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Skewsymmetricmatrix
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Inmathematics,andinparticularlinearalgebra,askewsymmetric(orantisymmetricorantimetric[1])
matrixisasquarematrixwhosetransposeisitsnegationthatis,itsatisfiestheconditionA=AT.Iftheentry
intheithrowandjthcolumnisaij,i.e.A=(aij)thentheskewsymmetricconditionisaij=aji.Forexample,
thefollowingmatrixisskewsymmetric:

Contents
1 Properties
1.1 Determinant
1.2 Crossproduct
1.3 Spectraltheory
2 Skewsymmetricandalternatingforms
3 Infinitesimalrotations
4 Coordinatefree
5 Skewsymmetrizablematrix
6 Seealso
7 References
8 Furtherreading
9 Externallinks

Properties
Weassumethattheunderlyingfieldisnotofcharacteristic2:thatis,that1+10where1denotesthe
multiplicativeidentityand0theadditiveidentityofthegivenfield.Otherwise,askewsymmetricmatrixisjust
thesamethingasasymmetricmatrix.

Sumsandscalarmultiplesofskewsymmetricmatricesareagainskewsymmetric.Hence,theskewsymmetric
matricesformavectorspace.Itsdimensionisn(n1)/2.

LetMatndenotethespaceofnnmatrices.Askewsymmetricmatrixisdeterminedbyn(n1)/2scalars(the
numberofentriesabovethemaindiagonal)asymmetricmatrixisdeterminedbyn(n+1)/2scalars(the
numberofentriesonorabovethemaindiagonal).LetSkewndenotethespaceofnnskewsymmetric
matricesandSymndenotethespaceofnnsymmetricmatrices.IfAMatnthen

Noticethat(AAT)Skewnand(A+AT)Symn.ThisistrueforeverysquarematrixAwithentriesfrom
anyfieldwhosecharacteristicisdifferentfrom2.Then,sinceMatn=Skewn+SymnandSkewnSymn={0},

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wheredenotesthedirectsum.

Denotewith thestandardinnerproductonRn.TherealnbynmatrixAisskewsymmetricifandonlyif

Thisisalsoequivalentto forallx(oneimplicationbeingobvious,theotheraplainconsequence
of forallxandy).Sincethisdefinitionisindependentofthechoiceofbasis,skew
symmetryisapropertythatdependsonlyonthelinearoperatorAandachoiceofinnerproduct.

Allmaindiagonalentriesofaskewsymmetricmatrixmustbezero,sothetraceiszero.IfA=(aij)isskew
symmetric,aij=ajihenceaii=0.

3x3skewsymmetricmatricescanbeusedtorepresentcrossproductsasmatrixmultiplications.

Determinant

LetAbeannskewsymmetricmatrix.ThedeterminantofAsatisfies

det(A)=det(AT)=det(A)=(1)ndet(A).

Inparticular,ifnisodd,andsincetheunderlyingfieldisnotofcharacteristic2,thedeterminantvanishes.This
resultiscalledJacobi'stheorem,afterCarlGustavJacobi(Eves,1980).

Theevendimensionalcaseismoreinteresting.ItturnsoutthatthedeterminantofAfornevencanbewritten
asthesquareofapolynomialintheentriesofA,whichwasfirstprovedbyCayley:[2]

det(A)=Pf(A)2.

ThispolynomialiscalledthePfaffianofAandisdenotedPf(A).Thusthedeterminantofarealskew
symmetricmatrixisalwaysnonnegative.Howeverthislastfactcanbeprovedinanelementarywayas
follows:theeigenvaluesofarealskewsymmetricmatrixarepurelyimaginary(seebelow)andtoevery
eigenvaluetherecorrespondstheconjugateeigenvaluewiththesamemultiplicitytherefore,asthedeterminant
istheproductoftheeigenvalues,eachonerepeatedaccordingtoitsmultiplicity,itfollowsatoncethatthe
determinant,ifitisnot0,isapositiverealnumber.

Thenumberofdistincttermss(n)intheexpansionofthedeterminantofaskewsymmetricmatrixofordern
hasbeenconsideredalreadybyCayley,Sylvester,andPfaff.Duetocancellations,thisnumberisquitesmallas
comparedthenumberoftermsofagenericmatrixofordern,whichisn!.Thesequences(n)(sequence
A002370intheOEIS)is

1,0,1,0,6,0,120,0,5250,0,395010,0,

anditisencodedintheexponentialgeneratingfunction

Thelatteryieldstotheasymptotics(forneven)

Thenumberofpositiveandnegativetermsareapproximativelyahalfofthetotal,althoughtheirdifference
takeslargerandlargerpositiveandnegativevaluesasnincreases(sequenceA167029intheOEIS).
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Crossproduct

