A cell decomposition of the space of real Hankel matrices of rank \(\leq n\) and some applications (Q584346)

It was conjectured by \textit{P. A. Fuhrmann} and \textit{P. S. Krishnaprasad} [IMA J. Math. Control Inf. 3, 137-150 (1986; Zbl 0632.93009)] that the space Rat(n) of real rational transfer functions of degree n admits a cellular decomposition in a strong topological sense into cells defined by continued fraction expansion. The authors partly confirm the conjecture by constructing a cell decomposition of the space \(\bar {\mathcal H}(n)\) of all infinite real Hankel matrices of rank \(\leq n\) which induces cellular decompositions of each analytical manifold \({\mathcal H}(m)\simeq Rat(m)\) of Hankel matrices of rank \(m\leq n\). The construction is based on the Bruhat decomposition of finite Hankel matrices introduced by the second and the third author and \textit{D. Prätzel-Wolters} [Syst. Control Lett. 7, 173-182 (1986; Zbl 0589.15019)].