is a matrix with two rows and three columns.

This is often referred to as a "two-by-three

An m × n matrix: the m rows are
vertical. Each element
of a matrix is
Not all matrices are related to linear algebra. This is, in often denoted by a
particular, the case in graph theory, of incidence matrices, and variable with two
[1]
adjacency matrices. This article focuses on matrices related to subscripts. For example,
linear algebra, and, unless otherwise specified, all matrices a2,1 represents the
represent linear maps or may be viewed as such. element at the second
row and first column of
the matrix.
Square matrices, matrices with the same number of rows and columns, play a major role in
matrix theory. Square matrices of a given dimension form a noncommutative ring, which is
one of the most common examples of a noncommutative ring. The determinant of a square
matrix is a number associated with the matrix, which is fundamental for the study of a square matrix; for example, a
square matrix is invertible if and only if it has a nonzero determinant and the eigenvalues of
a square matrix are the roots of a polynomial determinant.
In geometry, matrices are widely used for specifying and representing geometric
transformations (for example rotations) and coordinate changes. In numerical analysis, many
computational problems are solved by reducing them to a matrix computation, and this often
involves computing with matrices of huge dimensions. Matrices are used in most areas of
mathematics and scientific fields, either directly, or through their use in geometry and
numerical analysis.
Matrix theory is the branch of mathematics that focuses on the study of matrices. It was
initially a sub-branch of linear algebra, but soon grew to include subjects related to graph
theory, algebra, combinatorics and statistics.

Definition

1
A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers (or other mathematical objects), called the entries
of the matrix. Matrices are subject to standard operations such as addition and
multiplication.[2] Most commonly, a matrix over a field F is a rectangular array of elements
of F.[3][4] A real matrix and a complex matrix are matrices whose entries are respectively
real numbers or complex numbers. More general types of entries are discussed below. For
instance, this is a real matrix:

The numbers, symbols, or expressions in the matrix are called its entries or its elements. The
horizontal and vertical lines of entries in a matrix are called rows and columns, respectively.

Size
The size of a matrix is defined by the number of rows and columns it contains. There
is no limit to the number of rows and columns, that a matrix (in the usual sense) can
have as long as they are positive integers. A matrix with rows and columns is called an
matrix, or -by- matrix, where and are called its dimensions. For example, the matrix above
is a matrix.
Matrices with a single row are called row vectors, and those with a single column are called
column vectors. A matrix with the same number of rows and columns is called a square
matrix.[5] A matrix with an infinite number of rows or columns (or both) is called an infinite
matrix. In some contexts, such as computer algebra programs, it is useful to consider a matrix
with no rows or no columns, called an empty matrix.
Overview of a matrix size
Name Size Example Description Notation
Row
1× nA matrix with one row, sometimes used to represent a
vector vector
Column n × 1A matrix with one column, sometimes used to represent a
vector vector

A matrix with the same number of rows and columns, sometimes

used to
Square n × n represent a linear transformation from a vector space to itself, such as
matrix reflection, rotation, or shearing.

2
Notation

Matrices are usually symbolized using upper-case letters (such as in the examples above),
while the corresponding lower-case letters, with two subscript indices (e.g., , or ), represent
the entries. In addition to using upper-case letters to symbolize matrices, many authors use
a special typographical style, commonly boldface Roman (non-italic), to further distinguish
matrices from other mathematical objects. An alternative notation involves the use of a
double-underline with the variable name, with or

entry of

the is valid for any

3
Some programming languages utilize doubly subscripted arrays (or arrays of arrays) to
represent an m-by-n matrix. Some programming languages start the numbering of array
indexes at zero, in which case the entries of an m-by-n matrix are indexed by
.[6] This article follows the more common convention in
mathematical writing where enumeration starts from 1.
The set of all m-by-n real matrices is often denoted or The set of all m-by-n matrices over
another field, or over a ring R, is similarly denoted or If m = n, such as in the case of square
matrices, one does not repeat the dimension: or [7] Often, , or , is used in place of

Basic operations

Several basic operations can be applied to matrices. Some, such as transposition and
submatrix do not depend on the nature of the entries. Others, such as matrix addition, scalar
multiplication, matrix multiplication, and row operations involve operations on matrix
entries and therefore require that matrix entries are numbers or belong to a field or a ring.[8]
In this section, it is supposed that matrix entries belong to a fixed ring, which is typically a
field of numbers.

Addition, scalar multiplication, subtraction and transposition

Addition
The sum A+B of two m-by-n matrices A and B is calculated entrywise:
(A + B)i,j = Ai,j + Bi,j, where 1 ≤ i ≤ m and 1 ≤ j ≤ n.
For example,

Scalar multiplication
The product cA of a number c (also called a scalar in this context) and a matrix A is computed
by multiplying every entry of A by c:

(cA)i,j = c · Ai,j.
This operation is called scalar multiplication, but its result is not named "scalar product" to
avoid confusion, since "scalar product" is often used as a synonym for "inner product". For
example:

Subtraction
The subtraction of two m×n matrices is defined by composing matrix addition with scalar
multiplication by –1:

4
Transposition

The transpose of an m-by-n matrix A is the n-by-m matrix AT (also denoted Atr or tA) formed
by turning rows into columns and vice versa:

(AT)i,j = Aj,i.
For example:

Familiar properties of numbers extend to these operations on matrices: for example, addition
is commutative, that is, the matrix sum does not depend on the order of the summands: A +
B = B + A.[9] The transpose is compatible with addition and scalar multiplication, as
expressed by (cA)T = c(AT) and (A + B)T = AT + BT. Finally, (AT)T = A.

Matrix multiplication
Multiplication of two matrices is defined if and only if
the number of columns of the left matrix is the same as
the number of rows of the right matrix. If A is an m-by-
n matrix and B is an n-by-p matrix, then their matrix

product AB is the m-by-p matrix whose entries are given

by dot product of the corresponding row of A and the corresponding column of B:[10]

For example, the underlined entry 2340 inSchematic depiction of

the matrix product AB of
the product is calculated astwo matrices A and B
(2 × 1000) + (3 × 100) + (4 × 10) = 2340:

Matrix multiplication satisfies the rules (AB)C = A(BC) (associativity), and (A + B)C = AC
+ BC as well as C(A + B) = CA +
CB (left and right distributivity), whenever the size of the matrices is such that the various
products are defined.[12] The product AB may be defined without BA being defined, namely
if A and B are m-by-n and n-by-k matrices, respectively, and m ≠ k. Even if both products
are defined, they generally need not be equal, that is:
AB ≠ BA,

5
In other words, matrix multiplication is not commutative, in marked contrast to (rational,
real, or complex) numbers, whose product is independent of the order of the factors.[10] An
example of two matrices not commuting with each other is:

whereas

Besides the ordinary matrix multiplication just described, other less frequently used
operations on matrices that can be considered forms of multiplication also exist, such as the
Hadamard product and the Kronecker product.[13] They arise in solving matrix equations
such as the Sylvester equation.

Row operations
There are three types of row operations:
1. row addition, that is adding a row to another.
2. row multiplication, that is multiplying all entries of a row by a non-zero constant;
3. row switching, that is interchanging two rows of a matrix;

These operations are used in several ways, including solving linear equations and finding
matrix inverses.

Submatrix
A submatrix of a matrix is a matrix obtained by deleting any collection of rows and/or
columns.[14][15][16] For example, from the following 3-by-4 matrix, we can construct a 2-by-
3 submatrix by removing row 3 and column 2:

The minors and cofactors of a matrix are found by computing the determinant of certain
submatrices.[16][17]
A principal submatrix is a square submatrix obtained by removing certain rows and
columns. The definition varies from author to author. According to some authors, a principal
submatrix is a submatrix in which the set of row indices that remain is the same as the set of
column indices that remain.[18][19] Other authors define a principal submatrix as one in which
the first k rows and columns, for some number k, are the ones that remain;[20] this type of
submatrix has also been called a leading principal submatrix.[21]

Linear equations

6
Matrices can be used to compactly write and work with multiple linear equations, that is,
systems of linear equations. For example, if A is an m-by-n matrix, x designates a column
vector (that is, n×1-matrix) of n variables x1, x2, ..., xn, and b is an m×1-column vector, then
the matrix equation

is equivalent to the system of linear equations[22]

Using matrices, this can be solved more compactly than would be possible by writing out all
the equations separately. If n = m and the equations are independent, then this can be done
by writing

where A−1 is the inverse matrix of A. If A has no inverse, solutions—if any—can be found
using its generalized inverse.

