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Bug in eignevalues?

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg4016] Bug in eignevalues?
  • From: super295 at service1.uky.edu (Robert G. Buice, Jr)
  • Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 02:12:45 -0400
  • Organization: University of Kentucky
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

This is what I did:

1.  I created a 10,10 matrix of random numbers
2.  I found the correlation matrix of the above matrix
3.  The correlation matrix is symmetrical so all it's eigenvalues should be real
4.  Mathematica returns some imaginary eigenvalues.

I tried it symbolically and the symbolic anser has imaginary parts too...?

Is this a bug?  I thought that a symmetrical matrix could only have real
eigenvalues and yet sometime (depending on the random numbers pick in step
1) I get imaginary eigenvalues.  This is a big problem and I need to get
it fixed.  Other software packages never return imaginary eigenvalues so
what's going on?

Please email me, my news server is flakey....

Thanks.

-- 
Robert G. Buice,Jr                            super295 at pop.uky.edu
Analytical Spectroscopy Group                 Phone:(606) 257-5175
College of Pharmacy
University of Kentucky
      PGP Key: http://kerouac.pharm.uky.edu/buice/rgbuice.html

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