On the Combinatorial Compound Matrix

Abstract:

      We define the r^th combinatorial compound C_r^*(A) of a matrix A, which can be viewed as the characteristic function of the subset of the rxr submatrices of A which are combinatorially nonsingular. We prove that for 1≤rr^*(A)is. We determine the minimum number of 2×2 and 3×3 combinatorially nonsingular submatrices over all n×n fully indecomposable matrices and make a jecture for general r.