Hollow matrix

In mathematics, a hollow matrix may refer to one of several related classes of matrix: a sparse matrix; a matrix with a large block of zeroes; or a matrix with diagonal entries all zero.

A hollow matrix may be one with "few" non-zero entries: that is, a sparse matrix.

[1] A hollow matrix may be a square n × n matrix with an r × s block of zeroes where r + s > n.[2] A hollow matrix may be a square matrix whose diagonal elements are all equal to zero.

[3] That is, an n × n matrix A = (aij) is hollow if aij = 0 whenever i = j (i.e. aii = 0 for all i).

The most obvious example is the real skew-symmetric matrix.

Other examples are the adjacency matrix of a finite simple graph, and a distance matrix or Euclidean distance matrix.

In other words, any square matrix that takes the form

is a hollow matrix, where the symbol

denotes an arbitrary entry.

is a hollow matrix.

This article about matrices is a stub.

You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.