Inertia of Loewner matrices (Q2833069)

Given positive numbers \(p_1 <p_2 <\cdots <p_n\) and a real number \(r\), let \(L_r\) be the \(n\times n\) matrix with its \(i, j\) entry equal to \((p_i^r -p_j^r )/(p_i -p_j )\). A well-known theorem of C. Loewner says that \(L_r\) is positive definite when \(0<r<1\). By contrast, \textit{R. Bhatia} and \textit{J. A. Holbrook} [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 49, No. 3, 1155--1173 (2000; Zbl 0988.47011)] showed that, when \(1<r<2\), the matrix \(L_r\) has only one positive eigenvalue, and made a conjecture about the signatures of eigenvalues of \(L_r\) for other values of \(r\). The authors prove that conjecture.