Zero forcing for sign patterns

Abstract

We introduce a new variant of zero forcing - signed zero forcing. The classical zero forcing number provides an upper bound on the maximum nullity of a matrix with a given graph (i.e. zero-nonzero pattern). Our new variant provides an analo- gous bound for the maximum nullity of a matrix with a given sign pattern. This allows us to compute, for instance, the maximum nullity of a Z-matrix whose graph is L(K_{n}), the line graph of a clique.