Eventually Nonnegative Matrices and their Sign Patterns (11frg149)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Eventually Nonnegative Matrices and their Sign Patterns" workshop from May 15th to May 22nd, 2011.

Linear algebra is a subject of central importance in both mathematics and a variety of
other disciplines. It is used by virtually all mathematicians and by statisticians, physicists, biologists, computer scientists, engineers, and social scientists. The process of linearization often allows difficult problems to be approximated by more manageable linear ones. This can provide insight into and approximate local solutions of the original problem. Nonnegative matrices and their generalizations such as eventually nonnegative matrices have particularly nice properties and arise in many important applications. In some situations the signs of the matrix entries are known from the nature of the problem, but the actual values of the data may be unreliable, and it is helpful to know whether the sign pattern requires or allows the desired type of matrix. This Focused Research Group will investigate strongly nonnegative matrices and their sign patterns.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).