Linear transformations

can be viewed as the transform of the unit square into a parallelogram with vertices at matrix
correspond to the sides of a
unit
square transformed into
a
(0, 0), (a, b), (a + c, b + d), and (c, d). The parallelogram pictured at the right
is obtained parallelogram. by multiplying A with each of the column vectors

in turn.
These vectors define the vertices of the unit square.

The following table shows several 2×2 real matrices with the associated linear maps of R2.
The blue original is mapped to the green grid and shapes. The origin (0,0) is marked with a
black point.

7
 Horizontal Reflection Squeeze Scaling by Rotation
shear with m through the mapping with a factor of by π/6 =
= 1.25. vertical axis r = 3/2 3/2 30°

Under the 1-to-1 correspondence between matrices and linear maps, matrix multiplication
corresponds to composition of maps:[23] if a k-by-m matrix B represents another linear map
g: Rm → Rk, then the composition g ∘ f is represented by BA since
(g ∘ f)(x) = g(f(x)) = g(Ax) = B(Ax) = (BA)x.
The last equality follows from the above-mentioned associativity of matrix multiplication.
The rank of a matrix A is the maximum number of linearly independent row vectors of the
matrix, which is the same as the maximum number of linearly independent column
vectors.[24] Equivalently it is the dimension of the image of the linear map represented by
A.[25] The rank–nullity theorem states that the dimension of the kernel of a matrix plus the
rank equals the number of columns of the matrix.[26]

Square matrix

A square matrix is a matrix with the same number of rows and columns.[5] An n-by-n matrix
is known as a square matrix of order n. Any two square matrices of the same order can be
added and multiplied. The entries a ii form the main diagonal of a square matrix. They lie on
the imaginary line that runs from the top left corner to the bottom right corner of the matrix.

8
Main types

Diagonal and triangular matrix Name Example

with n = 3
If all entries of A below the main diagonal are zero, A is
called an upper triangular matrix. Similarly, if all entries of Diagonal
A above the main diagonal are zero, A is called a lower matrix
triangular matrix. If all entries outside the main diagonal are
Lower
zero, A is called a diagonal matrix. triangular
matrix
Identity matrix
Upper
The identity matrix In of size n is the n-by-n matrix in which triangular
all the elements on the main diagonal are equal to 1 and all matrix
other elements are equal to 0, for example,

It is a square matrix of order n, and also a special kind of diagonal matrix. It is called an
identity matrix because multiplication with it leaves a matrix unchanged:
AIn = ImA = A for any m-by-n matrix A.
A nonzero scalar multiple of an identity matrix is called a scalar matrix. If the matrix entries
come from a field, the scalar matrices form a group, under matrix multiplication, that is
isomorphic to the multiplicative group of nonzero elements of the field.

Symmetric or skew-symmetric matrix

A square matrix A that is equal to its transpose, that is, A = AT, is a symmetric matrix. If
instead, A is equal to the negative of its transpose, that is, A = −AT, then A is a
. In complex matrices, symmetry is often replaced by the concept of
Hermitian matrices, which satisfies A = A, where the star or asterisk denotes the conjugate
transpose of the matrix, that is, the transpose of the complex conjugate of A.
By the spectral theorem, real symmetric matrices and complex Hermitian matrices have an
eigenbasis; that is, every vector is expressible as a linear combination of eigenvectors. In
both cases, all eigenvalues are real.[27] This theorem can be generalized to infinite-
dimensional situations related to matrices with infinitely many rows and columns, see below.

Invertible matrix and its inverse

A square matrix A is called invertible or non-singular if there exists a matrix B such that

AB = BA = In ,[28][29]

9
where In is the n×n identity matrix with 1s on the main diagonal and 0s elsewhere. If B exists,
it is unique and is called the inverse matrix of A, denoted A−1.

Definite matrix
Asymmetric real matrix A is called positive- Positive definite Indefinite matrix
definite if the associated quadratic form f (x) = xTA matrix
x
has a positive value for every nonzero vector x in
Rn. If f (x) only yields negative values then A is
negative-definite; if f does produce both negative
and positive values then A is indefinite.[30] If the
quadratic form f yields only non-negative values
(positive or zero), the symmetric matrix is called
positive-semidefinite (or if only nonpositive
values, then negative-semidefinite); hence the
matrix is indefinite precisely when it is neither
positive-semidefinite nor negative-semidefinite.
A symmetric matrix is positive-definite if and only if all its eigenvalues are positive, that
is, the matrix is positive-semidefinite and it is invertible.[31] The table at the right shows two
possibilities for 2-by-2 matrices.

Allowing as input two different vectors instead yields the bilinear form associated to A:[32]

BA (x, y) = xTAy.
In the case of complex matrices, the same terminology and result apply, with symmetric
matrix, quadratic form, bilinear form, and transpose xT replaced respectively by Hermitian
matrix, Hermitian form, sesquilinear form, and conjugate transpose xH.

Orthogonal matrix
An orthogonal matrix is a square matrix with real entries whose columns and rows are
orthogonal unit vectors (that is, orthonormal vectors). Equivalently, a matrix A is orthogonal
if its transpose is equal to its inverse:

which entails

where In is the identity matrix of size n.

An orthogonal matrix A is necessarily invertible (with inverse A−1 = AT), unitary (A−1 = A*),
and normal (A*A = AA*). The determinant of any orthogonal matrix is either +1 or −1. A
special orthogonal matrix is an orthogonal matrix with determinant +1. As a linear
10
transformation, every orthogonal matrix with determinant +1 is a pure rotation without
reflection, i.e., the transformation preserves the orientation of the transformed structure,
while every orthogonal matrix with determinant -1 reverses the orientation, i.e., is a
composition of a pure reflection and a (possibly null) rotation. The identity matrices have
determinant 1 and are pure rotations by an angle zero.
The complex analog of an orthogonal matrix is a unitary matrix.

Main operations

Trace
The trace, tr(A) of a square matrix A is the sum of its diagonal entries. While matrix
multiplication is not commutative as mentioned above, the trace of the product of two
matrices is independent of the order of the factors:
.

This is immediate from the definition of matrix multiplication:

It follows that the trace of the product of more than two matrices is independent of cyclic
permutations of the matrices, however, this does not in general apply for arbitrary
permutations (for example, tr(ABC) ≠ tr(BAC), in general). Also, the trace of a matrix is
equal to that of its transpose, that is, tr(A) = tr(AT).

Determinant
The determinant of a square matrix A (denoted det(A)
or |A|) is a number encoding certain properties of the
matrix. A matrix is invertible if and only if its
determinant is nonzero. Its absolute value equals the area
(in R2) or volume (in R3) of the image of the unit square
(or cube), while its sign corresponds to the orientation of the corresponding linear map: the
determinant is positive if and only if the orientation is preserved.
The determinant of 2-by-2 matrices is A linear transformation on R2
given by given by the indicated matrix.
The determinant of this matrix is
[33] −1, as the area of the green
parallelogram at the right is 1,
but the map reverses the
orientation, since it turns the
counterclockwise orientation of
the vectors to a clockwise one.

11
The determinant of 3-by-3 matrices involves 6 terms
(rule of Sarrus). The more lengthy Leibniz formula
generalizes these two formulae to all dimensions.[34]
The determinant of a product of square matrices equals the product of their determinants:
det(AB) = det(A) · det(B), or using alternate
notation: |AB| = |A| · |B|.[35]
Adding a multiple of any row to another row, or a multiple of any column to another column
does not change the determinant. Interchanging two rows or two columns affects the
determinant by multiplying it by −1.[36] Using these operations, any matrix can be
transformed to a lower (or upper) triangular matrix, and for such matrices, the determinant
equals the product of the entries on the main diagonal; this provides a method to calculate
the determinant of any matrix. Finally, the Laplace expansion expresses the determinant in
terms of minors, that is, determinants of smaller matrices.[37] This expansion can be used for
a recursive definition of determinants (taking as starting case the determinant of a 1-by-1
matrix, which is its unique entry, or even the determinant of a 0-by-0 matrix, which is 1),
that can be seen to be equivalent to the Leibniz formula. Determinants can be used to solve
linear systems using Cramer's rule, where the division of the determinants of two related
square matrices equates to the value of each of the system's variables.[38]

Eigenvalues and eigenvectors

A number and a non-zero vector v satisfying

are called an eigenvalue and an eigenvector of A, respectively.[39][40] The number λ is an

eigenvalue of an n×n-matrix A if and only if A−λIn is not invertible, which is equivalent to
[41]

The polynomial pA in an indeterminate X given by evaluation of the determinant det(XIn−A)

is called the characteristic polynomial of A. It is a monic polynomial of degree n. Therefore
the polynomial equation pA(λ) = 0 has at most n different solutions, that is, eigenvalues of
the matrix.[42] They may be complex even if the entries of A are real. According to the
Cayley– Hamilton theorem, pA(A) = 0, that is, the result of substituting the matrix itself into
its characteristic polynomial yields the zero matrix.

