A male given name from Latin used in English since the sixteenth century. / A surname. / A community in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

plural of Sylvester equation

(mathematics) A matrix equation, used in control theory, of the form AX + XB = C. Given matrices A, B, and C, the problem is to find possible matrices for X.

(mathematics) A formula that expresses an analytic function f(A) of a matrix A as a polynomial in A, in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A.

(mathematics) A necessary and sufficient criterion to determine whether a Hermitian matrix is positive-definite: specifically, when all of the leading principal minors have a positive determinant.

(geometry) A theorem stating that, given a finite number of points in the Euclidean plane, either all the points lie on a single line, or there is at least one line which contains exactly two of the points.