The real symmetric matrices with a given rank and a \(\mathrm{P}\)-set with maximum size (Q6972388)

Let \(m_A(0)\) denote the nullity of a given \(n\times n\) real symmetric matrix \(A\) and \(A(\alpha)\) the principal submatrix of \(A\) obtained after deleting the rows and columns indexed by the nonempty subset \(\alpha\) of \(\{1,2,\ldots, n\}\). If \(m_{A(\alpha)}(0)=m_A(0)+|\alpha|\), then \(\alpha\) is called a \(P\)-set of \(A\). The maximum size of a \(P\)-set of \(A\) is denoted by \(P_s(A)\). In [the authors, Linear Algebra Appl. 468, 27--37 (2015; Zbl 1307.15012)], it was proven that for a matrix of order \(n\), \(P_s(A)\leq \lfloor \frac{n}{2}\rfloor\). In this paper, the authors improve this bound, i.e., they prove that \(P_s(A)\leq \lfloor \frac{r}{2}\rfloor\), where \(r\) is the rank of \(A\). In addition, they fully characterize the graphs for which there is a real symmetric matrix \(A\) of rank \(r\), (the matrix of a graph is \(A\)) with a \(P\)-set of maximal cardinality.