Matrix Representations of Octonions and Their Applications

As is well-known, the real quaternion division algebra H is algebraically isomorphic to a 4-by-4 real matrix algebra. But the real division octonion algebra O can not be algebraically isomorphic to any matrix algebras over the real number field R, because O is a non-associative algebra over R. However since O is an extension of H by the Cayley-Dickson process and is also finite-dimensional, some pseudo real matrix representations of octonions can still be introduced through real matrix representations of quaternions. In this paper we give a complete investigation to real matrix representations of octonions, and consider their various applications to octonions as well as matrices of octonions. AMS Mathematics Subject Classification: 15A33, 15A06, 15A24, 17A35