1
$\begingroup$

I am interested to find out the proof for the following statement (it's from my textbook and it is stated without proof):

A symmetric matrix is negative definite if and only if all of its principal minors of even order are positive and all of its principal minors of odd order are negative.

Based on the proof for the case of positive definite symetric matrix on Wikipedia, I think this proof will be more complicated. So here are the specific things that I hope someone can elaborate on:

  1. What are the theorems I need to be aware of to understand this proof?
  2. Why does the sign of the odd and even order of the principal minors matter in the case of the negative symmetric matrix while in the case of the positive symmetric matrix, all of its principal minors must be positive?

Thank you.

  • 1
    Think about the diagonal case to see why the odd order and even order minors whould behave differently.2011-12-29
  • 0
    http://www.math.iitb.ac.in/~srg/preprints/MathStudent.pdf Here is what you can demand. There is an elementary identity, for showing the general case in an intuitive way, in that paper.2011-12-29
  • 1
    May be i) [Cayley–Hamilton theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayley%E2%80%93Hamilton_theorem) and ii) [Descartes' rule of signs] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes%27_rule_of_signs) would suffice for both 1) and 2).2011-12-29

1 Answers 1