The Quaternion-Based Spatial Coordinate and Orientation Frame Alignment Problems

We review the general problem of finding a global rotation that transforms a given set of points and/or coordinate frames (the "test" data) into the best possible alignment with a corresponding set (the "reference" data). For 3D point data, this "orthogonal Procrustes problem" is often phrased in terms of minimizing a root-mean-square deviation or RMSD corresponding to a Euclidean distance measure relating the two sets of matched coordinates. We focus on quaternion eigensystem methods that have been exploited to solve this problem for at least five decades in several different bodies of scientific literature where they were discovered independently. While numerical methods for the eigenvalue solutions dominate much of this literature, it has long been realized that the quaternion-based RMSD optimization problem can also be solved using exact algebraic expressions based on the form of the quartic equation solution published by Cardano in 1545; we focus on these exact solutions to expose the structure of the entire eigensystem for the traditional 3D spatial alignment problem. We then explore the structure of the less-studied orientation data context, investigating how quaternion methods can be extended to solve the corresponding 3D quaternion orientation frame alignment (QFA) problem, noting the interesting equivalence of this problem to the rotation-averaging problem, which also has been the subject of independent literature threads. We conclude with a brief discussion of the combined 3D translation-orientation data alignment problem. Appendices are devoted to a tutorial on quaternion frames, a related quaternion technique for extracting quaternions from rotation matrices, and a review of quaternion rotation-averaging methods relevant to the orientation-frame alignment problem. Supplementary Material covers extensions of quaternion methods to the 4D problem.Comment: This replaces an early draft that lacked a number of important references to previous work. There are also additional graphics elements. The extensions to 4D data and additional details are worked out in the Supplementary Material appended to the main tex

Right eigenvalue equation in quaternionic quantum mechanics

We study the right eigenvalue equation for quaternionic and complex linear matrix operators defined in n-dimensional quaternionic vector spaces. For quaternionic linear operators the eigenvalue spectrum consists of n complex values. For these operators we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the diagonalization of their quaternionic matrix representations. Our discussion is also extended to complex linear operators, whose spectrum is characterized by 2n complex eigenvalues. We show that a consistent analysis of the eigenvalue problem for complex linear operators requires the choice of a complex geometry in defining inner products. Finally, we introduce some examples of the left eigenvalue equations and highlight the main difficulties in their solution.Comment: 24 pages, AMS-Te

Representations of U(1,q) and Constructive Quaternion Tensor Products

The representation theory of the group U(1,q) is discussed in detail because of its possible application in a quaternion version of the Salam-Weinberg theory. As a consequence, from purely group theoretical arguments we demonstrate that the eigenvalues must be right-eigenvalues and that the only consistent scalar products are the complex ones. We also define an explicit quaternion tensor product which leads to a set of additional group representations for integer ``spin''.Comment: 28 pages, Latex, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Lecce INFN-Sezione di Lecc

Quaternionic R transform and non-hermitian random matrices

Using the Cayley-Dickson construction we rephrase and review the non-hermitian diagrammatic formalism [R. A. Janik, M. A. Nowak, G. Papp and I. Zahed, Nucl.Phys. B $\textbf{501}$, 603 (1997)], that generalizes the free probability calculus to asymptotically large non-hermitian random matrices. The main object in this generalization is a quaternionic extension of the R transform which is a generating function for planar (non-crossing) cumulants. We demonstrate that the quaternionic R transform generates all connected averages of all distinct powers of $X$ and its hermitian conjugate $X^\dagger$: \langle\langle \frac{1}{N} \mbox{Tr} X^{a} X^{\dagger b} X^c \ldots \rangle\rangle for $N\rightarrow \infty$. We show that the R transform for gaussian elliptic laws is given by a simple linear quaternionic map $\mathcal{R}(z+wj) = x + \sigma^2 \left(\mu e^{2i\phi} z + w j\right)$ where $(z,w)$ is the Cayley-Dickson pair of complex numbers forming a quaternion $q=(z,w)\equiv z+ wj$. This map has five real parameters $\Re e x$, $\Im m x$, $\phi$, $\sigma$ and $\mu$. We use the R transform to calculate the limiting eigenvalue densities of several products of gaussian random matrices.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure

The complex laguerre symplectic ensemble of Non-Hermitian matrices

We solve the complex extension of the chiral Gaussian Symplectic Ensemble, defined as a Gaussian two-matrix model of chiral non-Hermitian quaternion real matrices. This leads to the appearance of Laguerre polynomials in the complex plane and we prove their orthogonality. Alternatively, a complex eigenvalue representation of this ensemble is given for general weight functions. All k-point correlation functions of complex eigenvalues are given in terms of the corresponding skew orthogonal polynomials in the complex plane for finite-N, where N is the matrix size or number of eigenvalues, respectively. We also allow for an arbitrary number of complex conjugate pairs of characteristic polynomials in the weight function, corresponding to massive quark flavours in applications to field theory. Explicit expressions are given in the large-N limit at both weak and strong non-Hermiticity for the weight of the Gaussian two-matrix model. This model can be mapped to the complex Dirac operator spectrum with non-vanishing chemical potential. It belongs to the symmetry class of either the adjoint representation or two colours in the fundamental representation using staggered lattice fermions