Column and diagonal‐reduction of polynomial matrices by orthogonal transformation

Many of the applications of polynomial matrices in real world systems require column‐ or diagonally‐reduced polynomial matrices. If a given polynomial matrix is not column‐ or diagonally‐reduced, Callier or Wolowich algorithms, which use unimodular transformations, can be applied for column‐ or diagonal‐reduction, respectively, as a pre‐processing step in the applications. However, Callier and Wolowich algorithms may be unstable, from a numerical viewpoint, because they use elementary column and row operations. The purpose of this paper is to present sufficient conditions for existence of a constant orthogonal transformation of the given polynomial matrix so that it becomes column‐ or diagonally‐reduced. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society