Computational aspects

Matrix calculations can be often performed with different techniques. Many problems can
be solved by both direct algorithms and iterative approaches. For example, the eigenvectors
of a square matrix can be obtained by finding a sequence of vectors xn converging to an
eigenvector when n tends to infinity.[43]

12
To choose the most appropriate algorithm for each specific problem, it is important to
determine both the effectiveness and precision of all the available algorithms. The domain
studying these matters is called numerical linear algebra.[44] As with other numerical
situations, two main aspects are the complexity of algorithms and their numerical stability.

Determining the complexity of an algorithm means finding upper bounds or estimates of

how many elementary operations such as additions and multiplications of scalars are
necessary to perform some algorithm, for example, multiplication of matrices. Calculating
the matrix product of two n-by-n matrices using the definition given above needs n3
multiplications, since for any of the n2 entries of the product, n multiplications are necessary.
The Strassen algorithm outperforms this "naive" algorithm; it needs only n2.807
multiplications.[45] A refined approach also incorporates specific features of the computing
devices.
In many practical situations, additional information about the matrices involved is known.
An important case is sparse matrices, that is, matrices most of whose entries are zero. There
are specifically adapted algorithms for, say, solving linear systems Ax = b for sparse matrices
A, such as the conjugate gradient method.[46]
An algorithm is, roughly speaking, numerically stable if little deviations in the input values
do not lead to big deviations in the result. For example, calculating the inverse of a matrix
via Laplace expansion (adj(A) denotes the adjugate matrix of A)

A−1 = adj(A) / det(A)

may lead to significant rounding errors if the determinant of the matrix is very small. The
norm of a matrix can be used to capture the conditioning of linear algebraic problems, such
as computing a matrix's inverse.[47]
Most computer programming languages support arrays but are not designed with built-in
commands for matrices. Instead, available external libraries provide matrix operations on
arrays, in nearly all currently used programming languages. Matrix manipulation was among
the earliest numerical applications of computers.[48] The original Dartmouth BASIC had
built-in commands for matrix arithmetic on arrays from its second edition implementation
in 1964. As early as the 1970s, some engineering desktop computers such as the HP 9830
had ROM cartridges to add BASIC commands for matrices. Some computer languages such
as APL were designed to manipulate matrices, and various mathematical programs can be
used to aid computing with matrices.[49] As of 2023, most computers have some form of
built-in matrix operations at a low level implementing the standard BLAS specification,
upon which most higher-level matrix and linear algebra libraries (e.g., EISPACK,
LINPACK, LAPACK) rely. While most of these libraries require a professional level of
coding, LAPACK can be accessed by higher-level (and user-friendly) bindings such as
NumPy/SciPy, R, GNU Octave, MATLAB.

Decomposition

13
There are several methods to render matrices into a more easily accessible form. They are
generally referred to as matrix decomposition or matrix factorization techniques. The interest
of all these techniques is that they preserve certain properties of the matrices in question,
such as determinant, rank, or inverse, so that these quantities can be calculated after applying
the transformation, or that certain matrix operations are algorithmically easier to carry out
for some types of matrices.

The LU decomposition factors matrices as a product of lower (L) and an upper triangular
matrices (U).[50] Once this decomposition is calculated, linear systems can be solved more
efficiently, by a simple technique called forward and back substitution. Likewise, inverses
of triangular matrices are algorithmically easier to calculate. The Gaussian elimination is a
similar algorithm; it transforms any matrix to row echelon form.[51] Both methods proceed
by multiplying the matrix by suitable elementary matrices, which correspond to
and adding multiples of one row to another row. Singular value
decomposition expresses any matrix A as a product UDV , where U and V are unitary
matrices and D is a diagonal matrix.

The eigendecomposition or diagonalization expresses A as a

product VDV−1, where D is a diagonal matrix and V is a
suitable invertible matrix.[52] If A can be written in this form,
it is called diagonalizable. More generally, and applicable to
all matrices, the Jordan decomposition transforms a matrix
into Jordan normal form, that is to say matrices whose only
nonzero entries are the eigenvalues λ1 to λn of A, placed on the
main diagonal and possibly entries equal to one directly above
the main diagonal, as shown at the right.[53] Given the
eigendecomposition, the nth power of A (that is, nfold iterated matrix multiplication) can be
calculated via
An = (VDV−1)n = VDV−1VDV−1...VDV−1 = VDnV−1
and the power of a diagonal matrix can be calculated by taking the corresponding
powers of the diagonal entries, which is much easier than An example of a matrix in
doing the exponentiation for A instead. This can be used to Jordan normal form. The
compute the matrix exponential eA, a need frequently arising grey blocks are called
in solving linear differential equations, matrix logarithms Jordan blocks.
and square roots of matrices.[54] To avoid numerically ill-
conditioned situations, further algorithms such as the Schur
decomposition can be employed.[55]
Abstract algebraic aspects and generalizations

Matrices can be generalized in different ways. Abstract algebra uses matrices with entries in
more general fields or even rings, while linear algebra codifies properties of matrices in the

14
notion of linear maps. It is possible to consider matrices with infinitely many columns and
rows. Another extension is tensors, which can be seen as higher-dimensional arrays of
numbers, as opposed to vectors, which can often be realized as sequences of numbers, while
matrices are rectangular or two-dimensional arrays of numbers.[56] Matrices, subject to
certain requirements tend to form groups known as matrix groups. Similarly under certain
conditions matrices form rings known as matrix rings. Though the product of matrices is not
in general commutative certain matrices form fields known as matrix fields. In general,
matrices and their multiplication also form a category, the category of matrices.

Matrices with more general entries

This article focuses on matrices whose entries are real or complex numbers. However,
matrices can be considered with much more general types of entries than real or complex
numbers. As a first step of generalization, any field, that is, a set where addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division operations are defined and well-behaved, may be used instead
of R or C, for example rational numbers or finite fields. For example, coding theory makes
use of matrices over finite fields. Wherever eigenvalues are considered, as these are roots of
a polynomial they may exist only in a larger field than that of the entries of the matrix; for
instance, they may be complex in the case of a matrix with real entries. The possibility to
reinterpret the entries of a matrix as elements of a larger field (for example, to view a real
matrix as a complex matrix whose entries happen to be all real) then allows considering each
square matrix to possess a full set of eigenvalues. Alternatively one can consider only
matrices with entries in an algebraically closed field, such as C, from the outset.

More generally, matrices with entries in a ring R are widely used in mathematics.[57] Rings
are a more general notion than fields in that a division operation need not exist. The very
same addition and multiplication operations of matrices extend to this setting, too. The set
M(n, R) (also denoted Mn(R)[7]) of all square n-by-n matrices over R is a ring called matrix
ring, isomorphic to the endomorphism ring of the left R-module Rn.[58] If the ring R is
commutative, that is, its multiplication is commutative, then the ring M(n, R) is also an
associative algebra over R. The determinant of square matrices over a commutative ring R
can still be defined using the Leibniz formula; such a matrix is invertible if and only if its
determinant is invertible in R, generalizing the situation over a field F, where every nonzero
element is invertible.[59] Matrices over superrings are called supermatrices.[60]
Matrices do not always have all their entries in the same ring – or even in any ring at all. One
special but common case is block matrices, which may be considered as matrices whose
entries themselves are matrices. The entries need not be square matrices, and thus need not
be members of any ring; but their sizes must fulfill certain compatibility conditions.

