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I am trying to make a fancy interactive plot that shows how the eigenvalues of a matrix mat change under variation of parameters a and b. The eigenvalues themselves are function of a variable q. I can easily do something like this:

mat = {{b, a*-q^2}, {2, a/2}};
H = mat /. {a -> 1, b -> 0.2}
Plot[Eigenvalues[H], {q, 0, 0.2}]

This gives me the desired yet static plot:

enter image description here

How can I do that interactively, lets say with some sliders? Here is what I tried:

mat = {{b, a*-q^2}, {2, a/2}}; 
DynamicModule[{a = 1, b = 0.5, H},
 Column[{
   H = Dynamic[Evaluate[mat]];
   H,
Dynamic[Eigenvalues[H]],
   Dynamic[Plot[Eigenvalues[H], {q, 0, 3}]],
   {"a", Slider[Dynamic@a, {0, 1, 0.01}], Dynamic[a]}, {"b", 
    Slider[Dynamic@b, {0, 1, 0.01}], Dynamic[b]}
   }]
 ]

The code above works half way, i.e., it makes mat dynamic with regard to the choice of a and b via the sliders. However, the part where I try to calculate the eigenvalues does not work and correspondingly also the plotting fails.

What am I doing wrong here? Any help is greatly appreciated!

  • Thanks, Erik

By the way: I know I could calculate the eigenvalues with symbolic a and b outside the dynamic module and then simply plot the resulting polynomials. The actual problem involves a larger matrix, where this is unfortunately no option. See also How to plot several functions without jumping? (multiple eigenvalues of a system as functions of 2 parameters) along these lines.

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    – Michael E2
    May 16, 2016 at 15:56

1 Answer 1

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One possibility is to define your matrix as a function and to use Manipulate for the dynamics

mat[a_, b_, q_] := {{b, a*-q^2}, {2, a/2}};
Manipulate[Plot[Eigenvalues[mat[a, b, q]], {q, 0, 0.2}], {a, 0, 2}, {b, 0, 2}]

enter image description here

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