We present a new explicit formula for the determinant that contains superexponentially fewer terms than the usual Leibniz formula. As an immediate corollary of our formula, we show that the tensor rank of the $n \times n$ determinant tensor is no larger than the $n$-th Bell number, which is much smaller than the previously best-known upper bounds when $n \geq 4$. Over fields of non-zero characteristic we obtain even tighter upper bounds, and we also slightly improve the known lower bounds. In particular, we show that the $4 \times 4$ determinant over ${\mathbb{F}}_2$ has tensor rank exactly equal to $12$. Our results also improve upon the best-known upper bound for the Waring rank of the determinant when $n \geq 17$, and lead to a new family of axis-aligned polytopes that tile ${\mathbb{R}}^n$.

We determine the characteristic polynomials of the matrices $[q^{\,j-k}+t]_{1\le \,j,k\le n}$ and $[q^{\,j+k}+t]_{1\le \,j,k\le n}$ for any complex number $q\not =0,1$. As an application, for complex numbers $a,b,c$ with $b\not =0$ and $a^2\not =4b$, and the sequence $(w_m)_{m\in \mathbb Z}$ with $w_{m+1}=aw_m-bw_{m-1}$ for all $m\in \mathbb Z$, we determine the exact value of $\det [w_{\,j-k}+c\delta _{jk}]_{1\le \,j,k\le n}$.

As an extension of Sylvester’s matrix, a tridiagonal matrix is investigated by determining both left and right eigenvectors. Orthogonality relations between left and right eigenvectors are derived. Two determinants of the matrices constructed by the left and right eigenvectors are evaluated in closed form.

We use circulant matrices and hyperelliptic curves over finite fields to study some arithmetic properties of certain determinants involving Legendre symbols and kth power residues.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the equality of the determinant and permanent for all powers of a given matrix are provided. The characterisation is based on a condition on merely one power.

Inequalities on partial traces of positive semidefinite matrices are studied. Extensions of several existing inequalities on the determinant of partial traces are then obtained. Particularly, we improve a determinantal inequality given by Lin [Canad. Math. Bull. 59(2016)].

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unprecedented challenge to the health-care system across the world. The current study aims to identify the determinants of illness severity of COVID-19 based on ordinal responses. A retrospective cohort of COVID-19 patients from four hospitals in three provinces in China was established, and 598 patients were included from 1 January to 8 March 2020, and divided into moderate, severe and critical illness group. Relative variables were retrieved from electronic medical records. The univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression models were fitted to identify the independent predictors of illness severity. The cohort included 400 (66.89%) moderate cases, 85 (14.21%) severe and 113 (18.90%) critical cases, of whom 79 died during hospitalisation as of 28 April. Patients in the age group of 70+ years (OR = 3.419, 95% CI: 1.596–7.323), age of 40–69 years (OR = 1.586, 95% CI: 0.824–3.053), hypertension (OR = 3.372, 95% CI: 2.185–5.202), ALT >50 μ/l (OR = 3.304, 95% CI: 2.107–5.180), cTnI >0.04 ng/ml (OR = 7.464, 95% CI: 4.292–12.980), myohaemoglobin>48.8 ng/ml (OR = 2.214, 95% CI: 1.42–3.453) had greater risk of developing worse severity of illness. The interval between illness onset and diagnosis (OR = 1.056, 95% CI: 1.012–1.101) and interval between illness onset and admission (OR = 1.048, 95% CI: 1.009–1.087) were independent significant predictors of illness severity. Patients of critical illness suffered from inferior survival, as compared with patients in the severe group (HR = 14.309, 95% CI: 5.585–36.659) and in the moderate group (HR = 41.021, 95% CI: 17.588–95.678). Our findings highlight that the identified determinants may help to predict the risk of developing more severe illness among COVID-19 patients and contribute to optimising arrangement of health resources.

