# How to show the following matrix is positive definite?

How to show the following matrix is positive definite. $$\sum_{i=1}^n \Big[(d_i^Tp)^2\left\{\left( \begin{array}{c} d_i\\ A_ip \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c} d_i\\ A_ip \end{array} \right)^T - (d_i^Tp) \left( \begin{array}{cc} 0 & A_i^T\\ A_i&0 \end{array} \right) \right\}\Big],$$ where $A_i$ is a $k\times m$ matrix which has at least non-zero element in one row or column and at most one non-zero element in other rows, $p$ and $d_i$ are $m\times 1$ vectors with $p_j \in (0,1)$ for all $j=1,\ldots,m$, $p^T{\bf 1}=1$ and only one non-zero element in $d_i$.

• I couldn't show positive definiteness of each term in that summation. One may be able to write the above as a quadratic form and then can say it is positive definite. – Sedi May 22 '15 at 14:03
• I guess the right way to do it is induction because if n grows it becomes very difficult to handle. – Piquito May 22 '15 at 14:42
• in fact the things which I tried was the probability of this to be positive definite is going to 1 when $n$ is large enough. – Sedi May 22 '15 at 16:59
• Dear Luis, as I mentioned in my first comment, it won't be true for n=1 always – Sedi May 23 '15 at 13:24
• I write the above as: $$\left( \begin{array}{c} J^T\\ {\bf 0} \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c} J\\ {\bf 0} \end{array} \right)^T+\left( \begin{array}{c} {\bf 0}\\ Z^T \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c} {\bf 0}\\ Z \end{array} \right)^T-\left( \begin{array}{c} J^TD_1\\ Z^TD2 \end{array} \right)\left( \begin{array}{c} D_1^TJ\\ D_2^TZ \end{array} \right)^T+\left( \begin{array}{c} J^TB^T\\ Z^Tp^T \end{array} \right)\left( \begin{array}{c} BJ\\ pZ \end{array} \right)^T,$$ when $D_1D_1^T=I$ and $D_2D_2^T=I$. – Sedi May 25 '15 at 12:40

You cannot, because it is not always positive definite. Counterexample: with $n=1$ (i.e. there is only one summand), $d_1=\pmatrix{1\\ 1},\,p=\frac12d_1$ and $A_1=\pmatrix{2&1\\ 1&1}$, the resulting matrix in the pair of the curly braces is $$B_1=\pmatrix{1&1&-\frac12&0\\ 1&1&\frac12&0\\ -\frac12&\frac12&\frac94&\frac32\\ 0&0&\frac32&1}.$$ $B_1$ is real symmetric, but when $x=(1,-1,1,-1)^T$, we have $x^TB_1x=-\frac74<0$. Hence $B_1$ is not even positive semidefinite.
By perturbing $A_1$ by a little, we can also get an infinity family of distinct matrices $B_1,\,B_2,\,\ldots$ such that for the aforementioned vector $x$, each $x^TB_ix$ is negative. Hence we can obtain a counterexample for an arbitrary $n$.
• You are correct, but $A_i$ in my problem is in such a way that there is atleast one non-zero element in each row or columns. Thank you for reminding me to edit the question. – Sedi May 23 '15 at 10:03
• @Sedi Nothing changes even if $n\ne 1$ and each $A_i$ is entrywise nonzero. See my new edit. – user1551 May 24 '15 at 0:46
• Dear user1551, Thank you for the answer, Ur answer for earlier question is correct. But I realized in my case $d_i$ vector has only one non-zero element and $n$ goes to infinity. – Sedi May 25 '15 at 12:14