In
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, a unistochastic matrix (also called ''unitary-stochastic'') is a
doubly stochastic matrix In mathematics, especially in probability and combinatorics, a doubly stochastic matrix
(also called bistochastic matrix) is a square matrix X=(x_) of nonnegative real numbers, each of whose rows and columns sums to 1, i.e.,
:\sum_i x_=\sum_j x_=1 ...
whose entries are the squares of the absolute values of the entries of some
unitary matrix
In linear algebra, a complex square matrix is unitary if its conjugate transpose is also its inverse, that is, if
U^* U = UU^* = UU^ = I,
where is the identity matrix.
In physics, especially in quantum mechanics, the conjugate transpose is ...
.
A square matrix ''B'' of size ''n'' is doubly stochastic (or ''bistochastic'') if all its entries are non-negative
real number
In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real ...
s and each of its rows and columns sum to 1. It is unistochastic if there exists a unitary matrix ''U'' such that
:
This definition is analogous to that for an
orthostochastic matrix
In mathematics, an orthostochastic matrix is a doubly stochastic matrix whose entries are the squares of
the absolute values of the entries of some orthogonal matrix.
The detailed definition is as follows. A square matrix ''B'' of size ''n'' is d ...
, which is a doubly stochastic matrix whose entries are the squares of the entries in some
orthogonal matrix
In linear algebra, an orthogonal matrix, or orthonormal matrix, is a real square matrix whose columns and rows are orthonormal vectors.
One way to express this is
Q^\mathrm Q = Q Q^\mathrm = I,
where is the transpose of and is the identity ma ...
. Since all orthogonal matrices are necessarily unitary matrices, all orthostochastic matrices are also unistochastic. The converse, however, is not true. First, all 2-by-2 doubly stochastic matrices are both unistochastic and
orthostochastic, but for larger ''n'' this is not the case. For example, take
and consider the following doubly stochastic matrix:
:
This matrix is not unistochastic, since any two vectors with moduli equal to the square root of the entries of two columns (or rows) of ''B'' cannot be made orthogonal by a suitable choice of phases. For
, the set of orthostochastic matrices is a
proper subset
In mathematics, set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are unequal, then ''A'' is a proper subset of ...
of the set of unistochastic matrices.
* the set of unistochastic matrices contains all
permutation matrices
In mathematics, particularly in matrix theory, a permutation matrix is a square binary matrix that has exactly one entry of 1 in each row and each column and 0s elsewhere. Each such matrix, say , represents a permutation of elements and, when ...
and its
convex hull
In geometry, the convex hull or convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space ...
is the
Birkhoff polytope
The Birkhoff polytope ''B'n'' (also called the assignment polytope, the polytope of doubly stochastic matrices, or the perfect matching polytope of the complete bipartite graph K_) is the convex polytope in R''N'' (where ''N'' = ''n''2) who ...
of all doubly stochastic matrices
* for
this set is not convex
* for
the set of triangle inequality on the moduli of the raw is a sufficient and necessary condition for the unistocasticity
* for
the set of unistochastic matrices is
star shaped
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...
and unistochasticity of any bistochastic matrix ''B'' is implied by a non-negative value of its
Jarlskog invariant Jarlskog is a Swedish surname, where 'skog' means a forest. Notable people with the surname include:
* Cecilia Jarlskog (born 1941), Swedish theoretical physicist
* Ida Jarlskog (born 1998), Swedish tennis player
{{surname
Swedish-language su ...
* for
the relative volume of the set of unistochastic matrices with respect to the
Birkhoff polytope
The Birkhoff polytope ''B'n'' (also called the assignment polytope, the polytope of doubly stochastic matrices, or the perfect matching polytope of the complete bipartite graph K_) is the convex polytope in R''N'' (where ''N'' = ''n''2) who ...
of doubly stochastic matrices is
* for
explicit conditions for unistochasticity are not known yet, but there exists a numerical method to verify unistochasticity based on the algorithm by Haagerup
* The
Schur-Horn theorem is equivalent to the following "weak convexity" property of the set
of unistochastic
matrices: for any vector
the set
is the convex hull of the set of vectors obtained by all permutations of the entries of the vector
(the permutation polytope generated by the vector
).
* The set of
unistochastic matrices
has a nonempty interior. The unistochastic matrix corresponding to the unitary
matrix with the entries
, where
and
, is an interior point of
.
References
* .
*
* {{Cite arXiv, arxiv=0806.2357, first=Alexander, last=Karabegov, title=A mapping from the unitary to doubly stochastic matrices and symbols on a finite set, date=2008-06-14
Matrices