On the square root of an H-matrix with positive diagonal elements (Q5959305)

Let \(A=(a_{ij})_{n\times n}\), \(B=(b_{ij})_{n\times n}\). Write \(A\geq B\) if \(a_{ij}\geq b_{ij}\) for all \(i,j=1,2,\ldots ,n\). The matrix \(A\) is called a Z-matrix if \(a_{ij}\leq 0\) for \(i\neq j\), \(i,j=1,2,\ldots ,n\). The Z-matrix \(A\) is called an M-matrix (resp. a non-singular M-matrix) if \(A=sI-P\), \(s>0\), \(P\geq 0\), \(\rho (P)\leq s\) (resp. \(\rho (P)<s\)) where \(\rho (P)\) is the spectral radius of \(P\). The comparison matrix of \(A\) is defined to have entries \(\alpha _{ij}\) equal to \(| a_{ij}| \) for \(i=j\) and to \(-| a_{ij}| \) for \(i\neq j\), \(i,j=1,2,\ldots ,n\). A non-singular matrix \(A\) is called an H-matrix if its comparison matrix is an M-matrix. It is shown in the paper that 1) for an M-matrix \(A\) there exists an M-matrix \(B\) which is a square root of \(A\) (i.e. \(A=B^2\)), and \(\rho (I-B)<1\); 2) if \(A\) is an H-matrix with positive diagonal elements, then there exists a unique real square root of \(A\) which is also an H-matrix with positive diagonal elements and which is a function of \(A\).