Versal deformations of matrix products (Q2331734)

Let \(A\) and \(B\) be complex matrices of sizes \(m\times n\) and \(n\times m\), respectively, with \(m\leq n\). A deformation of an \(m\times m\) matrix \(M\) is a matrix \(M(\delta)\) of the same size as \(M\) whose entries are power series in variables \(\delta_{1},\dots,\delta_{r}\) with \(M(0)=M\). A deformation \(M(\delta)\) is called versal under similarity if for all sufficiently small \(E\) there exists a transformation \(S(E)\) with the following properties: (i) \(S(E)\) is holomorphic at \(0\) with \(S(0)=I\); (ii) \(S(E)^{-1}(M+E)S(E)\) has the form \(M(\delta_{1}(E),\delta_{2}(E),\dots,\delta_{r}(E))\) where \(\delta_{i}(E)\) is holomorphic on each of the entries of \(E\) for each \(i\) and \(\delta_{i}(0)=0\). The main theorem of the present paper is the following. Let \(X\) and \(Y\) be \(m\times n\) and \(n\times m\) matrices whose entries are independent variables. Suppose that \((A+X,B+Y)\) is the simplest miniversal deformation of \((A,B)\) constructed in [\textit{M. I. García-Planas} and \textit{V. V. Sergeichuk} [Linear Algebra Appl. 302--303, 45--61 (1999; Zbl 0949.15017)]. Then \((A+X)(B+Y)\) is a versal deformation of \(AB\) if and only if at least one of \(A\) or \(B\) has full rank.