3x3skewsymmetricmatricescanbeusedtorepresentcrossproductsasmatrixmultiplications.Consider
vectors and .Then,definingmatrix:

thecrossproductcanbewrittenas

Thiscanbeimmediatelyverifiedbycomputingbothsidesofthepreviousequationandcomparingeach
correspondingelementoftheresults.Seealso:Plckermatrix

Spectraltheory

Sinceamatrixissimilartoitsowntranspose,theymusthavethesameeigenvalues.Itfollowsthatthe
eigenvaluesofaskewsymmetricmatrixalwayscomeinpairs(exceptintheodddimensionalcasewhere
thereisanadditionalunpaired0eigenvalue).Fromthespectraltheorem,forarealskewsymmetricmatrixthe
nonzeroeigenvaluesareallpureimaginaryandthusareoftheformi1,i1,i2,i2,whereeachofthek
arereal.

Realskewsymmetricmatricesarenormalmatrices(theycommutewiththeiradjoints)andarethussubjectto
thespectraltheorem,whichstatesthatanyrealskewsymmetricmatrixcanbediagonalizedbyaunitarymatrix.
Sincetheeigenvaluesofarealskewsymmetricmatrixareimaginary,itisnotpossibletodiagonalizeonebya
realmatrix.However,itispossibletobringeveryskewsymmetricmatrixtoablockdiagonalformbyaspecial
orthogonaltransformation.[3][4]Specifically,every2n2nrealskewsymmetricmatrixcanbewritteninthe
formA=QQTwhereQisorthogonaland

forrealk.Thenonzeroeigenvaluesofthismatrixareik.Intheodddimensionalcasealwayshasatleast
onerowandcolumnofzeros.

Moregenerally,everycomplexskewsymmetricmatrixcanbewrittenintheformA=UUTwhereUis
specialunitary(det(U)=1)andhastheblockdiagonalformgivenabovewithcomplexk.Thisisan
exampleoftheYouladecompositionofacomplexsquarematrix.[5]

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Skewsymmetricandalternatingforms
AskewsymmetricformonavectorspaceVoverafieldKofarbitrarycharacteristicisdefinedtobea
bilinearform

:VVK

suchthatforallv,winV,

(v,w)=(w,v).

Thisdefinesaformwithdesirablepropertiesforvectorspacesoverfieldsofcharacteristicnotequalto2,butin
avectorspaceoverafieldofcharacteristic2,thedefinitionisequivalenttothatofasymmetricform,asevery
elementisitsownadditiveinverse.

WherethevectorspaceVisoverafieldofarbitrarycharacteristicincludingcharacteristic2,wemaydefinean
alternatingformasabilinearformsuchthatforallvectorsvinV

(v,v)=0.

Thisisequivalenttoaskewsymmetricformwhenthefieldisnotofcharacteristic2asseenfrom

0=(v+w,v+w)=(v,v)+(v,w)+(w,v)+(w,w)=(v,w)+(w,v),

whence,

(v,w)=(w,v).

AbilinearformwillberepresentedbyamatrixAsuchthat(v,w)=vTAw,onceabasisofVischosen,and
converselyannnmatrixAonKngivesrisetoaformsending(v,w)tovTAw.Foreachofsymmetric,skew
symmetricandalternatingforms,therepresentingmatricesaresymmetric,skewsymmetricandalternating
respectively.

Infinitesimalrotations
Skewsymmetricmatricesoverthefieldofrealnumbersformthetangentspacetotherealorthogonalgroup
O(n)attheidentitymatrixformally,thespecialorthogonalLiealgebra.Inthissense,then,skewsymmetric
matricescanbethoughtofasinfinitesimalrotations.

AnotherwayofsayingthisisthatthespaceofskewsymmetricmatricesformstheLiealgebrao(n)oftheLie
groupO(n).TheLiebracketonthisspaceisgivenbythecommutator:

Itiseasytocheckthatthecommutatoroftwoskewsymmetricmatricesisagainskewsymmetric:

ThematrixexponentialofaskewsymmetricmatrixAisthenanorthogonalmatrixR:

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TheimageoftheexponentialmapofaLiealgebraalwaysliesintheconnectedcomponentoftheLiegroup
thatcontainstheidentityelement.InthecaseoftheLiegroupO(n),thisconnectedcomponentisthespecial
orthogonalgroupSO(n),consistingofallorthogonalmatriceswithdeterminant1.SoR=exp(A)willhave
determinant+1.Moreover,sincetheexponentialmapofaconnectedcompactLiegroupisalwayssurjective,it
turnsoutthateveryorthogonalmatrixwithunitdeterminantcanbewrittenastheexponentialofsomeskew
symmetricmatrix.Intheparticularimportantcaseofdimensionn=2,theexponentialrepresentationforan
orthogonalmatrixreducestothewellknownpolarformofacomplexnumberofunitmodulus.Indeed,ifn=2,
aspecialorthogonalmatrixhastheform

witha2+b2=1.Therefore,puttinga=cosandb=sin,itcanbewritten

whichcorrespondsexactlytothepolarformcos+isin=eiofacomplexnumberofunitmodulus.

