Abstract. A classical theorem proved in 1942 by I.J. Schoenberg describes all realvalued functions that preserve positivity when applied entrywise to positive semidefinite matrices of arbitrary size; such functions are necessarily analytic with nonnegative Taylor coefficients. Despite the great deal of interest generated by this theorem, a characterization of functions preserving positivity for matrices of fixed dimension is not known.In this paper, we provide a complete description of polynomials of degree N that preserve positivity when applied entrywise to matrices of dimension N . This is the key step for us then to obtain negative lower bounds on the coefficients of analytic functions so that these functions preserve positivity in a prescribed dimension. The proof of the main technical inequality is representation theoretic, and employs the theory of Schur polynomials. Interpreted in the context of linear pencils of matrices, our main results provide a closed-form expression for the lowest critical value, revealing at the same time an unexpected spectral discontinuity phenomenon.Tight linear matrix inequalities for Hadamard powers of matrices and a sharp asymptotic bound for the matrix-cube problem involving Hadamard powers are obtained as applications. Positivity preservers are also naturally interpreted as solutions of a variational inequality involving generalized Rayleigh quotients. This optimization approach leads to a novel description of the simultaneous kernels of Hadamard powers, and a family of stratifications of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices.

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Quantum random walks are constructed on operator spaces with the aid of matrix-space lifting, a type of ampliation intermediate between those provided by spatial and ultraweak tensor products. Using a form of Wiener-Itô decomposition, a Donsker-type theorem is proved, showing that these walks, after suitable scaling, converge in a strong sense to vacuum cocycles: these are vacuum-adapted processes that are Feller cocycles in the sense of Lindsay and Wills. This is employed to give a new proof of the existence of * -homomorphic quantum-stochastic dilations for completely positive contraction semigroups on von Neumann algebras and separable unital C * algebras. The analogous approximation result is also established within the standard quantum stochastic framework, using the link between the two types of adaptedness.

This survey contains a selection of topics unified by the concept of positive semi-definiteness (of matrices or kernels), reflecting natural constraints imposed on discrete data (graphs or networks) or continuous objects (probability or mass distributions). We put emphasis on entrywise operations which preserve positivity, in a variety of guises. Techniques from harmonic analysis, function theory, operator theory, statistics, combinatorics, and group representations are invoked. Some partially forgotten classical roots in metric geometry and distance transforms are presented with comments and full bibliographical references. Modern applications to high-dimensional covariance estimation and regularization are included.