Copositive cone (${\mathrm{COP}}_n$)

The real symmetric matrices that are copositive matrices form a closed convex cone:Each fixed $x$ gives a closed linear inequality in $A$. Their intersection is therefore closed and convex, and it is preserved by nonnegative scaling.

Under the nonnegative-pairing convention for the dual cone, ${\mathrm{CP}}_n^{\ast }={\mathrm{COP}}_n$ follows from $⟨A,x{x}^T{⟩}_F=x^{T}Ax$. Conversely, if $B\notin {\mathrm{CP}}_n$, separation from a closed convex cone gives a separating $A$ nonnegative on all generators and negative on $B$. That $A$ is a copositive matrix, so $B\notin {\mathrm{COP}}_n^{\ast }$. This proves the displayed equality using closedness of the completely positive cone.

The interior consists exactly of strictly copositive matrices. If $x^{T}Ax$ has positive minimum $\delta$ on the compact nonnegative unit sphere, perturbations of operator norm less than $\delta$ preserve this positive lower bound there. Conversely, if a unit nonnegative vector has zero quadratic form, $A-\epsilon I$ leaves the copositive cone for every $\epsilon >0$. Thus such a matrix is not interior. The identity matrix is a convenient interior point.

The sums $P+N$ of a real positive semidefinite matrix $P$ and a symmetric nonnegative matrix $N$ form a convex cone inside the copositive cone. Both terms have nonnegative quadratic forms on the nonnegative orthant. The Horn copositive matrix shows that the inclusion is strict in dimension five; the sum of squares criterion for a biquadratic form explains this cone's relation to semidefinite programming.