The connected components of the set of \(R_ 0\)-matrices (Q1183212)

Given a matrix \(M\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}\) and a vector \(q\in\mathbb{R}^ n\), the linear complementarity problem, is to find \(x,y\in\mathbb{R}^ n\) with \(x\geq 0\), \(y\geq 0\), \(Mx+q=y\), and \(x^ Ty=0\). A matrix \(M\in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}\) is said to be in the matrix class \(R_ 0\), if there is no nonzero \(x\in\mathbb{R}^ n\) satisfying \(x\geq 0\), \(Mx\geq 0\), \(x^ TMx=0\). A matrix \(M\) is an \(R_ 0\)-matrix, if it satisfies a nondegeneracy property that is often assumed for the linear complementarity problem. In this paper, the author verifies this property from the incidence structure of a polytope defined by \(M\). It is shown that a \(3\times 3\) matrix in \(R_ 0\) can be perturbed within \(R_ 0\) so that the associated polytope is one of seven types, each corresponding to a different component of \(R_ 0\).