Smith McMillan Forms

B.2 Polynomial Matrices

Multivariable transfer functions depend on polynomial matrices. There are a number of related terms
that are used. Some of these are introduced here:

Definition B.1 A matrix is a polynomial matrix if is a polynomial in

, for and .

Definition B.2 A polynomial matrix is said to be a unimodular matrix if its determinant is a

constant. Clearly, the inverse of a unimodular matrix is also a unimodular matrix.

Definition B.3 An elementary operation on a polynomial matrix is one of the following three
operations:
(eo1)
interchange of two rows or two columns;
(eo2)
multiplication of one row or one column by a constant;
(eo3)
addition of one row (column) to another row (column) times a polynomial.

Definition B.4 A left (right) elementary matrix is a matrix such that, when it multiplies from the left
(right) a polynomial matrix, then it performs a row (column) elementary operation on the polynomial
matrix. All elementary matrices are unimodular.

Definition B.5 Two polynomial matrices and are equivalent matrices, if there exist sets of

left and right elementary matrices, and ,

respectively, such that
(B.2.1)

Definition B.6 The rank of a polynomial matrix is the rank of the matrix almost everywhere in . The
definition implies that the rank of a polynomial matrix is independent of the argument.

Definition B.7 Two polynomial matrices and having the same number of columns (rows)
are right (left) coprime if all common right (left) factors are unimodular matrices.

Definition B.8 The degree ( ) of the column (row) ( ) of a polynomial

matrix is the degree of highest power of in that column (row).

Definition B.9 A polynomial matrix is column proper if

(B.2.2)

has a finite, nonzero value.

Definition B.10 A polynomial matrix is row proper if

(B.2.3)

has a finite, nonzero value.

B.3 Smith Form for Polynomial Matrices

Using the above notation, we can manipulate polynomial matrices in ways that mirror the ways we
manipulate matrices of reals. For example, the following result describes a diagonal form for polynomial
matrices.
Theorem B.1 (Smith form)

Let be a polynomial matrix of rank ; then is equivalent to either a matrix

(for ) or to a matrix (for ), with

(B.3.1)

(B.3.2)

where and are matrices with all their elements equal to zero.

Furthermore are monic polynomials for , such that is a factor in , i.e.

divides .

If , then is equivalent to the square matrix .

Proof (by construction)

(i)
By performing row and column interchange operations on , bring to position (1,1)

the least degree polynomial entry in . Say this minimum degree is

 (ii) Using elementary operation (e03) (see Definition B.3), reduce the term in the position

(2,1) to degree . If the term in position (2,1) becomes zero, then go to the next
step, otherwise, interchange rows 1 and 2 and repeat the procedure until the term in
position (2,1) becomes zero.
(iii) Repeat step (ii) with the other elements in the first column.
(iv) Apply the same procedure to all the elements but the first one in the first row.
(v) Go back to step (ii) if nonzero entries due to step (iv) appear in the first column. Notice
that the degree of the entry (1,1) will fall in each cycle, until we finally end up with a
matrix which can be partitioned as

(B.3.3)

where is a monic polynomial.

(vi)

If there is an element of which is of lesser degree than , then add the column
where this element is to the first column and repeat steps (ii) to (v). Do this until the form

(B.3.3) is achieved with of less or, at most, equal degree to that of every element in

. This will yield further reduction in the degree of the entry in position (1,1).
(vii)

Make .
(viii
)
Repeat the procedure from steps (i) through (viii) to matrix .

Actually the polynomials in the above result can be obtained in a direct fashion, as follows:
(i)
Compute all minor determinants of .
 (ii)
Define as the (monic) greatest common divisor (g.c.d.) of all minor

determinants of . Make .
(iii
)
Compute the polynomials as

(B.3.4)

B.4 Smith-McMillan Form for Rational Matrices

A straightforward application of Theorem B.1 leads to the following result, which gives a diagonal form
for a rational transfer-function matrix:
Theorem 2.2 (Smith-McMillan form)

Let be an matrix transfer function, where are rational scalar transfer

functions:

(B.4.1)

where is an polynomial matrix of rank and is the least common multiple of the

denominators of all elements .

Then, is equivalent to a matrix , with

(B.4.2)

where is a pair of monic and coprime polynomials for .

Furthermore, is a factor of and is a factor of .

