An expansion for the permanent of a doubly stochastic matrix

Abstract

The permanent of an n-square matrix A = (aij) is defined by where Sn is the symmetric group of order n. Kn will denote the convex set of all n-square doubly stochastic matrices and K0n its interior. Jn ∈ Kn will be the matrix with all elements equal to 1/n. If M ∈ K0n, then M lies on a line segment passing through Jn and another B ∈ Kn — K0n. This note gives an expansion for the permanent of such a line segment as a weighted average of permanents of matrices in Kn. For a survey article on permanents the reader is referred to Marcus and Mine [3].