Determinantal criteria for total positivity (Q5946179)

Totally positive or respectively strictly totally positive matrices are matrices whose minors are nonnegative or respectively positive. These matrices play an important role in approximation theory, statistics and economics. One of the key problems is to minimize the number of minors to be checked in order to decide whether a matrix is totally positive. Here, two new determinantal criteria related to the total positivity are given. It is proved that an \(m \times n\) matrix (\(m \geq n\)) such that any \(n\) consecutive rows are linearly independent is totally positive if and only if all minors using consecutive rows are nonnegative. Then it is also proved that an \(m \times n\) totally positive matrix is \(STP_k\) (i. e. all minors of order less than or equal to \(k \leq n\) are positive) if and only if all minors of the right upper and lower left corners of order less than or equal to \(k\) are positive.