Rank-sum form of Cochran's theorem (${\sum }_i{A}_i=I,{\sum }_i\mathrm{rank}{A}_i=n$)

Let $A_i$ be real symmetric matrices with sum $I_n$. Their matrix ranks sum to at least $n$, because their ranges span ${\mathbb{R}}^n$. If the ranks sum to $n$, those ranges form a direct sum. For $y$ in the range of $A_i$, the identity $y={\sum }_j{A}_{j}y$ and uniqueness of its range decomposition imply $A_{j}y={\delta }_{ij}y$. Thus $A_i^2=A_i$ and $A_i{A}_j=0$ for $i\ne j$: the matrices are mutually orthogonal orthogonal projections. In a combined orthonormal basis, the forms $Z^T{A}_{i}Z$ for $Z\sim N_n(0,I_n)$ use disjoint sets of independent standard normal coordinates. They are independent chi-squared distributions with degrees of freedom equal to the ranks. Conversely, if all these forms have those chi-squared laws, their expectations and their sum give ${\sum }_i\mathrm{rank}{A}_i=n$.