Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

In this talk, we consider the structure of a real $n \times n$ matrix in the form of $A=JL$, where $J$ is anti-symmetric and $L$ is symmetric. Such a matrix comes from a linear Hamiltonian ODE system with $J$ from the symplectic structure and the Hamiltonian energy given by the quadratic form $\frac 12\langle Lx, x\rangle$. We will discuss the distribution of the eigenvalues of $A$, the relationship between the canonical form of $A$ and the structure of the quadratic form $L$, Pontryagin invariant subspace theorem, etc. Finally, some extension to infinite dimensions will be mentioned.