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## 10.11 Cholesky Factors of Covariance Matrices

An $$M \times M$$ covariance matrix $$\Sigma$$ can be Cholesky factored to a lower triangular matrix $$L$$ such that $$L\,L^{\top} = \Sigma$$. If $$\Sigma$$ is positive definite, then $$L$$ will be $$M \times M$$. If $$\Sigma$$ is only positive semi-definite, then $$L$$ will be $$M \times N$$, with $$N < M$$.

A matrix is a Cholesky factor for a covariance matrix if and only if it is lower triangular, the diagonal entries are positive, and $$M \geq N$$. A matrix satisfying these conditions ensures that $$L \, L^{\top}$$ is positive semi-definite if $$M > N$$ and positive definite if $$M = N$$.

A Cholesky factor of a covariance matrix requires $$N + \binom{N}{2} + (M - N)N$$ unconstrained parameters.

### Cholesky Factor of Covariance Matrix Transform

Stan’s Cholesky factor transform only requires the first step of the covariance matrix transform, namely log transforming the positive diagonal elements. Suppose $$x$$ is an $$M \times N$$ Cholesky factor. The above-diagonal entries are zero, the diagonal entries are positive, and the below-diagonal entries are unconstrained. The transform required is thus

$y_{m,n} = \left\{ \begin{array}{cl} 0 & \mbox{if } m < n, \\ \log x_{m,m} & \mbox{if } m = n, \mbox{ and} \\ x_{m,n} & \mbox{if } m > n. \end{array} \right.$

### Cholesky Factor of Covariance Matrix Inverse Transform

The inverse transform need only invert the logarithm with an exponentiation. If $$y$$ is the unconstrained matrix representation, then the elements of the constrained matrix $$x$$ is defined by

$x_{m,n} = \left\{ \begin{array}{cl} 0 & \mbox{if } m < n, \\ \exp(y_{m,m}) & \mbox{if } m = n, \mbox{ and} \\ y_{m,n} & \mbox{if } m > n. \end{array} \right.$

### Absolute Jacobian Determinant of Cholesky Factor Inverse Transform

The transform has a diagonal Jacobian matrix, the absolute determinant of which is

$\prod_{n=1}^N \frac{\partial}{\partial_{y_{n,n}}} \, \exp(y_{n,n}) \ = \ \prod_{n=1}^N \exp(y_{n,n}) \ = \ \prod_{n=1}^N x_{n,n}.$

Let $$x = f^{-1}(y)$$ be the inverse transform from a $$N + \binom{N}{2} + (M - N)N$$ vector to an $$M \times N$$ Cholesky factor for a covariance matrix $$x$$ defined in the previous section. A density function $$p_X(x)$$ defined on $$M \times N$$ Cholesky factors of covariance matrices is transformed to the density $$p_Y(y)$$ over $$N + \binom{N}{2} + (M - N)N$$ vectors $$y$$ by

$p_Y(y) = p_X(f^{-1}(y)) \prod_{N=1}^N x_{n,n}.$