Relationship to linear maps

Linear maps Rn → Rm are equivalent to m-by-n matrices, as described above. More generally,
any linear map f: V → W between finite-dimensional vector spaces can be described by a

15
matrix A = (aij), after choosing bases v1, ..., vn of V, and w1, ..., wm of W (so n is the dimension
of V and m is the dimension of W), which is such that

In other words, column j of A expresses the image of vj in terms of the basis vectors w I of
W; thus this relation uniquely determines the entries of the matrix A. The matrix depends on
the choice of the bases: different choices of bases give rise to different, but equivalent
matrices.[61] Many of the above concrete notions can be reinterpreted in this light, for
example, the transpose matrix AT describes the transpose of the linear map given by A,
concerning the dual bases.[62]
These properties can be restated more naturally: the category of matrices with entries in a
field with multiplication as composition is equivalent to the category of finite-dimensional
vector spaces and linear maps over this field.[63]

More generally, the set of m×n matrices can be used to represent the R-linear maps between
the free modules Rm and Rn for an arbitrary ring R with unity. When n = m composition of
these maps is possible, and this gives rise to the matrix ring of n×n matrices representing the
endomorphism ring of Rn.

Matrix groups
A group is a mathematical structure consisting of a set of objects together with a binary
operation, that is, an operation combining any two objects to a third, subject to certain
requirements.[64] A group in which the objects are matrices and the group operation is matrix
multiplication is called a matrix group.[65][66] Since a group of every element must be
invertible, the most general matrix groups are the groups of all invertible matrices of a given
size, called the general linear groups.
Any property of matrices that is preserved under matrix products and inverses can be used
to define further matrix groups. For example, matrices with a given size and with a
determinant of 1 form a subgroup of (that is, a smaller group contained in) their general
linear group, called a special linear group.[67] Orthogonal matrices, determined by the
condition
MTM = I,
form the orthogonal group.[68] Every orthogonal matrix has determinant 1 or −1. Orthogonal
matrices with determinant 1 form a subgroup called special orthogonal group.
Every finite group is isomorphic to a matrix group, as one can see by considering the regular
representation of the symmetric group.[69] General groups can be studied using matrix
groups, which are comparatively well understood, using representation theory.[70]

16
Infinite matrices
It is also possible to consider matrices with infinitely many rows and/or columns[71] even
though, being infinite objects, one cannot write down such matrices explicitly. All that
matters is that for every element in the set indexing rows, and every element in the set
indexing columns, there is a well-defined entry (these index sets need not even be subsets of
the natural numbers). The basic operations of addition, subtraction, scalar multiplication,
and transposition can still be defined without problem; however, matrix multiplication may
involve infinite summations to define the resulting entries, and these are not defined in
general.

If R is any ring with unity, then the ring of endomorphisms of as a right R module is
isomorphic to the ring of
column finite matrices whose entries are indexed by , and whose
columns each contain only finitely many nonzero entries. The endomorphisms of M
considered as a left R module result in an analogous object, the row finite matrices
whose rows each only have finitely many nonzero entries.
If infinite matrices are used to describe linear maps, then only those matrices can be used all
of whose columns have but a finite number of nonzero entries, for the following reason. For
a matrix A to describe a linear map f: V→W, bases for both spaces must have been chosen;
recall that by definition this means that every vector in the space can be written uniquely as
a (finite) linear combination of basis vectors, so that written as a (column) vector ve of
coefficients, only finitely many entries v I are nonzero.
Now the columns of A describe the images by f of individual basis vectors of V in the basis
of W, which is only meaningful if these columns have only finitely many nonzero entries.
There is no restriction on the rows of A however: in the product A·v there are only finitely
many nonzero coefficients of v involved, so every one of its entries, even if it is given as an
infinite sum of products, involves only finitely many nonzero terms and is therefore well
defined. Moreover, this amounts to forming a linear combination of the columns of A that
effectively involves only finitely many of them, whence the result has only finitely many
nonzero entries because each of those columns does. Products of two matrices of the given
type are well defined (provided that the column-index and row-index sets match), are of the
same type, and correspond to the composition of linear maps.

If R is a normed ring, then the condition of row or column finiteness can be relaxed. With
the norm in place, absolutely convergent series can be used instead of finite sums. For
example, the matrices whose column sums are convergent sequences form a ring.
Analogously, the matrices whose row sums are convergent series also form a ring.

Infinite matrices can also be used to describe operators on Hilbert spaces, where convergence
and continuity questions arise, which again results in certain constraints that must be
imposed. However, the explicit point of view of matrices tends to obfuscate the matter,[72]
and the abstract and more powerful tools of functional analysis can be used instead.

17
Empty matrix
An empty matrix is a matrix in which the number of rows or columns (or both) is zero.[73][74]
Empty matrices help to deal with maps involving the zero vector space. For example, if A is
a 3-by-0 matrix and B is a 0-by-3 matrix, then AB is the 3-by-3 zero matrix corresponding
to the null map from a 3-dimensional space V to itself, while BA is a 0-by-0 matrix. There is
no common notation for empty matrices, but most computer algebra systems allow creating
and computing with them. The determinant of the 0-by-0 matrix is 1 as follows regarding
the empty product occurring in the Leibniz formula for the determinant as 1. This value is
also consistent with the fact that the identity map from any finite-dimensional space to itself
has determinant 1, a fact that is often used as a part of the characterization of determinants.

Applications

There are numerous applications of matrices, both in mathematics and other sciences. Some
of them merely take advantage of the compact representation of a set of numbers in a matrix.
For example, in game theory and economics, the payoff matrix encodes the payoff for two
players, depending on which out of a given (finite) set of strategies the players choose.[75]
Text mining and automated thesaurus compilation makes use of document-term matrices
such as tf-idf to track frequencies of certain words in several documents.[76]
Complex numbers can be represented by particular real 2-by-2 matrices via

under which addition and multiplication of complex numbers and matrices correspond to
each other. For example, 2-by-2 rotation matrices represent the multiplication with some
complex number of absolute value 1, as above. A similar interpretation is possible for
quaternions[77] and Clifford algebras in general.
Early encryption techniques such as the Hill cipher also used matrices. However, due to the
linear nature of matrices, these codes are comparatively easy to break.[78] Computer graphics
uses matrices to represent objects; to calculate transformations of objects using affine
rotation matrices to accomplish tasks such as projecting a three-dimensional object onto a
two-dimensional screen, corresponding to a theoretical camera observation; and to apply
image convolutions such as sharpening, blurring, edge detection, and more.[79] Matrices over
a polynomial ring are important in the study of control theory.
Chemistry makes use of matrices in various ways, particularly since the use of quantum
theory to discuss molecular bonding and spectroscopy. Examples are the overlap matrix and
the Fock matrix used in solving the Roothaan equations to obtain the molecular orbitals of
the Hartree–Fock method.

18
Graph theory
The adjacency matrix of a finite graph is a basic notion of graph theory.[80]
It records which vertices of the graph are connected by an edge. Matrices
containing just two different values (1 and 0 meaning for example "yes"
and "no", respectively) are called logical matrices. The distance (or cost)
matrix contains information about the distances of the edges.[81] These
concepts can be applied to websites connected by hyperlinks or cities
connected by roads etc., in which case (unless the connection network is extremely dense)
the matrices tend to be sparse, that is, contain few nonzero entries. Therefore, specifically
tailored matrix algorithms can be used in network theory.
An undirected
graph with
adjacency
matrix:
Analysis and geometry
The Hessian matrix of a differentiable function ƒ: Rn → R consists of the
second derivatives of ƒ concerning the several coordinate directions, that is,[82]

It encodes information about the local growth behavior of the

function: given a critical point x = (x1, ..., xn), that is, a point where
the first partial derivatives of ƒ vanish, the function has a
local minimum if the Hessian matrix is positive definite.
Quadratic programming can be used to find global minima or
maxima of quadratic functions closely related to the ones attached
to matrices (see above).[83]
Another matrix frequently used in geometrical situations is the Jacobi matrix of a
differentiable map f: Rn → Rm. If f1, ..., fm denote the components of f, then the Jacobi matrix
is defined as[84]
At the saddle point (x = 0, y = 0)
(red) of the function f(x,−y)

= x2 − y2, the Hessian matrix

is indefinite.
If n > m, and if the rank of the Jacobi matrix attains its maximal
value m, f is locally invertible at that point, by the implicit
function theorem.[85]
Partial differential equations can be classified by considering the matrix of coefficients of
the highest-order differential operators of the equation. For elliptic partial differential

