An inequality for the Hadamard product of an M-matrix and an inverse M- matrix (Q1105001)

Let A and B be M-matrices and let \(A\circ B=[a_{ik}b_{ik}]\) be their Hadamard product. The authors obtain the following estimates from below for the smallest eigenvalue \(q(A\circ B^{-1}):\) \[ (a)\quad q(A\circ B^{-1})\geq (q(A)/q(B))(\min_ iu_ iv_ i/\sum_{i}u_ iv_ i), \] where u and v are the left and the right Perron eigenvectors of B, respectively, and B is irreducible; (b) if \(B^{-1}\) is a doubly stochastic matrix D then \(q(A\circ D)\geq (1/n)q(A);\quad (c)\quad q(A\circ A^{-1})\geq 1/n.\) It is shown also in the paper that if dim A\(=2\times 2\) then the estimate (c) can be improved and becomes \(q(A\circ A^{-1})\geq 2/n.\) Thus a conjecture is posed that the better estimate from below for the smallest eigenvalue is \(q(A\circ A^{-1})\geq 2/n.\)