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| Title: | Mathematics at DEC | 
|  | 
| Moderator: | RUSURE::EDP | 
|  | 
| Created: | Mon Feb 03 1986 | 
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 | 
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 | 
| Number of topics: | 2083 | 
| Total number of notes: | 14613 | 
387.0. "Permanents" by TOOLS::STAN () Thu Nov 21 1985 17:06
If M is a square matrix, the permanent of M, denoted per(M),
is just like the determinant, except that all terms are positive,
whereas for a determinant, some products are positive and some
are negative.
For example, the permanent of
		1 2 3
		4 5 6
		7 8 9
is (1)(5)(9)+(2)(6)(7)+(3)(4)(8)+(1)(6)(8)+(2)(4)(9)+(3)(5)(7).
Lots of neat formulas are known for determinants of matrices of various
patterns, but literally nothing is known for permanents.
For example, suppose M[n] is the n X n matrix whose (i,j) entry
is n(i-1)+j-1.  For example, M[4] is
		0  1  2  3
		4  5  6  7
		8  9 10 11    .
	       12 13 14 15
Is there some neat formula for per(M[n]) in terms of n?
I have a lot of data, but I see no pattern.
Similarly, what about the matrix whose (i,j) entry is i+j?
or i+j-2? or (-1)**(i+j) * (i+j) ?
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name
 | Date | Lines | 
|---|
| 387.1 |  | ADVAX::J_ROTH |  | Thu Nov 21 1985 17:28 | 6 | 
|  | I recall seeing some information on permanents in "Advanced Combinatorics"
by Comtet.  I think they also arise in the study of certain stochastic
processes, so some results are known, for example, I believe permanents
are known to be very difficult to evaluate, unlike determinants.
- Jim
 | 
| 387.2 |  | HITECH::JENSEN |  | Thu Nov 21 1985 19:06 | 8 | 
|  | I seem to recall studying this problem in an automata theory course
(too) many years ago.  I believe someone proved that there
is not only no closed form solution, there aren't even any shortcuts.
I'm holed up in the basement of ZK2 this week, but when I get back
to CA I'll try to dig up my notes & post anything interesting.
						/P Jensen
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