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Past events in this series


Mon, 02 Mar 2026
16:00
C5

Vanishing sums of matrix products

Noah Kravitz
((Mathematical Institute University of Oxford))
Abstract

Any two 1 by 1 real matrices commute.  This is in general not the case for 2 by 2 real matrices.  However, if A, B, C, and D are any 2 by 2 real matrices, then ABCD - ABDC - ACBD + ACDB + ADBC - ADCB - BACD + BADC + BCAD - BCDA - BDAC + BDCA + CABD - CADB - CBAD + CBDA + CDAB - CDBA - DABC + DACB + DBAC - DBCA - DCAB + DCBA = 0.  This identity is the first instance of a general result of Amitsur and Levitski; I will explain a simple graph-theoretic proof due to Swan.