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I read this post and this other post regarding the eigenvalues of a real anti-circulant matrix. Those posts contain some comments about the eigenvectors. However I cannot realize which are the eigenvectors of such a matrix. Could you advise me on that? I am mainly interested in the eigenvector associated to the eigenvalue equal to the sum of the first row of the anti-circulant matrix (which is the same sum of any row or column). However, it would be nice to know all the eigenvectors.

EDIT: If I am not wrong, the eigenvector associated to the sum is $v=(1, 1, 1, \ldots, 1)^t$. What about the other eigenvectors?

EDIT: The matrix is real.

ASdeL
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Suppose we have an anti-circulant matrix $A = (a_{ik})_{n\times n}$, the first row of $A$ is $r_1 = [a_1, a_2, \cdots, a_n]$ and the $i$-th row is $r_i = [a_i, a_{i+1}, \cdots, a_n, a_1, \cdots, a_{i - 1}]$. For this answer, I will first give a construction of eigenvectors and eigenvalues, then prove that all eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be obtained in this way.

For the first part, let's consider the DFT matrix $D = [d_1, d_2, \cdots, d_n]\in\mathbb{C}^{n\times n}$, where $$ d_l = [1, \omega^{l - 1}, \omega^{2(l - 1)}, \cdots, \omega^{(l - 1)(n - 1)}]^T, l = 1, \cdots, n $$ with $\omega = e^{-2\pi j/n}$ and $j = \sqrt{-1}$. For simplicity of notation, we consider $a_{n + i} = a_i$. Then we can verify that $$ r_id_l = \sum_{k = 1}^{n}{a_{k + i - 1}\omega^{(l - 1)(k - 1)}} = \omega^{-(l - 1)(i - 1)}\sum_{k = 1}^{n}{a_{k}\omega^{(l - 1)(k - 1)}} = (r_1d_l) \cdot d_{li}^* $$ Denote $b_l = r_1d_l$ and we have $Ad_l = b_ld_l^{*}$, where $d_l^{*} = [d_{l1}^{*}, \cdots, d_{ln}^{*}]^{T}$ (not the same as the conjugate transpose $d_l^{H}$). Similarly, consider $d_l^{*}$ and it is easy to verify that $Ad_l^* = c_ld_l$ where $c_l$ is defined as $c_l = r_1d_l^* = \sum_{k = 1}^{n}{a_{k}\omega^{-(l - 1)(k - 1)}}$.

Now consider $u_l$, $v_l$ such that $u_l^2 = c_l$, $v_l^2 = b_l$ (specified later) and we find $$ A(u_ld_l + v_ld_l^{*}) = u_lb_ld_l^{*} + v_lc_ld_l = u_lv_l\cdot(u_ld_l + v_ld_l^{*}) $$ Define $\overline{d}_l = u_ld_l + v_ld_l^{*}$ and it is clear that $\overline{d}_l$ is an eigenvector of $A$ and $\lambda_l = u_lv_l$ is the corresponding eigenvalue. Notice that $d_l$ is one column vector of $D$, and different column vectors of $D$ give eigenvectors of $A$ from the above procedure. Specially, the all-ones vector $[1, 1, \cdots, 1]^T$ is the first column of $D$, i.e. $d_1$, and $d_1^* = d_1$ so $\overline{d}_1$ is just a multiple of $d_1$, which gives the eigenvector you mentioned in the question.

Now for the second part, let's try prove that all eigenvectors can be obtained from the above procedure. To begin, it is worth discussion that the definitions of $u_l$ and $v_l$ are actually not unique. Given that the matrix $A$ is real, then we know that $b_l = c_l^*$. Without loss of generality, consider $b_l = \rho_l e^{-2j\theta}$ and $c_l = \rho_l e^{2j\theta}$ with $\rho_l\ge 0$, then correspondingly we have $u_l = \pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{j\theta}$ and $v_l = \pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{-j\theta}$. To this end, we can see that for every vector $d_l$ we have two possible pairs of eigenvalues and eigenvectors: $$ \lambda_l^{(1)} = \rho_l, \quad\overline{d}_l^{(1)} = \sqrt{\rho_l}\left(e^{j\theta}d_l + e^{-j\theta}d_l^{*}\right) = 2\sqrt{\rho_l}\cdot\text{Re}(e^{j\theta}d_l) $$ $$ \lambda_l^{(2)} = -\rho_l, \quad\overline{d}_l^{(2)} = \sqrt{\rho_l}\left(e^{j\theta}d_l - e^{-j\theta}d_l^{*}\right) = 2\sqrt{\rho_l}\cdot j\text{Im}(e^{j\theta}d_l) $$ which means there are $2n$ eigenvectors in total. However, as we soon will see, there are redundancy in these vectors.

