Invariants of tensors

For such tensors the principal invariants are given by:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}I_{1}&=\mathrm {tr} (\mathbf {A} )=A_{11}+A_{22}+A_{33}=\lambda _{1}+\lambda _{2}+\lambda _{3}\\I_{2}&={\frac {1}{2}}\left((\mathrm {tr} \left(\mathbf {A} \right))^{2}-\mathrm {tr} (\mathbf {A} ^{2})\right)=A_{11}A_{22}+A_{22}A_{33}+A_{11}A_{33}-A_{12}A_{21}-A_{23}A_{32}-A_{13}A_{31}=\lambda _{1}\lambda _{2}+\lambda _{1}\lambda _{3}+\lambda _{2}\lambda _{3}\\I_{3}&=\det(\mathbf {A} )=-A_{13}A_{22}A_{31}+A_{12}A_{23}A_{31}+A_{13}A_{21}A_{32}-A_{11}A_{23}A_{32}-A_{12}A_{21}A_{33}+A_{11}A_{22}A_{33}=\lambda _{1}\lambda _{2}\lambda _{3}\end{aligned}}}$

For symmetric tensors these definitions are reduced.[2]

The correspondence between the principal invariants and the characteristic polynomial of a tensor, in tandem with the Cayley–Hamilton theorem reveals that

${\displaystyle \ \mathbf {A} ^{3}-I_{1}\mathbf {A} ^{2}+I_{2}\mathbf {A} -I_{3}\mathbf {I} =0}$

where ${\displaystyle \mathbf {I} }$ is the second-order identity tensor.

In addition to the principal invariants listed above, it is also possible to introduce the notion of main invariants[3][4]

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}J_{1}&=\lambda _{1}+\lambda _{2}+\lambda _{3}=I_{1}\\J_{2}&=\lambda _{1}^{2}+\lambda _{2}^{2}+\lambda _{3}^{2}=I_{1}^{2}-2I_{2}\\J_{3}&=\lambda _{1}^{3}+\lambda _{2}^{3}+\lambda _{3}^{3}=I_{1}^{3}-3I_{1}I_{2}+3I_{3}\end{aligned}}}$

which are functions of the principal invariants above.

Furthermore, mixed invariants between pairs of rank two tensors may also be defined.[4]