A real symmetric matrix is copositive if its quadratic form satisfies for every in the nonnegative orthant. Every positive semidefinite matrix and every symmetric nonnegative matrix is copositive, as is their sum. The converse fails for the Horn copositive matrix.
The five-dimensional Horn copositive matrix has diagonal entries , entries on the edges of the five-cycle, and entries on the remaining pairs:
For , a cyclic relabelling puts a smallest coordinate at . The identity
then proves that is a copositive matrix.
However, is outside the positive-semidefinite-plus-nonnegative cone. Set . Its quadratic form is zero. If with a positive semidefinite matrix and a symmetric nonnegative matrix, both and must vanish. Positivity of the first three coordinates of forces every entry of the leading block of to vanish. Applying the argument to all cyclic shifts of forces every entry of to vanish, since each pair of indices lies in a cyclic interval of length three. This would make a positive semidefinite matrix, but zero quadratic form of a positive semidefinite matrix would then give , whereas .

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A **copositive matrix** is a special type of matrix that arises in the context of optimization and mathematical programming, particularly in the study of quadratic forms and convexity. A symmetric matrix \( A \) is said to be copositive if for any vector \( x \) in the non-negative orthant \( \mathbb{R}^n_+ \) (i.e.