A Problem In Linear Algebra
I have the following problem, I do not know the answer.
Assume that d and n are natural numbers and define an n times n
matrix A by its entries
a_{ij} = ( \prod_{l=1}^d \cos^2 (x_i^l - x_j^l) ) - 1/n .
The real numbers x_i^l are arbitrary.
Prove or disprove the following CONJECTURE:
The matrix A is positive semidefinite, i.e., the eigenvalues are nonnegative.
Comments:
I know that the conjecture is true for $n \ge 2^d$. So the
interesting case would be $n < 2^d$.
The problem came up when I wanted to prove some error bounds for
cubature formulas. I made many numerical tests and, of course, did not
find a counterexample of the conjecture. I want to write a
paper concerning the consequences of my conjecture, this paper will be
available in May 1998.
This paper now is finished:
Intractability Results for Positive Quadrature Formulas
and Extremal Problems for Trigonometric Polynomials.
J. Complexity 15 (1999), 299-316.
abstract
Please let me know if you have comments, questions, or even a solution.
More than ten years later: The problem is still not solved but there is a
very interesting paper by Aicke Hinrichs and Jan Vybiral with related
(and more general) problems and conjectures:
"On positive positive-definite functions and Bochner's theorem".
Journal of Complexity 27 (2011), 264-272.