Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The matrix spaces under consideration are the four main types of irreducible bounded symmetric domains given by Cartan (5). Let z = (zjk) be a matrix of complex numbers, z' its transpose, z* its conjugate transpose and I = I(n) the identity matrix of order n. Then the first three types are defined by
(1)
where z is an n by m matrix (n ≤ m), a symmetric or a skew-symmetric matrix of order n (16). The fourth type is the set of complex spheres satisfying
(2)
where z is an n by 1 matrix. It is known that each of these domains possesses a distinguished boundary B which in the first three cases is given by
(3)
(In the case of skew symmetric matrices the distinguished boundary is given by (2) only if n is even.)