Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

Consider three partitions of integers a=(a_1\ge a_2\ge ... \ge a_n\ge 0), b=(b_1\ge b_2\ge ... \ge b_n \ge 0), and c=(c_1\ge \ge c_2\ge ... \ge c_n\ge 0). It is well-known that a triple of partitions (a,b,c) that satisfies the so-call Littlewood-Richardson rule describes the eigenvalues of the sum of nXn Hermitian matricies, i.e., Hermitian matrices A, B, and C such that A+B=C with a (b and c respectively) as the set of eigenvalues of A (B and C respectively). At the same time such triple also describes the Jordan decompositions of a nilpotent matrix T, T resticts to an invarint subspace M, and T_{M^{\perp}} the compression of T onto the M^{\perp}. More precisely, T is similar to J(c):=J_(c_1)\oplus J_(c_2)\oplus ... J_(c_n)$, and T|M is similar to J(a) and T_{M^{\perp}} is similar to J(b). (Here J(k) denotes the Jordan cell of size k with 0 on the diagonal.) In addition, these partitions must also satisfy the Horn inequalities. In this talk I will explain the connections between these two seemily unrelated objects in matrix theory and why the same combinatorics works for both. This talk is based on the joint work with H. Bercovici and K. Dykema.