Minimization problems for \((R,S)\)-symmetric and \((R,S)\)-skew symmetric matrices (Q1887602)

A matrix \(A\in {\mathbb C}^{m\times n}\) is \((R,S)\)-symmetric (resp. \((R,S)\)-skew symmetric) if \(RAS=A\) (resp. \(RAS=-A\)). The class of all such matrices \(A\) is denoted by \({\mathcal S}\). Here \(R\) and \(S\) are non-trivial involutions, i.e. \(R=R^{-1}\neq \pm I\), \(S=S^{-1}\neq \pm I\). Let \(Z\in {\mathbb C}^{n\times q}\), \(W\in {\mathbb C}^{m\times q}\). The author studies the following problems: {(i)} Give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of \(A\in {\mathcal S}\) such that \(AZ=W\), and find all such matrices \(A\). {(ii)} Find \(\sigma (Z,W)=\min _{A\in {\mathcal S}}\| AZ-W\| \), and characterize the class \({\mathcal S}(Z,W)=\{ A\in {\mathcal S} \mid \| AZ-W\| =\sigma (Z,W)\}\). {(iii)} If \(B\in {\mathbb C}^{m\times n}\) is arbitrary, find \(\sigma (Z,W,B)=\min _{A\in {\mathcal S}(Z,W)}\| A-B\| \), and find \(A\in {\mathcal S}(Z,W)\) which realizes this minimum. The author obtains explicit formulas for all matrices from \(\sigma (Z,W)\) and \(\sigma (Z,W,B)\).