19
equations this matrix is positive definite, which has a decisive influence on the set of possible
solutions of the equation in question.[86]
The finite element method is an important numerical method to solve partial differential
equations, widely applied in simulating complex physical systems. It attempts to
approximate the solution to some equation by piecewise linear functions, where the pieces
are chosen concerning a sufficiently fine grid, which in turn can be recast as a matrix
equation.[87]
Probability theory and statistics which can be formulated in
Stochastic matrices are square matrices whose rows are terms of matrices, related to
probability vectors, that is, whose entries are non- the singular value
[92]
negative and sum up to one. Stochastic matrices are used decomposition of matrices.
to define Markov chains with finitely many states.[88] A
row of the stochastic matrix gives the probability
distribution for the next position of some particle
currently in the state that corresponds to the row.
Properties of the Markov chain-like absorbing states, that
is, states that any particle attains eventually, can be read
off the eigenvectors of the transition matrices.[89]

Statistics also makes use of matrices in many different Two different Markov chains.
forms.[90] Descriptive statistics is concerned with The chart depicts the number
describing data sets, which can often be represented as of particles (of a total of 1000)
data matrices, which may then be subjected to in state "2". Both limiting
dimensionality reduction techniques. The covariance values can be determined from
matrix encodes the mutual variance of several random the transition matrices, which
variables.[91] Another technique using matrices are linear
least squares, a method that approximates a finite set of are given by (red) and
pairs (x1, y1), (x2, y2), ..., (x N, y N), by a linear function yi ≈
axi + b, i = 1, ..., N (black).
Random matrices are matrices whose entries are random numbers, subject to suitable
probability distributions, such as matrix normal distribution. Beyond probability theory, they
are applied in domains ranging from number theory to physics.[93][94]

Symmetries and transformations in physics

Linear transformations and the associated symmetries play a key role in modern physics. For
example, elementary particles in quantum field theory are classified as representations of the
Lorentz group of special relativity and, more specifically, by their behavior under the spin
group. Concrete representations involving the Pauli matrices and more general gamma
matrices are an integral part of the physical description of fermions, which behave as
spinors.[95] For the three lightest quarks, there is a grouptheoretical representation involving
the special unitary group SU(3); for their calculations, physicists use a convenient matrix

20
representation known as the Gell-Mann matrices, which are also used for the SU(3) gauge
group that forms the basis of the modern description of strong nuclear interactions, quantum
chromodynamics. The Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix, in turn, expresses the fact that
the basic quark states that are important for weak interactions are not the same as, but linearly
related to the basic quark states that define particles with specific and distinct masses.[96]

Linear combinations of quantum states

The first model of quantum mechanics (Heisenberg, 1925) represented the theory's operators
by infinite-dimensional matrices acting on quantum states.[97] This is also referred to as
matrix mechanics. One particular example is the density matrix that characterizes the
"mixed" state of a quantum system as a linear combination of elementary, "pure"
eigenstates.[98]
Another matrix serves as a key tool for describing the scattering experiments that form the
cornerstone of experimental particle physics: Collision reactions such as occur in particle
accelerators, where non-interacting particles head towards each other and collide in a small
interaction zone, with a new set of non-interacting particles as the result, can be described
as the scalar product of outgoing particle states and a linear combination of ingoing particle
states. The linear combination is given by a matrix known as the S-matrix, which encodes
all information about the possible interactions between particles.[99]

Normal modes
A general application of matrices in physics is the description of linearly coupled harmonic
systems. The equations of motion of such systems can be described in matrix form, with a
mass matrix multiplying a generalized velocity to give the kinetic term, and a force matrix
multiplying a displacement vector to characterize the interactions. The best way to obtain
solutions is to determine the system's eigenvectors, its normal modes, by diagonalizing the
matrix equation. Techniques like this are crucial when it comes to the internal dynamics of
molecules: the internal vibrations of systems consisting of mutually bound component
atoms.[100] They are also needed for describing mechanical vibrations, and oscillations in
electrical circuits.[101]

Geometrical optics
Geometrical optics provides further matrix applications. In this approximative theory, the
wave nature of light is neglected. The result is a model in which light rays are indeed
geometrical rays. If the deflection of light rays by optical elements is small, the action of a
lens or reflective element on a given light ray can be expressed as multiplication of a two-
component vector with a two-by-two matrix called ray transfer matrix analysis: the vector's
components are the light ray's slope and its distance from the optical axis, while the matrix
encodes the properties of the optical element. There are two kinds of matrices, viz. a
refraction matrix describing the refraction at a lens surface, and a translation matrix,
describing the translation of the plane of reference to the next refracting surface, where

21
another refraction matrix applies. The optical system, consisting of a combination of lenses
and/or reflective elements, is simply described by the matrix resulting from the product of
the components' matrices.[102]

Electronics
Traditional mesh analysis and nodal analysis in electronics lead to a system of linear
equations that can be described with a matrix.
The behavior of many electronic components can be described using matrices. Let A be a 2-
dimensional vector with the component's input voltage v1 and input current I1 as its elements,
and let B be a 2-dimensional vector with the component's output voltage v2 and output
current I2 as its elements. Then the behavior of the electronic component can be described
by B = H · A, where H is a 2 x 2 matrix containing one impedance element (h12), one
admittance element (h21), and two dimensionless elements (h11 and h22). Calculating a circuit
now reduces to multiplying matrices.

History

Matrices have a long history of application in solving linear equations but they were known
as arrays until the 1800s. The Chinese text The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art
written in the 10th–2nd century BCE is the first example of the use of array methods to solve
simultaneous equations,[103] including the concept of determinants. In 1545 Italian
mathematician Gerolamo Cardano introduced the method to Europe when he published Ars
Magna.[104] The Japanese mathematician Seki used the same array methods to solve
simultaneous equations in 1683.[105] The Dutch mathematician Jan de Witt represented
transformations using arrays in his 1659 book Elements of Curves (1659).[106] Between 1700
and 1710 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz publicized the use of arrays for recording information
or solutions and experimented with over 50 different systems of arrays.[104] Cramer presented
his rule in 1750.

The term "matrix" (Latin for "womb", "dam" (non-human female animal kept for breeding),
"source", "origin", "list", and "register", are derived from mater—mother[107]) was coined by
James Joseph Sylvester in 1850,[108] who understood a matrix as an object giving rise to
several determinants today called minors, that is to say, determinants of smaller matrices that
derive from the original one by removing columns and rows. In an 1851 paper, Sylvester
explains:[109]

I have in previous papers defined a "Matrix" as a rectangular array of terms, out of which
different systems of determinants may be engendered from the womb of a common
parent.

Arthur Cayley published a treatise on geometric transformations using matrices that were
not rotated versions of the coefficients being investigated as had previously been done.

22
Instead, he defined operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as
transformations of those matrices and showed the associative and distributive properties
held. Cayley investigated and demonstrated the non-commutative property of matrix
multiplication as well as the commutative property of matrix addition.[104] Early matrix
theory had limited the use of arrays almost exclusively to determinants and Arthur Cayley's
abstract matrix operations were revolutionary. He was instrumental in proposing a matrix
concept independent of equation systems. In 1858 Cayley published his A memoir on the
theory of matrices[110][111] in which he proposed and demonstrated the Cayley–Hamilton
theorem.[104]
The English mathematician Cuthbert Edmund Cullis was the first to use modern bracket
notation for matrices in 1913 and he simultaneously demonstrated the first significant use of
the notation A = [a I,j] to represent a matrix where a I,j refers to the ith row and the jth
column.[104]
The modern study of determinants sprang from several sources.[112] Number-theoretical
problems led Gauss to relate coefficients of quadratic forms, that is, expressions such as x2 +
xy − 2y2, and linear maps in three dimensions to matrices. Eisenstein further developed these
notions, including the remark that, in modern parlance, matrix products are non-
commutative. Cauchy was the first to prove general statements about determinants, using as
the definition of the determinant of a matrix A = [a i,j] the following: replace the powers ajk
by a jk in the polynomial

s
real.[113] Jacobi studied "functional determinants"—later called Jacobi determinants by
Sylvester—which can be used to describe geometric transformations at a local (or
infinitesimal) level, see above. Kronecker's Vorlesungen über die Theorie der
Determinanten[114] and Weierstrass' Zur Determinantentheorie,[115] both published in 1903,
first treated determinants axiomatically, as opposed to previous more concrete approaches
such as the mentioned formula of Cauchy. At that point, determinants were firmly
established.
Many theorems were first established for small matrices only, for example, the Cayley–
Hamilton theorem was proved for 2×2 matrices by Cayley in the aforementioned memoir,
and by Hamilton for 4×4 matrices. Frobenius, working on bilinear forms, generalized the
theorem to all dimensions (1898). Also at the end of the 19th century, the Gauss–Jordan
elimination (generalizing a special case now known as Gauss elimination) was established
by Wilhelm Jordan. In the early 20th century, matrices attained a central role in linear
algebra,[116] partially due to their use in the classification of the hypercomplex number
systems of the previous century.