Theexponentialrepresentationofanorthogonalmatrixoforderncanalsobeobtainedstartingfromthefact
thatindimensionnanyspecialorthogonalmatrixRcanbewrittenasR=QSQT,whereQisorthogonalandS
isablockdiagonalmatrixwith blocksoforder2,plusoneoforder1ifnisoddsinceeachsingleblockof
order2isalsoanorthogonalmatrix,itadmitsanexponentialform.Correspondingly,thematrixSwritesas
exponentialofaskewsymmetricblockmatrixoftheformabove,S=exp(),sothatR=Qexp()QT
=exp(QQT),exponentialoftheskewsymmetricmatrixQQT.Conversely,thesurjectivityoftheexponential
map,togetherwiththeabovementionedblockdiagonalizationforskewsymmetricmatrices,impliestheblock
diagonalizationfororthogonalmatrices.

Coordinatefree
Moreintrinsically(i.e.,withoutusingcoordinates),skewsymmetriclineartransformationsonavectorspaceV
withaninnerproductmaybedefinedasthebivectorsonthespace,whicharesumsofsimplebivectors(2
blades) .Thecorrespondenceisgivenbythemap where isthecovector
dualtothevector inorthonormalcoordinatestheseareexactlytheelementaryskewsymmetricmatrices.
Thischaracterizationisusedininterpretingthecurlofavectorfield(naturallya2vector)asaninfinitesimal
rotationor"curl",hencethename.

Skewsymmetrizablematrix
AnnbynmatrixAissaidtobeskewsymmetrizableifthereexistsaninvertiblediagonalmatrixDandskew
symmetricmatrixSsuchthatS=DA.Forrealnbynmatrices,sometimestheconditionforDtohavepositive
entriesisadded.[6]

Seealso
Cayleytransform
Symmetricmatrix
SkewHermitianmatrix
Symplecticmatrix
Symmetryinmathematics

References
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1.RichardA.ReymentK.G.JreskogLeslieF.Marcus(1996).AppliedFactorAnalysisintheNaturalSciences.
CambridgeUniversityPress.p.68.ISBN0521575567.
2.Cayley,Arthur(1847)."Surlesdeterminantsgauches"[Onskewdeterminants].Crelle'sJournal.38:9396.
ReprintendinCayley,A.(2009)."SurlesDterminantsGauches".TheCollectedMathematicalPapers.1.p.410.
doi:10.1017/CBO9780511703676.070.ISBN9780511703676.
3.Voronov,Theodore.Pfaffian,in:ConciseEncyclopediaofSupersymmetryandNoncommutativeStructuresin
MathematicsandPhysics,Eds.S.Duplij,W.Siegel,J.Bagger(Berlin,NewYork:Springer2005),p.298.
4.Zumino,Bruno(1962)."NormalFormsofComplexMatrices".JournalofMathematicalPhysics.3(5):10551057.
doi:10.1063/1.1724294.
5.Youla,D.C.(1961)."Anormalformforamatrixundertheunitarycongruencegroup".Canad.J.Math.13:694
704.doi:10.4153/CJM19610598.
6.Fomin,SergeyZelevinsky,Andrei(2001)."ClusteralgebrasI:Foundations".arXiv:math/0104151v1 .

Furtherreading
Eves,Howard(1980).ElementaryMatrixTheory.DoverPublications.ISBN9780486639468.
Suprunenko,D.A.(2001),"Skewsymmetricmatrix",inHazewinkel,Michiel,Encyclopediaof
Mathematics,Springer,ISBN9781556080104
Aitken,A.C.(1944)."Onthenumberofdistincttermsintheexpansionofsymmetricandskew
determinants.".EdinburghMath.Notes.

Externallinks
"Antisymmetricmatrix".WolframMathworld.
Benner,PeterKressner,Daniel."HAPACKSoftwarefor(Skew)HamiltonianEigenvalueProblems".
Ward,R.C.Gray,L.J.(1978)."Algorithm530:AnAlgorithmforComputingtheEigensystemofSkew
SymmetricMatricesandaClassofSymmetricMatrices[F2]".ACMTransactionsonMathematical
Software.4(3):286.doi:10.1145/355791.355799.Fortran(http://www.netlib.org/toms/530)Fortran90(ht
tp://jblevins.org/mirror/amiller/toms530.f90)

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