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In mathematics (specifically linear algebra, operator theory, and functional analysis) as well as physics, a linear operator acting on an inner product space is called positive-semidefinite (or non-negative) if, for every (), , and , , where is the domain of .
The unit element of an unital *-algebra is positive.; For each element , the elements and are positive by definition. [1]In case is a C*-algebra, the following holds: . Let be a normal element, then for every positive function which is continuous on the spectrum of the continuous functional calculus defines a positive element ().
In mathematics, a symmetric matrix with real entries is positive-definite if the real number is positive for every nonzero real column vector, where is the row vector transpose of . [1] More generally, a Hermitian matrix (that is, a complex matrix equal to its conjugate transpose) is positive-definite if the real number is positive for every nonzero complex column vector , where denotes the ...
An element A of B(H) is called 'self-adjoint' or 'Hermitian' if A* = A. If A is Hermitian and Ax, x ≥ 0 for every x, then A is called 'nonnegative', written A ≥ 0; if equality holds only when x = 0, then A is called 'positive'. The set of self adjoint operators admits a partial order, in which A ≥ B if A − B ≥ 0.
The general form of an inner product on is known as the Hermitian form and is given by , = † = † ¯, where is any Hermitian positive-definite matrix and † is the conjugate transpose of . For the real case, this corresponds to the dot product of the results of directionally-different scaling of the two vectors, with positive scale factors ...
In mathematics, Sylvester’s criterion is a necessary and sufficient criterion to determine whether a Hermitian matrix is positive-definite. Sylvester's criterion states that a n × n Hermitian matrix M is positive-definite if and only if all the following matrices have a positive determinant: the upper left 1-by-1 corner of M,
The diagonal elements must be real, as they must be their own complex conjugate. Well-known families of Hermitian matrices include the Pauli matrices, the Gell-Mann matrices and their generalizations. In theoretical physics such Hermitian matrices are often multiplied by imaginary coefficients, [6] [7] which results in skew-Hermitian matrices.
Normal operators are important because the spectral theorem holds for them. The class of normal operators is well understood. Examples of normal operators are unitary operators: N* = N −1; Hermitian operators (i.e., self-adjoint operators): N* = N; skew-Hermitian operators: N* = −N; positive operators: N = MM* for some M (so N is self-adjoint).