The structure of alternating-Hamiltonian matrices (Q1763845)

The author proves that for over all fields, every alternating-Hamiltonian matrix is similar to a block-diagonal matrix of the form \(\begin{pmatrix} A & 0 \\ 0 & A^{T} \end{pmatrix}\) for some \(A\), and that any two alternating-Hamiltonian matrices are similar by a symplectic transformation. Furthermore, every alternating-Hamiltonian matrix is the square of a Hamiltonian matrix. The results are not true for all skew-Hamiltonian matrices in case where the field has characteristic 2, as can be easily seen by counterexamples given by the authors.