characteristic root

== English == === Etymology === Calque of French racine caractéristique, the term preferred by French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789–1857). === Noun === characteristic root (plural characteristic roots) (linear algebra) An eigenvalue. 1962 [Prentice Hall], Leonard E. Fuller, Basic Matrix Theory, 2017, Dover, page 217, There is an important relationship between the characteristic roots of a symmetric matrix and the r and p of the associated quadratic form. It is true that the number of positive characteristic roots is p, whereas the number of nonzero characteristic roots is r. 2009, Babu Ram, Engineering Mathematics, Pearson Education India, page 13.56, Theorem 13.54. The characteristic roots of a Hermitian matrix are real. ==== Related terms ====