On semi-orthogonal matrices with row vectors of equal lengths

Abstract

When does a rectangular matrix with an orthonormal set of column vectors have row vectors of equal lengths? The column spaces of such matrices are multidimensional generalizations of the projection plane used in isometric perspective. We show that in the absence of unexpected linear relations, any rectangular matrix can be row-scaled so that if we were to orthonormalize the column vectors, the row vectors would attain equal lengths in the process. We use Grassmann coordinates to reduce the question into an instance of the famous matrix scaling problem, and with the help of existing theory introduce simple numerical solutions.