Robust Stability Analysis of “Unstructured” Convex Combinations of Matrices With Applications

This paper presents new insight into the robust stability analysis of families of matrices described by convex combinations of Hurwitz stable 'vertex' matrices. Significant new insight is provided that removes many misconceptions that currently prevail in this problem formulation. In this connection, careful distinction is made between 'Structured' and 'Unstructured' convex combinations of matrices. The convex combinations arising from an uncertain matrix with interval parameters is labeled as 'structured' convex combinations whereas the convex combinations of 'user specified' Hurwitz stable vertex matrices are labeled as 'unstructured' convex combinations. It is clearly shown that the convex combination property in matrix case is dictated more by the nature of the 'vertex' matrices rather than by simply assigning values to the coefficients of the combination. From this analysis, it is clearly established that 'structured' and 'unstructured' convex combinations are two entirely different problem formulations and one is not a special case of the other as it is currently believed. Thus even the solution algorithms for checking the stability of these matrix families are different. After establishing this distinction, this paper then concentrates on the 'unstructured' case and provides a 'vertex solution' to a specific three vertex convex combination problem. The algorithm is illustrated with several examples. This contribution suggests that there is still considerable research needed to appreciably enhance the knowledge base in the important area of robust stability analysis of matrix families which arise in various applications.

Regular graphs and stability

We show that a graph G is semi-stable at vertex v if and only if the set of vertices of G adjacent to v is fixed by the automorphism group of Gv, the subgraph of G obtained by deleting v and its incident edges. This result leads to a neat proof that regular graphs are semi-stable at each vertex. We then investigate stable regular graphs, concentrating mainly on stable vertex-transitive graphs. We conjecture that if G is a non-trivial vertex-transitive graph, then G is stable if and only if γ(G) contains a transposition, offering some evidence for its truth.