Sparsity structure and Gaussian elimination

Abstract

In this paper we collate and discuss some results on the sparsity structure of a matrix. If a matrix is irreducible, Gaussian elimination yields an LU factorization in which L has at least one entry beneath the diagonal in every column except the last and U has at least one entry to the right of the diagonal in every row except the last. If this factorization is used to solve the equation Ax=b, the intermediate vector has an entry in its last component and the solution x is full. Furthermore, the inverse of A is full.Where the matrix is reducible, these results are applicable to the diagonal blocks of its block triangular form.