Hadamard product as Projection of Tensor/Kronecker Product

hadamard-productkronecker productlinear algebratensor-products

The tensor product of matrices $A, B$ is the block matrix

$$A\otimes B = \begin{pmatrix}a_{11}B & a_{12}B&\dots\\ a_{21}B&a_{22}B&\dots\\
\vdots & \vdots&\ddots
\end{pmatrix}.$$

The Hadamard product $A\circ B$ is the matrix with $(i,j)$-entry $A_{ij}B_{ij}$.

It seems straightforward that we may write $A\circ B = P(A\otimes B)$ for $P$ an appropriate projection matrix.

Does this matrix $P$ have a common name?

Best Answer

Notation: Take $A,B$ to be both $m \times n$ matrices and let $e_1^{(n)},\dots,e_n^{(n)}$ denote the standard basis of $\Bbb R^n$.


You're not quite correct; note that $P(A \otimes B)$ will generally have the wrong number of columns. However, it is possible to write $A \circ B = P(A \otimes B)Q^T$ for an appropriate matrices $P,Q$ that satisfy $PP^T = I_m$ and $QQ^T = I_n$. In the case that $m = n$, we will have $P = Q$.

I don't know of any common name for these matrices. However, we can express $P,Q$ as the following sums: $$ P = \sum_{i=1}^m e_{i}^{(m)}[e_i^{(m)} \otimes e_i^{(m)}]^T, \quad Q = \sum_{i=1}^n e_{i}^{(n)}[e_i^{(n)} \otimes e_i^{(n)}]^T. $$

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