Matrices with orthogonal groups admitting only determinant one (Q2469508)

Let \(\mathbb{F}\) denote either the real or complex field and \(M_{n} (\mathbb{F})\) be the algebra of all \(n\times n\) matrices over \(\mathbb{F}\). For each \(K\in M_{n}(\mathbb{F})\) the set of all invertible \(A\in M_{n}(\mathbb{F)}\) such that \(A^{\top}KA=K\) is called the \(K\)-orthogonal group. The authors are interested in characterizing the class \(\Xi_{n}\) of matrices \(K\) for which the \(K\)-orthogonal group consists of matrices of determinant \(1\); classically, it is known that all skew-symmetric matrices lie in \(\Xi_{n}\). In general, define \(K_{s}:=\frac{1}{2}(K+K^{\top})\) and \(K_{w}:=\frac{1}{2}(K-K^{\top})\). The main theorem shows that the following are equivalent: \(K\in\Xi_{n}\); the matrix pencil \(K_{w}-\lambda K_{s}\) is regular and its Weierstrass (or Kronecker) canonical form has no Jordan block of odd dimension associated with the eigenvalue \(0\); there exists \(\lambda _{0}\in\mathbb{F}\) such that \(K_{w}-\lambda_{0}K_{s}\) is invertible, and for each such \(\lambda_{0}\) the matrix \((K_{w}-\lambda_{0}K_{s})^{-1}K_{w}\) has no Jordan block of odd dimension associated with the eigenvalue \(0\). Two alternative characterizations are given as corollaries: (1) \(K\in\Xi_{n}\) if and only if \(K\) is not congruent to a block diagonal matrix with a block of odd dimension; and (2) if \(K\) is nonsingular, then \(K\in\Xi_{n}\) if and only if \(K^{-1}K_{w}\) has no Jordan block of odd dimension associated with the eigenvalue \(0\).