 Hilbert matrix

A real symmetric matrix whose entries are the moments $H_{ij}={\int }_0^1{x}^{i-1}{x}^{j-1}dx$. Thus it is the Gram matrix of the monomials in the real L2 inner product on $[0,1]$. For a nonzero real coefficient vector $v$, $v^{T}Hv={\int }_0^1({\sum }_i{v}_i{x}^{i-1}{)}^{2}dx>0$, so every finite Hilbert matrix is positive-definite. The moment description connects these matrices with polynomial approximation and with the shifted Hilbert quadratic-form bound.

A Hilbert matrix is a specific type of square matrix that is very well-known in numerical analysis and approximation theory.