Tridiagonal canonical matrices of bilinear or sesquilinear forms and of pairs of symmetric, skew-symmetric, or Hermitian forms (Q2474275)

Let \(A\) and \(B\) be matrices over an algebraically closed field \({\mathbb F}\) of characteristic distinct from \(2\). The authors show that every matrix \(A\) is congruent to a direct sum, determined uniquely up to permutation of summands, of tridiagonal matrices of two types. Also, every pair of symmetric matrices (\(A\), \(B\)) of the same size is congruent to a direct sum of tridiagonal pairs. If \({\mathbb F}\) contains a nontrivial involution and if \(A\) and \(B\) are skew symmetric, or \(A\) is symmetric and \(B\) is skew symmetric, then a similar result holds where congruent is replaced by *congruent.