On unit spherical Euclidean distance matrices which differ in one entry (Q2310405)

Let \(p^{1},\dots, p^{n}\) be points on a sphere in some Euclidean space and let \(d_{ij}\) be the square of the Euclidean distance between the points \(p^{i}\), \(p^{j}\) for all \(i,j\). The author considers the following operation on the symmetric matrix \(D = (d_{ij})\). For a fixed pair \((i,j)\) with \(i\)<\(j\), perturb \(d_{ij}\) upwards as well as downwards as far as possible while preserving the basic structure of the matrix. Of course, \(d_{ji}\) changes accordingly. Let the possible increase, resp. decrease, be \(u_{ij}\ge0\), resp. \(l_{ij}\le0\). The entry \(d_{ij}\) is called \textit{unyielding} if \(u_{ij}=l_{ij}=0\), otherwise it is called \textit{yielding}. In a recent paper [Linear Algebra Appl. 556, 144--161 (2018; Zbl 1395.15029)], the author characterized the yielding entries of such a matrix \(D\) and derived simple closed-form expressions for \(u_{ij}\) and \(l_{ij}\) for every yielding entry \(d_{ij}\). In the present paper, the author focuses on those matrices \(D\) where the defining sphere has unit radius. For a fixed pair \((i,j)\) the author studies the interval from \(l_{ij}\) to \(u_{ij}\) and finds a closed-form for it and, as a result, shows that it can have just one of three possible forms: it can comprise one point, or two points, or it can be continuous. These results are derived by two different methods, the second of which is based on Cayley-Menger matrices.