
The output perturbation has Euclidean norm , but the recovered input changes by . Its hundredfold amplification follows from the direction of the perturbation, not just its size. The condition number is now ; it measures the disparity between the strongest and weakest responses.[ref]
Sink equilibrium 2026-10-14
A hyperbolic equilibrium point is a sink when all its eigenvalues have negative real parts. Nearby trajectories converge exponentially to it. In a planar system this includes both stable nodes and stable foci. The condition is stronger than neutral stability: a centre equilibrium is not a sink.
For a nonzero real three-dimensional skew-symmetric matrix, choose real orthogonal vectors of equal length with , and , and a real unit vector in its kernel. The matrix exponential acts by , and . Its matrix in this orthonormal basis is a planar rotation matrix with an unchanged axis. A purely imaginary nonzero eigenvalue and its complex eigenvector give by taking real and imaginary parts; antisymmetry proves their equal norms and orthogonality.
Over a field , the trace-zero matrices form the special linear Lie algebra . The matrix trace of a commutator is zero, so this is a Lie subalgebra of the general linear Lie algebra. A basis is
In fact , uniquely. The individual products are
Subtracting in the stated order gives
For characteristic different from two, this is the standard sl2 triple; see Etingof, Section 11.4. The products remain valid in characteristic two, but there is central and , so the familiar characteristic zero structure changes.
The following table gives all nine basis brackets. Each entry is ; the diagonal vanishes by alternation, and exchanging row and column reverses the sign.
Bilinearity now computes any commutator, for example
The three structure constants of a Lie algebra relations encode all of this multiplication. They also show why the sl2 triple is useful in Lie algebra representations: the actions of and move between eigenvalues of the action of in steps of two.
Let be the transverse eigenvalues of a Sturm-Liouville problem for the two Robin boundary conditions. For a harmonic strip solution decaying in the longitudinal direction, projection of the prescribed end Neumann boundary condition onto every nonpositive eigenvalue must vanish. Positive modes give . Zero modes are affine and negative modes are oscillatory, so neither can contribute to a decaying solution. The condition also establishes uniqueness within the decay class.
Source equilibrium 2026-10-14
A hyperbolic equilibrium point is a source when all its eigenvalues have positive real parts. It is a sink equilibrium for the reversed flow. Every sufficiently close nonstationary trajectory leaves its neighborhood in forward time. This is distinct from an external forcing source.
Spacelike submanifold 2026-10-06
In metric signature , a spacelike submanifold of a Lorentzian manifold has an induced metric tensor defining a positive-definite quadratic form. With the overall reversed metric signature, its induced metric tensor instead has only negative eigenvalues. The definition applies to any dimension: enclosing charge-integration surfaces in four dimensions are two-dimensional examples, whereas a spacelike Cauchy hypersurface in four dimensions is three-dimensional.
Sparse maximum eigenvalue Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For a design matrix with columns, define for . Equivalently this bounds for vectors supported on at most coordinates. These quantities are nondecreasing: extend the support of a maximizing vector by zero coordinates and use the variational characterization of the largest eigenvalue. Values at , including infinity, require a separate convention.
Spectral abscissa Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
The spectral abscissa is the largest real part of a matrix's eigenvalues. It describes asymptotic exponential rates of its matrix exponential, but a non-normal matrix can also have transient amplification. It is generally distinct from the Euclidean logarithmic norm, which gives an immediate Euclidean energy-growth bound.
Let be the orthonormal basis of Dirichlet eigenfunctions for a strictly positive Dirichlet realization of an elliptic operator, with eigenvalues . Then
For integers , these domains are the Sobolev domains of powers of an elliptic Dirichlet operator. At the condition is just Parseval identity and imposes no boundary condition. At it describes and , respectively. Higher impose traces of powers of , not only the trace of . For on , the smooth Dirichlet function has sine coefficients proportional to for odd , so the weighted sum diverges at despite its ordinary regularity.
Spectral decomposition Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A spectral decomposition expresses a linear operator through its eigenvalues and projections onto its eigenspaces.