Can the trace be expressed in terms of the determinant?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the relationship between the trace and the determinant of matrices, specifically questioning whether the determinant can be expressed in terms of the trace and vice versa. The participant references the Wikipedia article on determinants, highlighting that while it is possible to express eigenvalues as weighted sums related to the trace, the reverse transformation is not feasible. The consensus is that the mathematical properties of matrices prevent a straightforward conversion between these two concepts.

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Jhenrique
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Browsing in the wiki, I found those formulas:

26e7154aa1157002cd3db31b80531792.png

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50c52e2460a73655bd0adc5a9ec6ac8e.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinant#Relation_to_eigenvalues_and_trace

So, my doubt is: if is possible to express the determinant in terms of the trace, thus is possible to express the trace in terms of the determinant too?
 
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I don't think so. We can write ##a_1\ldots a_n## in terms of weighted sums of ##(a_1+\ldots +a_n)^k## but I don't think the other way around. As in the Wikipedia article (and the formulas depend on the matrix sizes!), we can subtract what disturbs, but how should we get rid of products to achieve a sum?
 

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