First for $d_1$, which is all-ones vector, $b_l = c_l\in\mathbb{R}$, so $\theta = 0$ or $\pi$, $e^{j\theta}d_1\in\mathbb{R}$ and $\overline{d}_1^{(2)} = 0$ which cannot be an eigenvector. This reasoning is the same for $d_{n/2 + 1}$ (when $n$ is even) which is also a real vector taking values from $\{\pm 1\}$.

For $l\ge 2$, we can verify that $d_l = d_{n + 2 - l}^{*}$, so $\{\overline{d}_l^{(1)}, \overline{d}_l^{(2)}\} = \{\overline{d}_{n+2-l}^{(1)}, \overline{d}_{n+2-l}^{(2)}\}$. So there are pairs of $d_l$'s that give the same set of two eigenvectors. On the other hand, if $l\le n/2$, $$ \rho_l = |b_l| = \left|\sum_{k = 1}^{n}a_k\omega^{(l-1)(k-1)}\right| $$ are different for different $l$'s, so $\{\pm\rho_2, \cdots, \pm\rho_{\lceil n/2\rceil}\}$ are $2(\lceil n/2\rceil - 1)$ distinct eigenvalues of $A$.

Combining the above two paragraphs, we can calculate the number of distinct eigenvalues by: if $n$ is odd, then there are $2(\lceil n/2\rceil - 1) + 1 = n$ distinct eigenvalues; if $n$ is even, then there are $2(n/2 - 1) + 2 = n$ distinct eigenvalues. So in conclusion, all eigenvalues and eigenvectors can be found from the procedure in the first part, and this completes are proof.

Zieac
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  • Sorry, I do not fully understand your notation. Is $j$ the imaginary unit (instead of being $i$)? Is $x^*$ the conjugate (and not the conjugate traspose)? Is $\bar{x}$ just a name (and not the conjugate)? Thanks. – ASdeL Feb 14 '22 at 12:14
  • @ASdeL Sorry for the ambiguity. I have updated my answer according to your edition, and given a more detailed explanation. – Zieac Feb 16 '22 at 05:22
  • Hi. I think that $b_l = \rho_l e^{-2j\theta}$ and $c_l = \rho_l e^{2j\theta}$. If not, then $u_l = \pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{-j\theta}$ and $v_l = \pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{j\theta}$. (signs are swapped). Besides, should't it be $\theta_l$ instead of $\theta$? Finally, I think that $\sqrt{\rho_l}\left(e^{j\theta}d_l - e^{-j\theta}d_l^{*}\right) = -2\sqrt{\rho_l}\cdot j\text{Im}(e^{j\theta}d_l) $ (although the sign does not change the direction of the eigenvector, current equality is false). – ASdeL Feb 27 '22 at 20:00
  • I think it should be $e^{j\theta}d_1\in\mathbb{R}^n$ instead of $e^{j\theta}d_1\in\mathbb{R}$. – ASdeL Feb 27 '22 at 20:28
  • @ASdeL For $z = a+jb$ the imagine part $\text{Im}(z) = b$, not $jb$. So I think my equation is right. Also I don't see what changes are made if we swap the sign of $\theta$. Surely it should be $\theta_l$, I just omit it as $\theta$ is not quite important. As for the $e^{j\theta}d_l\in\mathbb{R}^n$, that's true and I will modify my answer. Thanks! – Zieac Feb 28 '22 at 01:19
  • Hi. IMO signs are swapped because according to your definitions and equations $\rho_l e^{2j\theta}=b_l=v_l^2=\left(\pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{-j\theta}\right)^2=\rho_l e^{-2j\theta}$. That is, $b_l = \rho_l e^{2j\theta}$ is not compatible with $v_l = \pm\sqrt{\rho_l}e^{-j\theta}$ because $b_l=v_l^2$. In other words, you must change sign of $\theta$ in $b_l$ (and $c_l$), xor in $v_l$ (and $u_l$). – ASdeL Feb 28 '22 at 03:01
  • @ASdeL Oh ok thanks that's right. – Zieac Feb 28 '22 at 05:36