The Wang Transform Inequality

A mix of human-written and AI-generated textHuman understanding: all partsmath.CO — Combinatorics

Contributed by Yair Lavi ↗

Version 1 / Nov 11, 2026/ arXiv: 2609.31794 / CC BY 4.0

Abstract

We prove the Wang transform inequality in every order: if nn is a positive integer, AA is a nonnegative n×nn\times n matrix whose row and column sums equal one, and JnJ_n has every entry 1/n1/n, then per⁡A≥per⁡ ⁣(nJn+An+1)\operatorname{per}A\ge \operatorname{per}\!\left(\frac{nJ_n+A}{n+1}\right). Equality holds exactly when A=JnA=J_n. We also obtain an explicit positive quadratic gap for every n≥2n\ge2.

Tools used

OpenAI
GPT-5.6-sol
OpenAI
GPT-6 Astra
Anthropic
Claude FableVersion 5

References

  1. E. T. H. Wang, ``On a conjecture of M. Marcus and H. Minc,'' Linear and Multilinear Algebra 5 (1977), 145--148. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1080/03081087708817189).DOI
  2. H. Minc, Permanents , Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 6, Addison--Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1978.
  3. H. Minc, ``Theory of permanents 1978--1981,'' Linear and Multilinear Algebra 12 (1983), 227--263. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1080/03081088308817488).DOI
  4. G.-S. Cheon and I. M. Wanless, ``An update on Minc's survey of open problems involving permanents,'' Linear Algebra and its Applications 403 (2005), 314--342. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.laa.2005.02.030).DOI
  5. K.-W. Lih and E. T. H. Wang, ``Monotonicity conjecture on permanents of doubly stochastic matrices,'' Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 82 (1981), 173--178. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9939-1981-0609645-5).DOI
  6. D. K. Chang, ``Notes on permanents of doubly stochastic matrices,'' Linear and Multilinear Algebra 14 (1983), 349--356. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1080/03081088308817570).DOI
  7. D. K. Chang, ``Minimum and maximum permanents of certain doubly stochastic matrices,'' Linear and Multilinear Algebra 24 (1988), 39--44. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1080/03081088808817895).DOI
  8. T. H. Foregger, ``Permanents of convex combinations of doubly stochastic matrices,'' Linear and Multilinear Algebra 23 (1988), 79--90. DOI (https://doi.org/10.1080/03081088808817858).DOI
  9. S.-G. Hwang, ``Some permanental inequalities,'' Bulletin of the Korean Mathematical Society 26 (1989), 35--42.
  10. Y. Lavi, ``The Marcus--Minc Transform Inequality,'' arXiv:2609.29262 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.29262), 2026.arXiv

Version history

  1. v1 · 4 pagesSubmitted by Yair LaviInitial depositCurrentNov 10, 2026