On generators of bounded ratios of minors for totally positive matrices (Q2477543)

This paper deals with totally positive matrices, defined as matrices with all minors positive. If \(I,I'\) are ordered subsets of \(\{1,2,\dots,n\}\) with the same cardinality, \(\det A(I| I')\) denotes the determinant of the minor of \(A\) with rows \(I\) and columns \(I'\). If \[ S=((I_1| I'_1),(I_2| I'_2),\dots,(I_p| I'_p)) \] is a sequence of \(p\) row and column sets and \(A\) is a totally positive matrix of order \(n\), \(S(A)\) denotes the product \[ S(A)=\det A(I_1| I'_1)\det A(I_2| I'_2)\cdots \det A(I_p| I'_p) \] which, according to the definition of totally positive matrices, is always positive. Considering a similar sequence \(T\) of row and column sets, the paper studies ratios \(S(A)/T(A)\) which are bounded for some \(k>0\) for all totally positive matrices \(A\). The main result is a method for factoring all bounded ratios of the form \[ \det A(I_1| I'_1)\det A(I_2| I'_2)/\det A(J_1| J'_1)\det A(J_2| J'_2) \] into a product of more elementary ratios, each of which is bounded by 1.