Completely positive house matrices (Q648914)

An \(n \times n\) real symmetric matrix \(A\) is called \textit{completely positive} if \(A\) could be decomposed as \(A=BB^T\) for some (not necessarily square) matrix \(B\) which is entrywise nonnegative. The minimal number of columns in such \(B\) is called the \(cp\)-\(rank\) of \(A\). It follows that the \(cp\)-\(rank\) of \(A\) is at least the rank of \(A\). Also, it is clear that if \(A\) is completely positive, then it is both positive semidefinite and entrywise nonnegative (namely, \(A\) is doubly nonnegative). An \(n \times n\) symmetric doubly nonnegative matrix (with \(n \geq 5\)) is called a \textit{house matrix} if \(a_{i,i}\) for \(1 \leq i \leq n\), \(a_{i,i+1}\) for \(1 \leq i \leq n-1\), \(a_{1,3},a_{1,n}\) are all positive. The authors show, among other results, that the \(cp\)-\(rank\) of a completely positive house matrix is at least \(n-1\) and give a complete characterization of the singular completely positive house matrices.