Series

Exact rank — the series

2 essays on one idea, from the one that introduces it to the one that assumes the rest.
  1. ℚ6𝔽24𝔽35𝔽56𝔽76𝔽116𝔽136𝔽1016𝔽655376rank, by the ring the entries are read inthe rank of one matrixover ℚ6over 𝔽24over 𝔽35over 𝔽56over 𝔽76nothing is rounded hereand the answer still is not a property of the matrix

    The rank depends on the ring

    A floating-point rank is a decision about a threshold. Remove the arithmetic error entirely and the threshold goes away — and the answer still is not a property of the array of numbers, because one integer matrix has rank six over the rationals, five modulo three and four modulo two, with nothing rounded and nothing decided.

    part 1 · exact
  2. invertible sharerationals, n = 201𝔽₂, n = 200.29𝔽₃, n = 200.56𝔽₅, n = 200.74𝔽₇, n = 200.83246810121416182000.20.40.60.81size nshare invertibleover rationalsover 𝔽₂over 𝔽₃over 𝔽₅over 𝔽₇dashed: a matrix uniform over the fieldthe fields part company as n grows

    The field decides it, usually

    A matrix whose rank depends on the field it is read over was built, the first time, from its invariant factors outward, because random integer matrices never seemed to show the effect. Random 0/1 matrices show it at almost every size that is not tiny. At twenty rows, 99.8% of them are invertible over the rationals, 29% modulo two, 56% modulo three — and 71% of the ones the rationals call invertible are singular modulo two. Modulo two they obey, corank by corank, the law for uniformly random matrices over that field; modulo three and five, which their entries cannot fill, they converge to that field's law anyway.

    part 2 · exact

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