On Gaussian elimination and determinant formulas for matrices with chordal inverses

Abstract

In this paper a formula is obtained for the entries of the diagonal factor in the U D L factorisation of an invertible operator matrix in the case when its inverse has a chordal graph. As a consequence, in the finite dimensional case a determinant formula is obtained in terms of some key principal minors. After a cancellation process this formula leads to a determinant formula from an earlier paper by W.W. Barrett and C.R. Johnson, deriving in this way a different and shorter proof of their result. Finally, an algorithmic method of constructing minimal vertex separators of chordal graphs is presented.