<s>[INST] Determinant of a symmetric $7\times 7$-matrix Is there any simple method to calculate the determinant of the following symmetric $7\times 7$-matrix
$$M:=\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & a_{2} & a_{3} & a_{4}\\
0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & -a_{1} & -a_{4} & a_{3}\\
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & a_{4} & -a_{1} & -a_{2}\\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & -a_{3} & a_{2} & -a_{1}\\
a_{2} & -a_{1} & a_{4} & -a_{3} & a_0 & 0 & 0\\
a_{3} & -a_{4} & -a_{1} & a_{2} & 0 & a_0 & 0\\
a_{4} & a_{3} & -a_{2} & -a_{1} & 0 & 0 & a_0\\
\end{pmatrix}$$
where $a_i$ are real numbers.
 [/INST] The determinant of $M$ is given by
$$
\det(M)=(a_0 - a_1^2 - a_2^2 + a_3^2 - a_4^2)(a_0 - a_1^2 - a_2^2 - a_3^2 - a_4^2)^2.
$$
Note that the matrix is not symmetric.
For the symmetric variant we have
$$
\det(M)=(a_0 - a_1^2 - a_2^2 - a_3^2 - a_4^2)^3,
$$
where we could use rules of the determinant for block matrices (the upper left corner being the identity).
</s>