Date Thesis Awarded

6-2013

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Science (BS)

Department

Mathematics

Advisor

Ilya Spitkovsky

Committee Members

Charles R. Johnson

C. Ryan Vinroot

Donald E. Campbell

Abstract

An n-by-n matrix is called almost normal if the maximal cardinality of a set of orthogonal eigenvectors is at least n-1. We give several basic properties of almost normal matrices, in addition to studying their numerical ranges and Aluthge transforms. First, a criterion for these matrices to be unitarily irreducible is established, in addition to a criterion for the conjugate transpose of an almost normal matrix to be almost normal and a formula for the rank of the self commutator of an almost normal matrix. We then show that unitarily irreducible almost normal matrices cannot have flat portions on the boundary of their numerical ranges and that the Aluthge transform of an almost normal matrix is never normal when n > 2 and the almost normal matrix is unitarily irreducible and invertible.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Comments

Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.

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