A regularization algorithm for matrices of bilinear and sesquilinear forms (Q2576227)

Over a (skew) field \(\mathbb{F}\) with an involution \(a \mapsto \bar a\), i.e., an additive and anti-multiplicative bijection of order one or two, each singular square matrix \(A\) is \(*\) congruent (\(* = \bar \circ T\)) to a direct sum \[ S^* A S = B \oplus J_{n_1} \oplus \cdots \oplus J_{n_p} \] in which \(S\) and \(B\) are nonsingular and \(J_{n_i}\) are singular \((n_i \times n_i)\)-Jordan blocks. The authors provide an algorithm that allows to determine the above decomposition using elementary row operations, see Theorem 6. The special case over the real or complex numbers allows a regularization via unitary transformations. The final section deals with regularization of \(*\) selfadjoint matrix pencils.