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Asked: 2026-05-16T02:12:24+00:00

In MATLAB, when I run the command [V,D] = eig(a) for a symmetric matrix,

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In MATLAB, when I run the command [V,D] = eig(a) for a symmetric matrix, the largest eigenvalue (and its associated vector) is located in last column. However, when I run it with a non-symmetric matrix, the largest eigenvalue is in the first column.

I am trying to calculate eigenvector centrality which requires that I take the compute the eigenvector associated with the largest eigenvalue. So the fact that the largest eigenvalue appears in two separate places it makes it difficult for me to find the solution.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You just have to find the index of the largest eigenvalue in D, which can easily be done using the function DIAG to extract the main diagonal and the function MAX to get the maximum eigenvalue and the index where it occurs:

    [V,D] = eig(a);
[maxValue,index] = max(diag(D));  %# The maximum eigenvalue and its index
maxVector = V(:,index);           %# The associated eigenvector in V

    NOTE: As woodchips points out, you can have complex eigenvalues for non-symmetric matrices. When operating on a complex input X, the MAX function uses the magnitude of the complex number max(abs(X)). In the case of equal magnitude elements, the phase angle max(angle(X)) is used.

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