Hermitian and normal completions (Q4366163)

The author considers the problem of Hermitian and normal completions. He solves the problem of finding the minimal and maximal possible negative and positive inertia among all Hermitian completions of a partial banded Hermitian matrix, without any nonsingularity restrictions on the given blocks. In Section 2, he develops many results for banded patterns. In Section 3, using these results, he states and proves the two main Theorems. In Section 4, he illustrates how the new Hermitian completion results may be applied to Hermitian matrix equalities and inequalities, such as Riccati-type equalities, by means of the observation that several Hermitian matrix expressions can be viewed as Schur complements in a block matrix. Finally in Section 5 he adds the minimal normal completion problem, and ends with some interesting open problems.