Block triangular miniversal deformations of matrices and matrix pencils

For each square complex matrix, V. I. Arnold constructed a normal form with the minimal number of parameters to which a family of all matrices B that are close enough to this matrix can be reduced by similarity transformations that smoothly depend on the entries of B. Analogous normal forms were also constructed for families of complex matrix pencils by A. Edelman, E. Elmroth, and B. Kagstrom, and contragredient matrix pencils (i.e., of matrix pairs up to transformations (A,B)-->(S^{-1}AR,R^{-1}BS)) by M. I. Garcia-Planas and V. V. Sergeichuk. In this paper we give other normal forms for families of matrices, matrix pencils, and contragredient matrix pencils; our normal forms are block triangular.Comment: 14 page

Duality of matrix pencils, Wong chains and linearizations

We consider two theoretical tools that have been introduced decades ago but whose usage is not widespread in modern literature on matrix pencils. One is dual pencils, a pair of pencils with the same regular part and related singular structures. They were introduced by V. Kublanovskaya in the 1980s. The other is Wong chains, families of subspaces, associated with (possibly singular) matrix pencils, that generalize Jordan chains. They were introduced by K.T. Wong in the 1970s. Together, dual pencils and Wong chains form a powerful theoretical framework to treat elegantly singular pencils in applications, especially in the context of linearizations of matrix polynomials. We first give a self-contained introduction to these two concepts, using modern language and extending them to a more general form; we describe the relation between them and show how they act on the Kronecker form of a pencil and on spectral and singular structures (eigenvalues, eigenvectors and minimal bases). Then we present several new applications of these results to more recent topics in matrix pencil theory, including: constraints on the minimal indices of singular Hamiltonian and symplectic pencils, new sufficient conditions under which pencils in L1, L2 linearization spaces are strong linearizations, a new perspective on Fiedler pencils, and a link between the Möller-Stetter theorem and some linearizations of matrix polynomials

D-stratification and hierarchy graphs of the space of order 2 and 3 matrix pencils

Small changes in the entries of a matrix pencil may lead to important changes in its Kronecker normal form. Studies about the effect of small perturbations have been made when considering the stratification associated with the strict equivalence between matrix pencils. In this work, we consider a partition in the space of pairs of matrices associated to regular matrix pencils, which will be proved to be a finite stratification of the space of such matrix pencils, called D-stratification. Matrix pencils in the same strata are those having some prescribed Segre indices. We study the effect of perturbations which lead to changes in the Kronecker canonical form, preserving the order of the nilpotent part. Our goal is to determine which DD-strata can be reached. In the cases where the order of the matrix pencils is 2 or 3, we obtain the corresponding hierarchy graphs, illustrating the DD-strata that can be reached when applying some small perturbationsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft