page_title: Symmetric cone
section_title: Spectral decomposition in a Euclidean Jordan algebra
hierarchical_section_title: Symmetric cone / Spectral decomposition in a Euclidean Jordan algebra
caption_attribution_description: John von Neumann
context_page_description: In mathematics, symmetric cones, sometimes called domains of positivity, are open convex self-dual cones in Euclidean space which have a transitive group of symmetries, i.e. invertible operators that take the cone onto itself. By the Koecher–Vinberg theorem these correspond to the cone of squares in finite-dimensional real Euclidean Jordan algebras, originally studied and classified by Jordan, von Neumann & Wigner. The tube domain associated with a symmetric cone is a noncompact Hermitian symmetric space of tube type. All the algebraic and geometric structures associated with the symmetric space can be expressed naturally in terms of the Jordan algebra. The other irreducible Hermitian symmetric spaces of noncompact type correspond to Siegel domains of the second kind. These can be described in terms of more complicated structures called Jordan triple systems, which generalize Jordan algebras without identity.
context_section_description: In their classic paper, Jordan, von Neumann & Wigner (1934) studied and completely classified a class of finite-dimensional Jordan algebras, that are now called either Euclidean Jordan algebras or formally real Jordan algebras.
caption: John von Neumann