Proof
We write the transfer-function matrix as in (B.4.1). We then perform the algorithm outlined in Theorem

B.1 to convert to Smith normal form. Finally, canceling terms for the denominator leads to
the form given in (B.4.2).
We use the symbol to denote , which is the Smith-McMillan form of the transfer-function

matrix .
We illustrate the formula of the Smith-McMillan form by a simple example.
Example B.1 Consider the following transfer-function matrix

(B.4.3)

We can then express in the form (B.4.1):

(B.4.4)

The polynomial matrix can be reduced to the Smith form defined in Theorem B.1. To do that, we
first compute its greatest common divisors:

(B.4.5)

(B.4.6)

(B.4.7)

This leads to

(B.4.8)

From here, the Smith-McMillan form can be computed to yield

(B.4.9)

B.5 Poles and Zeros

The Smith-McMillan form can be utilized to give an unequivocal definition of poles and zeros in the
multivariable case. In particular, we have:

Definition B.11 Consider a transfer-function matrix , .

(i)

and are said to be the zero polynomial and the pole

polynomial of , respectively, where

(B.5.
1)

and where , , , and , , , are the

polynomials in the Smith-McMillan form, of .

Note that and are monic polynomials.

(ii
)
The zeros of the matrix are defined to be the roots of , and

the poles of are defined to be the roots of .

(ii
i)
The McMillan degree of is defined as the degree of .

In the case of square plants (same number of inputs as outputs), it follows that is a simple

function of and . Specifically, we have

(B.5.
2)

Note, however, that and are not necessarily coprime. Hence, the scalar rational function

is not sufficient to determine all zeros and poles of . However, the relative degree of

is equal to the difference between the number of poles and the number of zeros of the MIMO
transfer-function matrix.

B.6 Matrix Fraction Descriptions (MFD)

A model structure that is related to the Smith-McMillan form is that of a matrix fraction description
(MFD). There are two types, namely a right matrix fraction description (RMFD) and a left matrix
fraction description (LMFD).
We recall that a matrix and its Smith-McMillan form are equivalent matrices. Thus, there exist

two unimodular matrices, and , such that

(B.6.1)

This implies that if is an proper transfer-function matrix, then there exist a matrix

and an matrix , such as

(B.6.2)

where and are, for example, given by

(B.6.3)

We next define the following two matrices:

(B.6.4)

(B.6.5)

where and are matrices. Hence, can be written as

(B.6.6)
Combining (B.6.2) and (B.6.6), we can write

(B.6.7)

where
(B.6.8)
Equations (B.6.7) and (B.6.8) define what is known as a right matrix fraction description (RMFD) .
It can be shown that is always column-equivalent to a column proper matrix . (See

definition B.7). This implies that the degree of the pole polynomial is equal to the sum of the

degrees of the columns of .

We also observe that the RMFD is not unique, because, for any nonsingular matrix , we

can write as
(B.6.9)

where is said to be a right common factor. When the only right common factors of and

are unimodular matrices, then, from definition definition B.7, we have that and

are right coprime. In this case, we say that the RMFD is irreducible.
It is easy to see that when a RMFD is irreducible, then

• is a zero of if and only if loses rank at ; and

• is a pole of if and only if is singular at . This means that the pole

polynomial of is .
Remark B.1 A left matrix fraction description (LMFD) can be built similarly, with a different grouping
of the matrices in (B.6.7). Namely,

(B.6.10)
where
(B.6.11)
The left and right matrix descriptions have been initially derived starting from the Smith-McMillan
form. Hence, the factors are polynomial matrices. However, it is immediate to see that they provide a

more general description. In particular, , , and are generally matrices with

rational entries. One possible way to obtain this type of representation is to divide the two polynomial
matrices forming the original MFD by the same (stable) polynomial.
An example summarizing the above concepts is considered next.

Example 2.2 Consider a MIMO system having the transfer function

 (B.6.12)

B.2.1 Find the Smith-McMillan form by performing elementary row and column operations.

B.2.2 Find the poles and zeros.

B.2.3 Build a RMFD for the model.

Solution
B.2. We first compute its Smith-McMillan form by performing elementary row and
1 column operations. Referring to equation (B.6.1), we have that

(B.6.13
)

with

(B.6.14
)

B.2. We see that the observable and controllable part of the system has zero and pole
2 polynomials given by
(B.6.15
)
which, in turn, implies that there are two transmission zeros, located at

, and four poles, located at and .

B.2. We can now build a RMFD by using (B.6.2). We first notice that
3
(B.6.16
)

Then, using (2.24), with

(B.6.17
)

the RMFD is obtained from (B.6.7), (B.6.16), and (B.6.17), leading to

 (B.6.18
)

and

(B.6.19
)

(B.6.20
)

These can then be turned into proper transfer-function matrices by introducing

common stable denominators.