Nearly sign-nonsingular matrices (Q1893090)

A square real matrix \(A\) is nearly sign-nonsingular if every nonzero term in the expansion of \(\text{det} A\) but one has the same sign. The authors show that such matrices can be put into a normal form in which all diagonal entries are negative, all other nonzero entries are positive, and the directed graph of the matrix is intercyclic. Using results of \textit{W. McCuaig} [Contemp. Math. 147, 203-245 (1993; Zbl 0789.05042)], \textit{A. Metzlar} [Minimum Transversal of Cycles in Intercyclic Digraphs, Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Combinatorics and Optimization, Univ. of Waterloo, Ont., Canada (1989)], and \textit{C. Thomassen} [Combinatorica 3, 393-396 (1983; Zbl 0527.05036)] on intercyclic digraphs, they separate the nearly sign-nonsingular matrices into five classes and characterize each of these classes.