Determinant of enlarged Correlation Matrix

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the determinant of an enlarged correlation matrix defined as C(n, ρ, x), where n is the dimension and ρ and x are specific parameters. The determinant for n-dimensional matrices is expressed as ψ(n), with a recursive relationship provided for n ≥ 4. The user seeks assistance in deriving the formula for ψ(n) and understanding the implications of partitioned matrices or tensor products on determinants. Key findings include the explicit formula for ψ(n) and the inquiry into linear algebra results related to tensor products.

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  • Familiarity with determinants and recursive relationships in linear algebra
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LocalVol
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Determinant of "enlarged" Correlation Matrix

Hi guys,

I am not a physicist but saw that you guys are actively discussing math problems in this forum. I have the following problem that I've been fighting with for some time now: I have a n-dimensional (n >= 3) correlation matrix with the following special structure

C(n, \rho, x) = \left( \begin{array}{c c c c c} 1 & \rho & x & \dots & \rho\\ \rho & 1 & \rho & \dots & \rho\\ x & \rho & 1 & \dots & \rho\\ \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots\\ \rho & \rho & \rho & \dots & 1 \end{array} \right).

I.e. all off-diagonal entries are equal to \rho except for the correlation pair (1, 3). Here is my problem: Let's say I know that the determinant for dimension n is given by \psi(n). What is the determinant for dimension n + 1? I played around with Mathematica and found that for n = 3

\psi(3) = 1 - x^2 - 2 \rho^2 + 2 x \rho^2

(this was the easy part) and for n >= 4, we have the relationship

\psi(n) = (\rho - 1) \left( -\psi(n - 1) + (-1)^n (x - 1) (\rho - 1)^{n - 4} \left( \rho (1 + x) - 2 \rho^2 \right) \right)

(this is my problem - how to show this?). Equivalently, we can directly state the formula for the n-th determinant (n >= 3) as

\psi(n) = (-1)^n (x - 1) (\rho - 1)^{n - 3} \left( 1 + x + (n - 3) \rho (1 + x) - 2 (n - 2) \rho^2 \right)

but I have no clue of how to get there. Note that by increasing the dimension by one, we basically set

C(n, \rho, x) = \left( \begin{array}{c c} C(n - 1, \rho, x) & \rho 1_{\{ (n - 1) \times 1 \}}\\ \rho 1_{\{ 1 \times (n - 1) \}} & 1 \end{array} \right)

Any help is appreciated!
 
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Hey LocalVol.

One question I have for you is are there results for determinants given a partitioned matrix or a matrix which is a tensor product of existing matrices?

In other words if your final matrix is a tensor product of matrices A X B then is there a result that looks at the determinant of A X B in terms of det(A) and det(B)?

I don't know enough linear algebra to know if such a result exists.
 

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