Colloquium de l'Institut

Some aspects of Horn's problem

par Prof. Jean-Bernard Zuber (Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Énergies)

Europe/Paris
Amphithéâtre Laurent Schwartz (Bâtiment 1R3, Université Paul Sabatier)

Amphithéâtre Laurent Schwartz

Bâtiment 1R3, Université Paul Sabatier

Description

Horn's problem deals with the following question: what can be said about the spectrum of eigenvalues of the sum $C=A+B$ of two Hermitian matrices of given spectrum ? The support of the spectrum of $C$ is now well understood, after a long series of works from Weyl (1912)  to Horn (1952) to Klyachko (1998) and Knutson and Tao (1999). The problem has also amazing connections with group  theory and the decomposition of tensor product of representations. Comparison with the same problem for real symmetric matrices and the action of the orthogonal group reveals similarities but also unexpected differences… In this talk, after a short introduction to the problem, I'll  sketch the computation of  the probability distribution function of the eigenvalues of $C$, when $A$ and $B$ are independently and uniformly distributed on their orbit under the action of the group. I'll also review some  aspects of the connection with representation theory and combinatorics.