Square Roots of Matrices and Operators
If A is a positive-definite matrix or operator, then there exists precisely one positive definite matrix or operator B with B2 = A; we then define A1/2 = √A = B. In general matrices may have multiple square roots or even an infinitude of them. For example the 2×2 identity matrix has an infinity of square roots.
Read more about this topic: Sqrt
Famous quotes containing the words square and/or roots:
“Rationalists, wearing square hats,
Think, in square rooms,
Looking at the floor,
Looking at the ceiling.
They confine themselves
To right-angled triangles.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)