Math. Program., Ser. B DOI 10.1007/s10107-007-0159-8 FULL LENGTH PAPER Z-transformations on proper and symmetric cones Z-transformations M. Seetharama Gowda · Jiyuan Tao Received: 6 February 2006 / Accepted: 15 December 2006 © Springer-Verlag 2007 Abstract Motivated by the similarities between the properties of Z-matrices on n n R+ and Lyapunov and Stein transformations on the semidefinite cone S+,weintro- duce and study Z-transformations on proper cones. We show that many properties of Z-matrices extend to Z-transformations. We describe the diagonal stability of such a transformation on a symmetric cone by means of quadratic representations. Finally, we study the equivalence of Q and P properties of Z-transformations on symmetric cones. In particular, we prove such an equivalence on the Lorentz cone. Keywords Z-transformation · Symmetric cone · Quadratic representation · Diagonal stability Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 90C33 · 17C55 · 15A48 · 37B25 This paper is dedicated to Professor Steve Robinson on the occasion of his 65th birthday. His ideas and results greatly influenced a generation of researchers including the first author of this paper. Steve, thanks for being a great teacher, mentor, and a friend. Best wishes for a long and healthy productive life. M. S. Gowda (B) Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA e-mail:
[email protected] J. Tao Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA e-mail:
[email protected] 123 M. S. Gowda, J. Tao 1 Introduction A real n × n matrix M is said to be a Z-matrix if all its off-diagonal entries are non- positive [12].