Properties
Every symplectic matrix is invertible with the inverse matrix given by
Furthermore, the product of two symplectic matrices is, again, a symplectic matrix. This gives the set of all symplectic matrices the structure of a group. There exists a natural manifold structure on this group which makes it into a (real or complex) Lie group called the symplectic group. The symplectic group has dimension n(2n + 1).
It follows easily from the definition that the determinant of any symplectic matrix is ±1. Actually, it turns out that the determinant is always +1. One way to see this is through the use of the Pfaffian and the identity
Since and we have that det(M) = 1.
Suppose Ω is given in the standard form and let M be a 2n×2n block matrix given by
where A, B, C, D are n×n matrices. The condition for M to be symplectic is equivalent to the conditions
When n = 1 these conditions reduce to the single condition det(M) = 1. Thus a 2×2 matrix is symplectic iff it has unit determinant.
Read more about this topic: Symplectic Matrix
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