Some inheritance properties for complementary basic matrices (Q603134)

A complementary basic matrix (CB-matrix) of order \(n\) is defined as follows: An \(n\times n\) matrix \(A\) which is a product of \(n-1\) matrices \[ A=\prod_{i=1}^{n-1}G_{\pi(i)}, \] where \(\pi\) is a permutation on the set \(\{1, 2, \ldots, n-1\}\), and where \[ G_{\pi(i)}=\left[\begin{matrix} I_{{\pi(i)}-1} & & \\ & C_{\pi(i)} & \\ & & I_{n-{\pi(i)}-1}\end{matrix}\right], \] and \(C_{\pi(i)}\) is a \(2\times 2\) matrix, \(i=1, 2, \ldots, n-1\). The authors explore connections between the \(2\times 2\) matrices \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\), and the resulting CB-matrix \(A\). They especially ask the following question: Which properties are inherited from \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) to the product matrix \(A\)? Among other results, they show the following: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)] if \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are \(P\)-matrices, then so is \(A\) (Theorem 2.2); \item[(2)] if \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are totally positive, then \(A\) is oscillatory (Theorem 2.5); \item[(3)] if sign pattern matrices \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are sign nonsingular, then so is \(A\) (Theorem 3.4); \item[(4)] if sign pattern matrices \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are sign potentially orthogonal, then so is \(A\) (Theorem 3.7); \item[(5)] if sign pattern matrices \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are inverse nonnegative, then so is \(A\) (Corollary 3.10); \item[(6)] if sign pattern matrices \(C_1, \ldots, C_{n-1}\) are inverse positive, then so is \(A\) (Corollary 3.11).\end{itemize}}