Almost definiteness of matrices on polyhedral cones (Q1183149)

After some preliminaries in \(\S2\) containing some basic definitions of almost definite matrices, the author develops the basic theory for almost definite matrices in \(\S3\). In \(\S4\), he establishes a connection between conditional definiteness and quadratic programming. In \(\S\S5-6\) he proposes criteria for almost definite matrices, using principal pivoting and quadratic programming as the basic mathematical tools. In \(\S5\) he discusses the case of the so-called nonnegative polyhedral cone, whereas in \(\S6\) he deals with the case of the general polyhedral cone. He also determines breaking rays of these kinds of matrices, i.e., rays on which the conditional definiteness class in question is violated.