The inception of matrix mechanics by Heisenberg, Born and Jordan led to studying matrices
with infinitely many rows and columns.[117] Later, von Neumann carried out the
mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, by further developing functional analytic
23
notions such as linear operators on Hilbert spaces, which, very roughly speaking, correspond
to Euclidean space, but with an infinity of independent directions.

Other historical usages of the word "matrix" in mathematics

The word has been used in unusual ways by at least two authors of historical importance.
Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead in their Principia Mathematica (1910–1913)
use the word "matrix" in the context of their axiom of reducibility. They proposed this axiom
as a means to reduce any function to one of lower type, successively, so that at the "bottom"
(0 order) the function is identical to its extension:[118]

Let us give the name of matrix to any function, of however many variables, that does
not involve any apparent variables. Then, any possible function other than a matrix
derives from a matrix using generalization, that is, by considering the proposition that
the function in question is true with all possible values or with some value of one of
the arguments, the other argument or arguments remaining undetermined.

For example, a function Φ(x, y) of two variables x and y can be reduced to a collection of
functions of a single variable, for example, y, by "considering" the function for all possible
values of "individuals" ai substituted in place of a variable x. And then the resulting
collection of functions of the single variable y, that is, ∀ai: Φ(ai, y), can be reduced to a
"matrix" of values by "considering" the function for all possible values of "individuals" bi
substituted in place of variable y:

∀bj∀ai: Φ(ai, bj).

Alfred Tarski in his 1946 Introduction to Logic used the word "matrix" synonymously with
the notion of truth table as used in mathematical logic.[119]

See also

Mathematics
portal
List of named matrices
Algebraic multiplicity – Multiplicity of an eigenvalue as a root of the characteristic
polynomial
Geometric multiplicity – Dimension of the eigenspace associated with an eigenvalue
Gram–Schmidt process – Orthonormalization of a set of vectors
Irregular matrix
Matrix calculus – Specialized notation for multivariable calculus
Matrix function – Function that maps matrices to matrices
Matrix multiplication algorithm

24
 Tensor — A generalization of matrices with any number of indices
Bohemian matrices – Set of matrices
Category of matrices — The algebraic structure formed by matrices and their
multiplication

Notes

1. However, in the case of adjacency matrices, matrix multiplication or a variant of it allows

the simultaneous computation of the number of paths between any two vertices, and of
the shortest length of a path between two vertices.
2. Lang 2002
3. Fraleigh (1976, p. 209)
4. Nering (1970, p. 37)
5. Weisstein, Eric W. "Matrix" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Matrix.html).
mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
6. Oualline 2003, Ch. 5
7. Pop; Furdui (2017). Square Matrices of Order 2. Springer International Publishing. ISBN
978-3-319-54938-5.
8. Brown 1991, Definition I.2.1 (addition), Definition I.2.4 (scalar multiplication), and
Definition I.2.33 (transpose)
9. Brown 1991, Theorem I.2.6
10. "How to Multiply Matrices" (https://mathsisfun.com/algebra/matrix-multiplying.html).
www.mathsisfun.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
11. Brown 1991, Definition I.2.20
12. Brown 1991, Theorem I.2.24
13. Horn & Johnson 1985, Ch. 4 and 5
14. Bronson (1970, p. 16)
15. Kreyszig (1972, p. 220)
16. Protter & Morrey (1970, p. 869)
17. Kreyszig (1972, pp. 241, 244)
18. Schneider, Hans; Barker, George Phillip (2012), Matrices and Linear Algebra
(https://books.google.com/books?id =9vjBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA251), Dover Books on
Mathematics, Courier Dover Corporation, p. 251, ISBN 978-0486-13930-2.
19. Perlis, Sam (1991), Theory of Matrices
(https://books.google.com/books?id=5_sxtcnvLhoC&pg=PA103), Dover books on
advanced mathematics, Courier Dover Corporation, p. 103, ISBN 978-0-486-66810-9.
20. Anton, Howard (2010), Elementary Linear Algebra
(https://books.google.com/books?id=YmcQJoFyZ5gC&pg=PA 414) (10th ed.), John
Wiley & Sons, p. 414, ISBN 978-0-470-45821-1.
21. Horn, Roger A.; Johnson, Charles R. (2012), Matrix Analysis
(https://books.google.com/books?id=5I5AYeeh0JU C&pg=PA17) (2nd ed.), Cambridge
University Press, p. 17, ISBN 978-0-521-83940-2.

25
22. Brown 1991, I.2.21 and 22
23. Greub 1975, Section III.2
24. Brown 1991, Definition II.3.3
25. Greub 1975, Section III.1
26. Brown 1991, Theorem II.3.22
27. Horn & Johnson 1985, Theorem 2.5.6
28. Brown 1991, Definition I.2.28
29. Brown 1991, Definition I.5.13
30. Horn & Johnson 1985, Chapter 7
31. Horn & Johnson 1985, Theorem 7.2.1
32. Horn & Johnson 1985, Example 4.0.6, p. 169
33. "Matrix | mathematics" (https://britannica.com/science/matrix-mathematics).
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
34. Brown 1991, Definition III.2.1
35. Brown 1991, Theorem III.2.12
36. Brown 1991, Corollary III.2.16
37. Mirsky 1990, Theorem 1.4.1
38. Brown 1991, Theorem III.3.18
39. Eigen means "own" in German and in Dutch.
40. Brown 1991, Definition III.4.1
41. Brown 1991, Definition III.4.9
42. Brown 1991, Corollary III.4.10
43. Householder 1975, Ch. 7
44. Bau III & Trefethen 1997
45. Golub & Van Loan 1996, Algorithm 1.3.1
46. Golub & Van Loan 1996, Chapters 9 and 10, esp. section 10.2
47. Golub & Van Loan 1996, Chapter 2.3
48. Grcar, Joseph F. (2011-01-01). "John von Neumann's Analysis of Gaussian Elimination
and the Origins of Modern Numerical Analysis"
(https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/080734716). SIAM Review. 53 (4): 607–682.
doi:10.1137/080734716 (https://doi.org/10.1137%2F080734716). ISSN 0036-1445
(https://www.worldcat.org/iss n/0036-1445).
49. For example, Mathematica, see Wolfram 2003, Ch. 3.7
50. Press, Flannery & Teukolsky et al. 1992
51. Stoer & Bulirsch 2002, Section 4.1
52. Horn & Johnson 1985, Theorem 2.5.4
53. Horn & Johnson 1985, Ch. 3.1, 3.2
54. Arnold & Cooke 1992, Sections 14.5, 7, 8
55. Bronson 1989, Ch. 15
56. Coburn 1955, Ch. V

26
57. Lang 2002, Chapter XIII
58. Lang 2002, XVII.1, p. 643
59. Lang 2002, Proposition XIII.4.16
60. Reichl 2004, Section L.2
61. Greub 1975, Section III.3
62. Greub 1975, Section III.3.13
63. Perrone (2024), pp. 99–100
64. See any standard reference in a group.
65. Additionally, the group must be closed in the general linear group.
66. Baker 2003, Def. 1.30
67. Baker 2003, Theorem 1.2
68. Artin 1991, Chapter 4.5
69. Rowen 2008, Example 19.2, p. 198
70. See any reference in representation theory or group representation.
71. See the item "Matrix" in Itõ, ed. 1987
72. "Not much of matrix theory carries over to infinite-dimensional spaces, and what does is
not so useful, but it sometimes helps." Halmos 1982, p. 23, Chapter 5
73. "Empty Matrix: A matrix is empty if either its row or column dimension is zero", Glossary
(https://omatrix.com/man ual/glossary.htm) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20090429015728/http://www.omatrix.com/manual/glossa
ry.htm) 2009-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, O-Matrix v6 User Guide
74. "A matrix having at least one dimension equal to zero is called an empty matrix",
MATLAB Data Structures (http
s://system.nada.kth.se/unix/software/matlab/Release_14.1/techdoc/matlab_prog/ch_dat2
9.html) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20091228102653/http://www.system.nada.kth.se/unix/software/m
atlab/Release_14.1/techd oc/matlab_prog/ch_dat29.html) 2009-12-28 at the Wayback
Machine
75. Fudenberg & Tirole 1983, Section 1.1.1
76. Manning 1999, Section 15.3.4
77. Ward 1997, Ch. 2.8
78. Stinson 2005, Ch. 1.1.5 and 1.2.4
79. Association for Computing Machinery 1979, Ch. 7
80. Godsil & Royle 2004, Ch. 8.1
81. Punnen 2002
82. Lang 1987a, Ch. XVI.6
83. Nocedal 2006, Ch. 16
84. Lang 1987a, Ch. XVI.1
85. Lang 1987a, Ch. XVI.5. For a more advanced, and more general statement see Lang 1969,
Ch. VI.2 86. Gilbarg & Trudinger 2001
87. Šolin 2005, Ch. 2.5. See also stiffness method.

