Minimal symmetric factorizations of symmetric real and complex rational matrix functions (Q1893091)

Let \(W (\lambda)\) be a regular matrix function, i.e. every entry in the \(n \times n\) matrix \(W(\lambda)\) is a quotient of two polynomials in the complex variable \(\lambda\) with coefficients in the real or complex numbers and \(\text{det} W (\lambda)\) is not identically zero. If \(W(\lambda)\) has no pole at infinity and \(W(\infty)\) is invertible, then there is a realization \(W(\lambda) = D + C (\lambda I - A)^{-1}B\), where \(C\), \(A\), and \(B\) are matrices with entries in \(\mathbb{R}\) or \(\mathbb{C}\) of sizes \(n \times p\), \(p \times p\), and \(p \times n\). The smallest \(p\) that occurs in any realization of \(W(\lambda)\) is called the degree of \(W(\lambda)\). The authors study matrix functions \(W(\lambda)\) such that \(W(\lambda) = \xi [W(\eta \lambda)]^ T\), where \(\xi, \eta = \pm 1\) and their minimal factorization \(W (\lambda) = [L(\eta \lambda)]^ T D(\lambda) L(\lambda)\). They also give upper bounds for the degrees of the rational matrix functions \(L(\lambda)\).