Inheritance Properties and Sum-of-Squares Decomposition of Hankel Tensors: Theory and Algorithms

In this paper, we show that if a lower-order Hankel tensor is positive semi-definite (or positive definite, or negative semi-definite, or negative definite, or SOS), then its associated higher-order Hankel tensor with the same generating vector, where the higher order is a multiple of the lower order, is also positive semi-definite (or positive definite, or negative semi-definite, or negative definite, or SOS, respectively). Furthermore, in this case, the extremal H-eigenvalues of the higher order tensor are bounded by the extremal H-eigenvalues of the lower order tensor, multiplied with some constants. Based on this inheritance property, we give a concrete sum-of-squares decomposition for each strong Hankel tensor. Then we prove the second inheritance property of Hankel tensors, i.e., a Hankel tensor has no negative (or non-positive, or positive, or nonnegative) H-eigenvalues if the associated Hankel matrix of that Hankel tensor has no negative (or non-positive, or positive, or nonnegative, respectively) eigenvalues. In this case, the extremal H-eigenvalues of the Hankel tensor are also bounded by the extremal eigenvalues of the associated Hankel matrix, multiplied with some constants. The third inheritance property of Hankel tensors is raised as a conjecture.

Nonnegative Tensor Factorization, Completely Positive Tensors and an Hierarchical Elimination Algorithm

Nonnegative tensor factorization has applications in statistics, computer vision, exploratory multiway data analysis and blind source separation. A symmetric nonnegative tensor, which has a symmetric nonnegative factorization, is called a completely positive (CP) tensor. The H-eigenvalues of a CP tensor are always nonnegative. When the order is even, the Z-eigenvalue of a CP tensor are all nonnegative. When the order is odd, a Z-eigenvector associated with a positive (negative) Z-eigenvalue of a CP tensor is always nonnegative (nonpositive). The entries of a CP tensor obey some dominance properties. The CP tensor cone and the copositive tensor cone of the same order are dual to each other. We introduce strongly symmetric tensors and show that a symmetric tensor has a symmetric binary decomposition if and only if it is strongly symmetric. Then we show that a strongly symmetric, hierarchically dominated nonnegative tensor is a CP tensor, and present a hierarchical elimination algorithm for checking this. Numerical examples are also given.