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.

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.