A real-coninvolutory analog of the polar decomposition (Q686379)

The overall objective of this paper is to study the subclass \(M_ n\) of \(n \times n\) unitary matrices any member \(E \in M_ n\) of which is characterized by the property that its conjugate \(\overline E\) is just its inverse \(E^{-1}\), or coninvolutory, as it is called. The content of this work begins with some properties of coninvolutory matrices, then follows the derivation of a canonical form under similarity as well as a canonical form under unitary ``consimilarity'' for them, the proof that any complex matrix has a coninvolutory ``dilation'' (the result of boardering of \(A\) with \(A\) as a leading principal submatrix), the determination of the minimum size of a coninvolutory dilation of a square matrix, the characterization of the \(n \times n\) complex matrices \(A\) that can be factored as \(A = RE\) with \(R\) real and \(E\) coninvolutory, and finally, the discussion of the uniqueness of this factorization when \(A\) is square and nonsingular.