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Linear AlgebraSuperchallengeSymmetric Matrices & Quadratic Forms

Symmetric Matrices & Quadratic Forms · Superchallenge problem

On the 9-dimensional space of all real 3×33\times 3 matrices XX consider the quadratic form Q(X)=tr⁡(X2)−(tr⁡X)2Q(X) = \operatorname{tr}(X^2) - (\operatorname{tr}X)^2. How many negative eigenvalues does the symmetric matrix of QQ (with respect to the nine entries of XX) have?