Coalescing Eigenvalues and Crossing Eigencurves of 1-Parameter Matrix Flows

Abstract: We investigate the eigenvalue curves of 1-parameter hermitean and general complex or real matrix flows $A(t)$ in light of their geometry and the uniform decomposability of $A(t)$ for all parameters $t$. The often misquoted and misapplied results by Hund and von Neumann and by Wigner for eigencurve crossings from the late 1920s are clarified for hermitean matrix flows $A(t) = (A(t))^*$. A conjecture on extending these results to general non-normal or non-hermitean 1-parameter matrix flows is formulated and investigated. An algorithm to compute the block dimensions of uniformly decomposable hermitean matrix flows is described and tested. The algorithm uses the ZNN method to compute the time-varying matrix eigenvalue curves of $A(t)$ for $t_o \leq t\leq t_f$. Similar efforts for general complex matrix flows are described. This extension leads to many new and open problems. Specifically, we point to the difficult relationship between the geometry of eigencurves for general complex matrix flows $A(t)$ and a general flow's decomposability into blockdiagonal form via one fixed unitary or general matrix similarity for all parameters $t$.