Quaternionic matrices: Unitary similarity, simultaneous triangularization and some trace identities

Abstract

We construct six unitary trace invariants for 2 by 2 quaternionic matrices which separate the unitary similarity classes of such matrices, and show that this set is minimal. We prove two quaternionic versions of a well known characterization of triangularizable subalgebras of matrix algebras over an algebraically closed field. Finally we consider the problem of describing the semi-algebraic set of pairs (X,Y) of quaternionic n by n matrices which are simultaneously triangularizable. Even the case n=2, which we analyze in more detail, remains unsolved.