27
88. Latouche & Ramaswami 1999
89. Mehata & Srinivasan 1978, Ch. 2.8
90. Healy, Michael (1986), Matrices for Statistics, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-
850702-4
91. Krzanowski 1988, Ch. 2.2., p. 60
92. Krzanowski 1988, Ch. 4.1
93. Conrey 2007
94. Zabrodin, Brezin & Kazakov et al. 2006
95. Itzykson & Zuber 1980, Ch. 2
96. see Burgess & Moore 2007, section 1.6.3. (SU(3)), section 2.4.3.2. (Kobayashi–Maskawa
matrix)
97. Schiff 1968, Ch. 6
98. Bohm 2001, sections II.4 and II.8
99. Weinberg 1995, Ch. 3
100. Wherrett 1987, part II
101. Riley, Hobson & Bence 1997, 7.17
102. Guenther 1990, Ch. 5
103. Shen, Crossley & Lun 1999 cited by Bretscher 2005, p. 1
104. Discrete Mathematics 4th Ed. Dossey, Otto, Spense, Vanden Eynden, Published by
Addison Wesley, October 10, 2001 ISBN 978-0-321-07912-1, p. 564-565
105. Needham, Joseph; Wang Ling (1959). Science and Civilisation in China
(https://books.google.com/books?id=jfQ 9E0u4pLAC&pg=PA117). Vol. III. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-521-05801-8.
106. Discrete Mathematics 4th Ed. Dossey, Otto, Spense, Vanden Eynden, Published by
Addison Wesley, October 10, 2001 ISBN 978-0-321-07912-1, p. 564
107. Merriam-Webster dictionary (https://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/matrix), Merriam-
Webster, retrieved April 20, 2009
108. Although many sources state that J. J. Sylvester coined the mathematical term "matrix"
in 1848, Sylvester published nothing in 1848. (For proof that Sylvester published nothing
in 1848, see J. J. Sylvester with H. F. Baker, ed., The Collected Mathematical Papers of
James Joseph Sylvester (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1904), vol.
1. (https://books.google.com/books?id=r-kZAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR6)) His earliest use of
the term "matrix" occurs in 1850 in J. J. Sylvester (1850) "Additions to the articles in the
September number of this journal, "On a new class of theorems," and on Pascal's
theorem," The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of
Science, 37: 363-370. From page 369 (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=CBhDAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA369): "For this purpose, we must commence, not with a
square, but with an oblong arrangement of terms consisting, suppose, of m lines and n
columns. This does not in itself represent a determinant, but is, as it were, a Matrix out
of which we may form various systems of determinants ... "

28
109. The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester: 1837–1853, Paper 37
(https://books.google.co m/books?id=5GQPlxWrDiEC&pg=PA247), p. 247
110. Phil.Trans. 1858, vol.148, pp.17-37 Math. Papers II 475-496
111. Dieudonné, ed. 1978, Vol. 1, Ch. III, p. 96
112. Knobloch 1994
113. Hawkins 1975
114. Kronecker 1897
115. Weierstrass 1915, pp. 271–286
116. Bôcher 2004
117. Mehra & Rechenberg 1987
118. Whitehead, Alfred North; and Russell, Bertrand (1913) Principia Mathematica to *56,
Cambridge at the University Press, Cambridge UK (republished 1962) cf page 162ff.
119. Tarski, Alfred; (1946) Introduction to Logic and the Methodology of Deductive Sciences,
Dover Publications, Inc, New York NY, ISBN 0-486-28462-X.

References
Anton, Howard (1987), Elementary Linear Algebra (5th ed.), New York: Wiley, ISBN 0-
471-84819-0
Arnold, Vladimir I.; Cooke, Roger (1992), Ordinary differential equations, Berlin, DE;
New York, NY: SpringerVerlag, ISBN 978-3-540-54813-3
Artin, Michael (1991), Algebra, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-89871-510-1
Association for Computing Machinery (1979), Computer Graphics, Tata McGraw–Hill,
ISBN 978-0-07-059376-3
Baker, Andrew J. (2003), Matrix Groups: An Introduction to Lie Group Theory
(https://archive.org/details/matrixgro upsintr0000bake), Berlin, DE; New York, NY:
Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-1-85233-470-3
Bau III, David; Trefethen, Lloyd N. (1997), Numerical linear algebra, Philadelphia, PA:
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, ISBN 978-0-89871-361-9
Beauregard, Raymond A.; Fraleigh, John B. (1973), A First Course In Linear Algebra:
with Optional Introduction to Groups, Rings, and Fields
(https://archive.org/details/firstcourseinlin0000beau), Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
ISBN 0-395-14017-X

29
 Bretscher, Otto (2005), Linear Algebra with Applications (3rd ed.), Prentice Hall
Bronson, Richard (1970), Matrix Methods: An Introduction, New York: Academic Press,
LCCN 70097490 (https://l ccn.loc.gov/70097490)
Bronson, Richard (1989), Schaum's outline of theory and problems of matrix
operations, New York: McGraw–Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-007978-6
Brown, William C. (1991), Matrices and vector spaces
(https://archive.org/details/matricesvectorsp0000brow), New York, NY: Marcel Dekker,
ISBN 978-0-8247-8419-5
Coburn, Nathaniel (1955), Vector and tensor analysis, New York, NY: Macmillan, OCLC
1029828 (https://www.w orldcat.org/oclc/1029828)
Conrey, J. Brian (2007), Ranks of elliptic curves and random matrix theory,
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-69964-8
Fraleigh, John B. (1976), A First Course In Abstract Algebra (2nd ed.), Reading:
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-20101984-1
Fudenberg, Drew; Tirole, Jean (1983), Game Theory, MIT Press
Gilbarg, David; Trudinger, Neil S. (2001), Elliptic partial differential equations of second
order (2nd ed.), Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-3-540-41160-4
Godsil, Chris; Royle, Gordon (2004), Algebraic Graph Theory, Graduate Texts in
Mathematics, vol. 207, Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-
95220-8
Golub, Gene H.; Van Loan, Charles F. (1996), Matrix Computations (3rd ed.), Johns
Hopkins, ISBN 978-0-80185414-9
Greub, Werner Hildbert (1975), Linear algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, Berlin,
DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-90110-7
Halmos, Paul Richard (1982), A Hilbert space problem book, Graduate Texts in
Mathematics, vol. 19 (2nd ed.), Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-
0-387-90685-0, MR 0675952 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/ mathscinet-
getitem?mr=0675952)
Horn, Roger A.; Johnson, Charles R. (1985), Matrix Analysis, Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 978-0-52138632-6
Householder, Alston S. (1975), The theory of matrices in numerical analysis, New York,
NY: Dover Publications, MR 0378371 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-
getitem?mr=0378371)
Kreyszig, Erwin (1972), Advanced Engineering Mathematics
(https://archive.org/details/advancedengineer00kre y) (3rd ed.), New York: Wiley, ISBN
0-471-50728-8.
Krzanowski, Wojtek J. (1988), Principles of multivariate analysis, Oxford Statistical
Science Series, vol. 3, The Clarendon Press Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-
852211-9, MR 0969370 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/m athscinet-getitem?mr=0969370)
Itô, Kiyosi, ed. (1987), Encyclopedic dictionary of mathematics. Vol. I-IV (2nd ed.),
MIT Press, ISBN 978-0-262-
09026-1, MR 0901762 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=0901762)
Lang, Serge (1969), Analysis II, Addison-Wesley

