A short proof of the Farahat-Mirsky refinement of Birkhoff's theorem on doubly-stochastic matrices

Abstract

A doubly-stochastic matrix is an n × n matrix with non-negative elements such that each row and each column sums to 1. A permutation matrix is the result of permuting the rows of the unit n × n matrix. Birkhoff's theorem states that the doubly-stochastic matrices constitute the convex hull of the permutation matrices. Using Birkhoff's theorem, Farahat and Mirsky (1) showed that each doubly-stochastic matrix could be expressed as a convex combination of n2 − 2n + 2 permutation matrices, though not in general of fewer. Given Birkhoff's theorem, the Farahat-Mirsky refinement can also be proved quite shortly as follows.