Let p(n) denote the partition function. In this paper, we will prove that for $n\ges 222$,

$$\left| {\matrix{ {p(n)} & {p(n + 1)} & {p(n + 2)} \cr {p(n-1)} & {p(n)} & {p(n + 1)} \cr {p(n-2)} & {p(n-1)} & {p(n)} \cr } } \right| > 0.{\rm }$$

$n\ges 222$

$$(p(n)^2-p(n-1)p(n+1))^2-(p(n-1)^2-p(n-2)p(n))(p(n+1)^2-p(n)p(n+2))>0.$$

We show that the product rank of the $3\,\times \,3$ determinant ${{\det }_{3}}$ is $5$ , and the product rank of the $3\,\times \,3$ permanent $\text{per}{{\text{m}}_{3}}$ is $4$ . As a corollary, we obtain that the tensor rank of ${{\det }_{3}}$ is $5$ and the tensor rank of $\text{per}{{\text{m}}_{3}}$ is $4$ . We show moreover that the border product rank of $\text{per}{{\text{m}}_{3}}$ is larger than $n$ for any $n\,\ge \,3$ .

Certain polynomials in ${{n}^{2}}$ variables that serve as generating functions for symmetric group characters are sometimes called $\left( {{S}_{n}} \right)$ character immanants. We point out a close connection between the identities of Littlewood–Merris–Watkins and Goulden–Jackson, which relate ${{S}_{n}}$ character immanants to the determinant, the permanent and MacMahon's Master Theorem. From these results we obtain a generalization of Muir's identity. Working with the quantum polynomial ring and the Hecke algebra ${{H}_{n}}\left( q \right)$, we define quantum immanants that are generating functions for Hecke algebra characters. We then prove quantum analogs of the Littlewood–Merris–Watkins identities and selected Goulden–Jackson identities that relate ${{H}_{n}}\left( q \right)$ character immanants to the quantum determinant, quantum permanent, and quantum Master Theorem of Garoufalidis–Lê–Zeilberger. We also obtain a generalization of Zhang's quantization of Muir's identity.

The superintegrable chiral Potts model has many resemblances to the Ising model, so it is natural to look for algebraic properties similar to those found for the Ising model by Onsager, Kaufman and Yang. The spontaneous magnetization ℳr can be written in terms of a sum over the elements of a matrix Sr. The author conjectured the form of the elements, and this conjecture has been verified by Iorgov et al. The author also conjectured in 2008 that this sum could be expressed as a determinant, and has recently evaluated the determinant to obtain the known result for ℳr. Here we prove that the sum and the determinant are indeed identical expressions. Since the order parameters of the superintegrable chiral Potts model are also those of the more general solvable chiral Potts model, this completes the algebraic calculation of ℳr for the general model.

For p ≤ n, let b1(n),...,bp(n) be independent random vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with the same distribution invariant by rotation and without mass at the origin. Almost surely these vectors form a basis for the Euclidean lattice they generate. The topic of this paper is the property of reduction of this random basis in the sense of Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovász (LLL). If $\widehat b_{1}^{(n)},\ldots, \widehat b_p^{(n)}$ is the basis obtained from b1(n),...,bp(n) by Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization, the quality of the reduction depends upon the sequence of ratios of squared lengths of consecutive vectors $r_j^{(n)} = \Vert \widehat b^{(n)}_{n-j+1}\Vert^2 / \Vert \widehat b^{(n)}_{n-j} \Vert^2$ , j = 1,...,p - 1. We show that as n → +∡ the process $(r_j^{(n)}-1,j\geq 1)$ tends in distribution in some sense to an explicit process $({\mathcal R}_j -1,j\geq 1)$ ; some properties of the latter are provided. The probability that a random random basis is s-LLL-reduced is then showed to converge for p = n - g, and g fixed, or g = g(n) → +∞.

The structure of Schur multiplicative maps on matrices over a field is studied. The result is then used to characterize Schur multiplicative maps f satisfying for different subsets S of matrices including the set of rank k matrices, the set of singular matrices, and the set of invertible matrices. Characterizations are also obtained for maps on matrices such that Γ(f(A))=Γ(A) for various functions Γ including the rank function, the determinant function, and the elementary symmetric functions of the eigenvalues. These results include analogs of the theorems of Frobenius and Dieudonné on linear maps preserving the determinant functions and linear maps preserving the set of singular matrices, respectively.

Among ${\mathbb R}^3$ -valued triples of random vectors (X,Y,Z) having fixed marginal probability laws, what is the best way to jointly draw (X,Y,Z) in such a way that the simplex generated by (X,Y,Z) has maximal average volume? Motivated by this simple question, we study optimal transportation problems with several marginals when the objective function is the determinant or its absolute value.