30
Lang, Serge (1987a), Calculus of several variables
(https://archive.org/details/calculusofsevera0000lang) (3rd ed.), Berlin, DE; New
York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-96405-8
Lang, Serge (1987b), Linear algebra, Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN
978-0-387-96412-6
Lang, Serge (2002), Algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 211 (Revised third
ed.), New York: Springer-
Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-95385-4, MR 1878556 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-
getitem?mr=1878556)
Latouche, Guy; Ramaswami, Vaidyanathan (1999), Introduction to matrix analytic
methods in stochastic modeling (1st ed.), Philadelphia, PA: Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics, ISBN 978-0-89871-425-8
Manning, Christopher D.; Schütze, Hinrich (1999), Foundations of statistical natural
language processing, MIT Press, ISBN 978-0-262-13360-9
Mehata, K. M.; Srinivasan, S. K. (1978), Stochastic processes, New York, NY: McGraw–
Hill, ISBN 978-0-07096612-3
Mirsky, Leonid (1990), An Introduction to Linear Algebra
(https://books.google.com/books?id=ULMmheb26ZcC&
q=linear+algebra+determinant&pg=PA1), Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 978-0-486-
66434-7
Nering, Evar D. (1970), Linear Algebra and Matrix Theory (2nd ed.), New York: Wiley,
LCCN 76-91646 (https://lcc n.loc.gov/76-91646)
Nocedal, Jorge; Wright, Stephen J. (2006), Numerical Optimization (2nd ed.), Berlin, DE;
New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, p. 449, ISBN 978-0-387-30303-1
Oualline, Steve (2003), Practical C++ programming, O'Reilly, ISBN 978-0-596-00419-
4
Perrone, Paolo (2024), Starting Category Theory
(https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/1367 0), World Scientific,
doi:10.1142/9789811286018_0005
(https://doi.org/10.1142%2F9789811286018_0005), ISBN 978-981-12-8600-1
Press, William H.; Flannery, Brian P.; Teukolsky, Saul A.; Vetterling, William T. (1992),
"LU Decomposition and Its Applications"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20090906113144/http://www.mpi-
hd.mpg.de/astrophysik/HEA/interna l/Numerical_Recipes/f2-3.pdf) (PDF), Numerical
Recipes in FORTRAN: The Art of Scientific Computing (2nd ed.), Cambridge University
Press, pp. 34–42, archived from the original on 2009-09-06

31
 Protter, Murray H.; Morrey, Charles B. Jr. (1970), College Calculus with Analytic
Geometry (2nd ed.), Reading: Addison-Wesley, LCCN 76087042
(https://lccn.loc.gov/76087042)
Punnen, Abraham P.; Gutin, Gregory (2002), The traveling salesman problem and its
variations, Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1-4020-0664-7
Reichl, Linda E. (2004), The transition to chaos: conservative classical systems and
quantum manifestations,
Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-98788-0
Rowen, Louis Halle (2008), Graduate Algebra: noncommutative view, Providence, RI:
American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-4153-2
Šolin, Pavel (2005), Partial Differential Equations and the Finite Element Method,
Wiley-Interscience, ISBN 9780-471-76409-0
Stinson, Douglas R. (2005), Cryptography, Discrete Mathematics and its Applications,
Chapman & Hall/CRC, ISBN 978-1-58488-508-5
Stoer, Josef; Bulirsch, Roland (2002), Introduction to Numerical Analysis (3rd ed.),
Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-95452-3
Ward, J. P. (1997), Quaternions and Cayley numbers
(https://archive.org/details/quaternionscayle0000ward),
Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 403, Dordrecht, NL: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Group, doi:10.1007/97894-011-5768-1 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-94-011-5768-1),
ISBN 978-0-7923-4513-8, MR 1458894 (https:// mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-
getitem?mr=1458894)
Wolfram, Stephen (2003), The Mathematica Book (5th ed.), Champaign, IL: Wolfram
Media, ISBN 978-1-57955022-6

Physics references
Bohm, Arno (2001), Quantum Mechanics: Foundations and Applications, Springer,
ISBN 0-387-95330-2
Burgess, Cliff; Moore, Guy (2007), The Standard Model. A Primer, Cambridge
University Press, ISBN 978-0-52186036-9
Guenther, Robert D. (1990), Modern Optics, John Wiley, ISBN 0-471-60538-7
Itzykson, Claude; Zuber, Jean-Bernard (1980), Quantum Field Theory
(https://archive.org/details/quantumfieldthe o0000itzy), McGraw–Hill, ISBN 0-07-
032071-3
Riley, Kenneth F.; Hobson, Michael P.; Bence, Stephen J. (1997), Mathematical methods
for physics and engineering, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-55506-X
Schiff, Leonard I. (1968), Quantum Mechanics (3rd ed.), McGraw–Hill
Weinberg, Steven (1995), The Quantum Theory of Fields. Volume I: Foundations
(https://archive.org/details/quan tumtheoryoff00stev), Cambridge University Press, ISBN
0-521-55001-7
Wherrett, Brian S. (1987), Group Theory for Atoms, Molecules and Solids, Prentice–Hall
International, ISBN 013-365461-3

32
 Zabrodin, Anton; Brezin, Édouard; Kazakov, Vladimir; Serban, Didina; Wiegmann, Paul
(2006), Applications of
Random Matrices in Physics (NATO Science Series II: Mathematics, Physics and
Chemistry), Berlin, DE; New
York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-1-4020-4530-1

Historical references
A. Cayley A memoir on the theory of matrices. Phil. Trans. 148 1858 17–37; Math. Papers
II 475–496
Bôcher, Maxime (2004), Introduction to higher algebra, New York, NY: Dover
Publications, ISBN 978-0-48649570-5, reprint of the 1907 original edition
Cayley, Arthur (1889), The collected mathematical papers of Arthur Cayley
(https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/p ageviewer-
idx?c=umhistmath;cc=umhistmath;rgn=full%20text;idno=ABS3153.0001.001;didno=A
BS3153.0001.0 01;view=image;seq=00000140), vol. I (1841–1853), Cambridge
University Press, pp. 123–126
Dieudonné, Jean, ed. (1978), Abrégé d'histoire des mathématiques 1700-1900, Paris,
FR: Hermann
Hawkins, Thomas (1975), "Cauchy and the spectral theory of matrices", Historia
Mathematica, 2: 1–29, doi:10.1016/0315-0860(75)90032-4
(https://doi.org/10.1016%2F0315-0860%2875%2990032-4), ISSN 03150860
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0315-0860), MR 0469635
(https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr =0469635)
Knobloch, Eberhard (1994), "From Gauss to Weierstrass: determinant theory and its
historical evaluations", The intersection of history and mathematics, Science Networks
Historical Studies, vol. 15, Basel, Boston, Berlin: Birkhäuser, pp. 51–66, MR 1308079
(https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?mr=1308079)
Kronecker, Leopold (1897), Hensel, Kurt (ed.), Leopold Kronecker's Werke
(https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/te xt-
idx?c=umhistmath;idno=AAS8260.0002.001), Teubner
Mehra, Jagdish; Rechenberg, Helmut (1987), The Historical Development of Quantum
Theory (1st ed.), Berlin, DE; New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-387-96284-9
Shen, Kangshen; Crossley, John N.; Lun, Anthony Wah-Cheung (1999), Nine Chapters
of the Mathematical Art, Companion and Commentary (2nd ed.), Oxford University
Press, ISBN 978-0-19-853936-0
Weierstrass, Karl (1915), Collected works (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-
idx?c=umhistmath;idno=AAN
8481.0003.001), vol. 3

Further reading
"Matrix" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Matrix), Encyclopedia
of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994]

33
 Kaw, Autar K. (September 2008), Introduction to Matrix Algebra
(https://autarkaw.com/books/matrixalgebra/index. html), Lulu.com, ISBN 978-0-615-
25126-4
The Matrix Cookbook (https://math.uwaterloo.ca/~hwolkowi//matrixcookbook.pdf)
(PDF), retrieved 24 March 2014
Brookes, Mike (2005), The Matrix Reference Manual
(https://ee.ic.ac.uk/hp/staff/dmb/matrix/intro.html), London:
Imperial College, retrieved 10 Dec 2008

External links
MacTutor: Matrices and determinants (https://mathshistory.st-
andrews.ac.uk/Miller/mathsym/matrices/l)
Matrices and Linear Algebra on the Earliest Uses Pages
(https://economics.soton.ac.uk/staff/aldrich/matrices.ht m)
Earliest Uses of Symbols for Matrices and Vectors
(https://jeff560.tripod.com/matrices.html)

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Matrix_(mathematics)&oldid=1232017931"

34