# What exactly is antieigenvalue analysis?

I found a book in the library about antieigenvalue analysis and it is possibly the most unreadable piece of literature I have ever made an effort to understand. Unfortunately, every other resource I try inevitably takes you back to the same author.

I should apologize for a lack of greater research effort, but beyond the line on the wikipedia page,

The antieigenvectors $x$ are the vectors most turned by a matrix or operator $A$

I can't make heads or tails of anything else.

Could someone explain why (or why not) this topic is useful or interesting?

I've previously read about topics such as fractional calculus, harmonic analysis, non-standard analysis, product integration, quantum probability, higher order fourier analysis and other topics by dusting off a rarely read book off a shelf. I've always found something cool or interesting.

I enjoy linear algebra quite a lot. The name antieigenvalue is very enticing to me. I really want to think that this topic is going to be neat. What is in antieigenvalue analysis that should excite me?

• I'm intrigued. Does the author at least give a definition of what he means by "turning angle"? Is there an index to look through? – Ben Grossmann May 30 '15 at 10:52
• The first chapter of his book should already provide some insight. – Demosthene May 30 '15 at 11:12
• @Omnomnomnom As far as I understand, the turning angle of a matrix A is the largest angle that A can rotate a vector. Even that is somewhat imprecise (e.g. a rotation about what?). It doesn't take a lot of google searches to notice that all paths seem to take you back to Karl Gustafson. – JessicaK May 30 '15 at 11:24
• I just scanned the first chapter and didn't really see a definition. Does he ever explicitly define them anywhere. I take from your last comment, no? – muaddib May 30 '15 at 12:51
• nm, I see the definition of the "angle of an operator in the original paper": projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183529619 – muaddib May 30 '15 at 12:53