Haynsworth inertia additivity formula

Short description: Counts positive, negative, and zero eigenvalues of a block partitioned Hermitian matrix

In mathematics, the Haynsworth inertia additivity formula, discovered by Emilie Virginia Haynsworth (1916–1985), concerns the number of positive, negative, and zero eigenvalues of a Hermitian matrix and of block matrices into which it is partitioned.

The inertia of a Hermitian matrix H is defined as the ordered triple

$\mathrm{I}\mathrm{n}(H)=(\pi (H),\nu (H),\delta (H))$

whose components are respectively the numbers of positive, negative, and zero eigenvalues of H. Haynsworth considered a partitioned Hermitian matrix

$H=\left[\begin{array}{cc}{H}_{11}& H_{12}\\ H_{12}^{\ast }& H_{22}\end{array}\right]$

where H₁₁ is nonsingular and H₁₂^* is the conjugate transpose of H₁₂. The formula states:

$\mathrm{I}\mathrm{n}\left[\begin{array}{cc}{H}_{11}& H_{12}\\ H_{12}^{\ast }& H_{22}\end{array}\right]=\mathrm{I}\mathrm{n}(H_{11})+\mathrm{I}\mathrm{n}(H/H_{11})$

where H/H₁₁ is the Schur complement of H₁₁ in H:

$H/H_{11}=H_{22}-H_{12}^{\ast }{H}_{11}^{-1}{H}_{12}.$

Generalization

If H₁₁ is singular, we can still define the generalized Schur complement, using the Moore–Penrose inverse $H_{11}^{+}$ instead of $H_{11}^{-1}$.

The formula does not hold if H₁₁ is singular. However, a generalization has been proven in 1974 by Carlson, Haynsworth and Markham, to the effect that $\pi (H)\ge \pi (H_{11})+\pi (H/H_{11})$ and $\nu (H)\ge \nu (H_{11})+\nu (H/H_{11})$.

Carlson, Haynsworth and Markham also gave sufficient and necessary conditions for equality to hold.

See also

• Block matrix pseudoinverse
• Sylvester's law of inertia