Triangular Decomposition of Third Order Hermitian Tensors

Abstract

We define lower triangular tensors, and show that all diagonal entries of such a tensor are eigenvalues of that tensor. We then define lower triangular sub-symmetric tensors, and show that the number of independent entries of a lower triangular sub-symmetric tensor is the same as that of a symmetric tensor of the same order and dimension. We further introduce third order Hermitian tensors, third order positive semi-definite Hermitian tensors, and third order positive semi-definite symmetric tensors. Third order completely positive tensors are positive semi-definite symmetric tensors. Then we show that a third order positive semi-definite Hermitian tensor is triangularly decomposable. This generalizes the classical result of Cholesky decomposition in matrix analysis.