
Inlinear algebra, asymmetric matrix is asquare matrix that is equal to itstranspose. Formally,
Because equal matrices have equal dimensions, only square matrices can be symmetric.
The entries of a symmetric matrix are symmetric with respect to themain diagonal. So if denotes the entry in theth row andth column then
for all indices and
Every squarediagonal matrix is symmetric, since all off-diagonal elements are zero. Similarly incharacteristic different from 2, each diagonal element of askew-symmetric matrix must be zero, since each is its own negative.
In linear algebra, areal symmetric matrix represents aself-adjoint operator[1] represented in anorthonormal basis over arealinner product space. The corresponding object for acomplex inner product space is aHermitian matrix with complex-valued entries, which is equal to itsconjugate transpose. Therefore, in linear algebra over the complex numbers, it is often assumed that a symmetric matrix refers to one which has real-valued entries. Symmetric matrices appear naturally in a variety of applications, and typical numerical linear algebra software makes special accommodations for them.
The following matrix is symmetric:Since.
Any square matrix can uniquely be written as sum of a symmetric and a skew-symmetric matrix. This decomposition is known as the Toeplitz decomposition. Let denote the space of matrices. If denotes the space of symmetric matrices and the space of skew-symmetric matrices then and, i.e.where denotes thedirect sum. Let then
Notice that and. This is true for everysquare matrix with entries from anyfield whosecharacteristic is different from 2.
A symmetric matrix is determined by scalars (the number of entries on or above themain diagonal). Similarly, askew-symmetric matrix is determined by scalars (the number of entries above the main diagonal).
Any matrixcongruent to a symmetric matrix is again symmetric: if is a symmetric matrix, then so is for any matrix.
A (real-valued) symmetric matrix is necessarily anormal matrix.
Denote by the standardinner product on. The real matrix is symmetric if and only if
Since this definition is independent of the choice ofbasis, symmetry is a property that depends only on thelinear operator A and a choice ofinner product. This characterization of symmetry is useful, for example, indifferential geometry, for eachtangent space to amanifold may be endowed with an inner product, giving rise to what is called aRiemannian manifold. Another area where this formulation is used is inHilbert spaces.
The finite-dimensionalspectral theorem says that any symmetric matrix whose entries arereal can bediagonalized by anorthogonal matrix. More explicitly: For every real symmetric matrix there exists a real orthogonal matrix such that is adiagonal matrix. Every real symmetric matrix is thus,up to choice of anorthonormal basis, a diagonal matrix.
If and are real symmetric matrices that commute, then they can be simultaneously diagonalized by an orthogonal matrix:[2] there exists a basis of such that every element of the basis is aneigenvector for both and.
Every real symmetric matrix isHermitian, and therefore all itseigenvalues are real. (In fact, the eigenvalues are the entries in the diagonal matrix (above), and therefore is uniquely determined by up to the order of its entries.) Essentially, the property of being symmetric for real matrices corresponds to the property of being Hermitian for complex matrices.
A complex symmetric matrix can be 'diagonalized' using aunitary matrix: thus if is a complex symmetric matrix, there is a unitary matrix such that is a real diagonal matrix with non-negative entries. This result is referred to as theAutonne–Takagi factorization. It was originally proved byLéon Autonne (1915) andTeiji Takagi (1925) and rediscovered with different proofs by several other mathematicians.[3][4] In fact, the matrix is Hermitian andpositive semi-definite, so there is a unitary matrix such that is diagonal with non-negative real entries. Thus is complex symmetric with real. Writing with and real symmetric matrices,. Thus. Since and commute, there is a real orthogonal matrix such that both and are diagonal. Setting (a unitary matrix), the matrix is complex diagonal. Pre-multiplying by a suitable diagonal unitary matrix (which preserves unitarity of), the diagonal entries of can be made to be real and non-negative as desired. To construct this matrix, we express the diagonal matrix as. The matrix we seek is simply given by. Clearly as desired, so we make the modification. Since their squares are the eigenvalues of, they coincide with thesingular values of. (Note, about the eigen-decomposition of a complex symmetric matrix, the Jordan normal form of may not be diagonal, therefore may not be diagonalized by any similarity transformation.)
Using theJordan normal form, one can prove that every square real matrix can be written as a product of two real symmetric matrices, and every square complex matrix can be written as a product of two complex symmetric matrices.[5]
Every realnon-singular matrix can be uniquely factored as the product of anorthogonal matrix and a symmetricpositive definite matrix, which is called apolar decomposition. Singular matrices can also be factored, but not uniquely.
Cholesky decomposition states that every real positive-definite symmetric matrix is a product of a lower-triangular matrix and its transpose,
If the matrix is symmetric indefinite, it may be still decomposed as where is a permutation matrix (arising from the need topivot), a lower unit triangular matrix, and is a direct sum of symmetric and blocks, which is called Bunch–Kaufman decomposition[6]
A general (complex) symmetric matrix may bedefective and thus not bediagonalizable. If is diagonalizable it may be decomposed aswhere is an orthogonal matrix, and is a diagonal matrix of the eigenvalues of. In the special case that is real symmetric, then and are also real. To see orthogonality, suppose and are eigenvectors corresponding to distinct eigenvalues,. Then
Since and are distinct, we have.
Symmetric matrices of real functions appear as theHessians of twice differentiable functions of real variables (the continuity of the second derivative is not needed, despite common belief to the opposite[7]).
Everyquadratic form on can be uniquely written in the form with a symmetric matrix. Because of the above spectral theorem, one can then say that every quadratic form, up to the choice of an orthonormal basis of, "looks like"with real numbers. This considerably simplifies the study of quadratic forms, as well as the study of the level sets which are generalizations ofconic sections.
This is important partly because the second-order behavior of every smooth multi-variable function is described by the quadratic form belonging to the function's Hessian; this is a consequence ofTaylor's theorem.
An matrix is said to besymmetrizable if there exists an invertiblediagonal matrix and symmetric matrix such that
The transpose of a symmetrizable matrix is symmetrizable, since and is symmetric. A matrix is symmetrizable if and only if the following conditions are met:
Other types ofsymmetry or pattern in square matrices have special names; see for example:
See alsosymmetry in mathematics.