Banded Positive-Definite Matrix

DESCRIPTION:

This function is a constructor for the pdBand class, representing a banded positive-definite matrix. If the matrix associated with object is of dimension n and order r, it is represented by r*(2n-r+1)/2 unrestricted parameters, using the log-Cholesky parameterization described in Pinheiro and Bates (1996). When value is numeric(0) , an uninitialized pdMat object, a one-sided formula, or a vector of character strings, object is returned as an uninitialized pdBand object (with just some of its attributes and its class defined) and needs to have its coefficients assigned later, generally using the coef or matrix replacement functions. If value is an initialized pdMat object, object will be constructed from as.matrix(value) . Finally, if value is a numeric vector, it is assumed to represent the unrestricted coefficients of the log-Cholesky parameterization of the underlying positive-definite matrix.

USAGE:

pdBand(value, form, nam, data, ord) 

OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS:

value
an optional initialization value, which can be any of the following: a pdMat object, a positive-definite matrix, a one-sided linear formula (with variables separated by +), a vector of character strings, or a numeric vector. Defaults to numeric(0), corresponding to an uninitialized object.
form
an optional one-sided linear formula specifying the row/column names for the matrix represented by object. Because factors may be present in form, the formula needs to be evaluated on a data.frame to resolve the names it defines. This argument is ignored when value is a one-sided formula. Defaults to NULL.
nam
an optional vector of character strings specifying the row/column names for the matrix represented by object. It must have length equal to the dimension of the underlying positive-definite matrix and unreplicated elements. This argument is ignored when value is a vector of character strings. Defaults to NULL.
data
an optional data frame in which to evaluate the variables named in value and form. It is used to obtain the levels for factors, which affect the dimensions and the row/column names of the underlying matrix. If NULL, no attempt is made to obtain information on factors appearing in the formulas. Defaults to the parent frame from which the function was called.
ord
an optional integer specifying the order of the banded matrix represented by the returned pdBand object, defined as the number of nonzero diagonals in the upper-triangular part of the matrix. Defaults to 2.

VALUE:

a pdBand object representing a banded positive-definite matrix, also inheriting from class pdMat.

REFERENCES:

Pinheiro, J.C. and Bates., D.M. (1996) "Unconstrained Parametrizations for Variance-Covariance Matrices", Statistics and Computing, 6, 289-296.

SEE ALSO:

, ,

EXAMPLES:

pd1 <- pdBand(diag(1:3), nam = c("A","B","C")) 
pd1