[Math] formula for the inverse of Hadamard product

hadamard-productlinear algebramatrices

Say $A$ and $B$ are two square, positive-semidefinite matrices. Is there an expression in terms of matrix product, transpose, and inverse for the Hadamard product $A∘B$?

For example, "$(A∘B)^{-1} = A^{-1} ∘ B^{-1}$" (which is not true).

Edit: I understand that $A∘B$ may not be invertible, but is there any expression if invertibility is given?

Best Answer

There won't be such a formula. In fact, if $A$ and $B$ are invertible, we can't guarantee that $A\circ B$ will even have an inverse. In particular, consider $$ A = \pmatrix{1&0\\0&1}, \quad B = \pmatrix{0&1\\1&0} $$ we note that $A=A^{-1}$ and $B = B^{-1}$, but $A\circ B = 0$.


It is often, however, useful to consider the Hadamard product as a submatrix of the Kronecker product. For the Kronecker product, we have $$ (A \otimes B)^{-1} = A^{-1} \otimes B^{-1} $$