Angle decomposition of matrices (Q1299661)

The authors study the problem of factorization of any unitary matrix as a product of simple matrices. They present an algorithm to decompose an \(N\times N\) unitary matrix \(M\) into \(N(N-1)/2\) simple factors. It is pointed out that these factor matrices can be characterized by \(N^2\) independent real numbers which form angles in the complex space. These angles can be summarized into an \(N\times N\) real angle matrix \(\gamma\). The authors show that the matrix \(\gamma\) (whose elements are nontrivial function of the external parameters) contains the same information as the unitary matrix \(M\), and the elements of \(\gamma\) behave more smoothly as functions of the external parameters than the corresponding elements of \(M\). The proposed algorithm is illustrated by some examples and applications to \(k\)-space interpolation.