Positivity Criteria Generalizing the Leading Principal Minors Criterion

An n×n Hermitian matrix is positive definite if and only if all leading principal minors Δ₁, . . . ,Δ_n are positive. We show that certain sums δ _l of l × l principal minors can be used instead of Δ _l in this criterion. We describe all suitable sums δ _l for 3 × 3 Hermitian matrices. For an n×n Hermitian matrix A partitioned into blocks A _ij with square diagonal blocks, we prove that A is positive definite if and only if the following numbers σ _l are positive: σ _l is the sum of all l × l principal minors that contain the leading block submatrix [A _ij ] ^{k ?1} _{i,j =1} (if k > 1) and that are contained in [A _ij ] ^k _{i,j =1}, where k is the index of the block A _kk containing the (l, l) diagonal entry of A. We also prove that σ _l can be used instead of Δ _l in other inertia problems.