Complementarity properties of singular M-matrices

Abstract

For a matrix A whose off-diagonal entries are nonpositive, its nonnegative invertibility (namely, that A is an invertible M-matrix) is equivalent to A being a P-matrix, which is necessary and sufficient for the unique solvability of the linear complementarity problem defined by A. This, in turn, is equivalent to the statement that A is strictly semimonotone. In this paper, an analogue of this result is proved for singular symmetric Z-matrices. This is achieved by replacing the inverse of A by the group generalized inverse and by introducing the matrix classes of strictly range semimonotonicity and range column sufficiency. A recently proposed idea of P<inf>#</inf>-matrices plays a pivotal role. Some interconnections between these matrix classes are also obtained. © 2016 Elsevier Inc.