Solutions to a system of Yang-Baxter matrix equations

Abstract

In this article a system of Yang-Baxter type matrix equations is studied, $XAX=BXB$, $XBX=AXA$, which ``generalizes" the matrix Yang-Baxter equation and exhibits a broken symmetry. We investigate the solutions of this system from various geometric and topological points of view. We analyze the existence of doubly stochastic solutions and intertwining solutions to the system and describe conditions for their existence.  Furthermore, we characterize the case when $A,B$ are idempotent orthogonal complements. i.e., $A^2 =A, B^2= B, AB = BA =0$. We also completely characterize the set of solutions for $n=2$ using commutative algebraic techniques.