Determinant of a symbolic matrix

Specific Domains Modelling & Simulations
1

With Symbolics.jl how do I get the determinant of a symbolic matrix?
I tried this:

@variables a[1:2, 1:2]
det(a)

The only thing I can get is: Symbolics._det(a, true)

2

You need to do using LinearAlgebra for the det function. This notebook (from my linear algebra course) has some examples of symbolic determinants: Notes on determinants

3 Likes
3

The issue is that det is lazy on symbolic arrays, so if you want the component-wise version you need to collect:

using Symbolics, LinearAlgebra
@variables a[1:2, 1:2]
det(collect(a)) # a[1, 1]*a[2, 2] - a[1, 2]*a[2, 1]
4 Likes
4

How does Symbolics.jl make det lazy on symbolic arrays? Can you point me to a file or function in Symbolics.jl that implements this feature so that I can ape/extend it on other functions?

I’d like to be able to write equations like

@variables c, y1, y2, y3
c ~ argmax([y1, y2, y3])

I’m guessing that I need to add a method to argmax so that it is lazy with Num type?

Thanks BTW, I’m really excited by everything you are accomplishing.

5

I’m not sure, you’ll need to open an issue and ask @shashi that one.