Characterizations and stable tests for the Routh--Hurwitz conditions and for total positivity (Q703641)

In many fields, e.g. control theory and dynamical systems, it is convenient to know whether all the zeros of a given polynomial with real coefficients have negative real parts, i.e. whether the given polynomial is stable. The well-known Routh-Hurwitz conditions characterize stable polynomials by means of their associated Hurwitz matrix. Given a polynomial of degree \(n\), the author presents a test of \({\mathcal O}(n^2)\) elementary operations and growth factor 1 for checking the Routh-Hurwitz conditions. The author also presents a test of \({\mathcal O}(n^3)\) elementary operations and growth factor 1 for checking whether a matrix is strictly totally positive (a matrix is totally positive (strictly totally positive) if all its minors are nonnegative (positive)). Finally, the author characterizes totally positive matrices by their symmetric-triangular decompositions.