Structure-Informed Bounds on the Kronecker Rank of Block-Structured Matrices

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Fuller, Allison, Español, Malena, Kilmer, Misha
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Fuller, Allison
Español, Malena
Kilmer, Misha
author_facet Fuller, Allison
Español, Malena
Kilmer, Misha
contents We derive theoretical bounds on the Kronecker rank of block-structured matrices that possess both inner and outer structure. Building on the matrix-to-tensor and tensor-to-matrix framework of Kilmer and Saibaba ($\textit{SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl.}$, 2022), we show that the Kronecker rank of a matrix $\mathbf{A}$ equals the dimension of the span of its distinct blocks (the $\textit{inner blockspan}$), and equals as well the dimension of the corresponding span for a permuted matrix $\mathbf{B}$ whose inner and outer structures are interchanged. We give two proofs of this equality: one via a direct dimension argument, and one via an explicit isomorphism between the outer blockspan of $\mathbf{A}$ and the column space of the second-mode unfolding of the associated tensor. These results yield nested containments that translate structural information, such as Toeplitz, Hankel, banded, or sparse patterns, into computable upper bounds on the Kronecker rank. We also establish a duality between element-level sparsity in $\mathbf{A}$ and block-level sparsity in $\mathbf{B}$. Numerical experiments confirm the theory across several classes of structured matrices and, for two sparse matrices drawn from the SuiteSparse collection, provide a structural explanation for observed singular value decay.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_30908
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Structure-Informed Bounds on the Kronecker Rank of Block-Structured Matrices
Fuller, Allison
Español, Malena
Kilmer, Misha
Numerical Analysis
15A69, 65F50, 65F99
We derive theoretical bounds on the Kronecker rank of block-structured matrices that possess both inner and outer structure. Building on the matrix-to-tensor and tensor-to-matrix framework of Kilmer and Saibaba ($\textit{SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl.}$, 2022), we show that the Kronecker rank of a matrix $\mathbf{A}$ equals the dimension of the span of its distinct blocks (the $\textit{inner blockspan}$), and equals as well the dimension of the corresponding span for a permuted matrix $\mathbf{B}$ whose inner and outer structures are interchanged. We give two proofs of this equality: one via a direct dimension argument, and one via an explicit isomorphism between the outer blockspan of $\mathbf{A}$ and the column space of the second-mode unfolding of the associated tensor. These results yield nested containments that translate structural information, such as Toeplitz, Hankel, banded, or sparse patterns, into computable upper bounds on the Kronecker rank. We also establish a duality between element-level sparsity in $\mathbf{A}$ and block-level sparsity in $\mathbf{B}$. Numerical experiments confirm the theory across several classes of structured matrices and, for two sparse matrices drawn from the SuiteSparse collection, provide a structural explanation for observed singular value decay.
title Structure-Informed Bounds on the Kronecker Rank of Block-Structured Matrices
topic Numerical Analysis
15A69, 65F50, 65F99
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30908