Take off the real axis, or more generally require both and to be invertible. The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices guarantees these inverses for nonreal . Move coordinate to the first position by a simultaneous row and column permutation. With , the permuted matrix is
Solve its equation against the first coordinate vector: if its solution is , then the lower block equation gives . Substitution into the first equation gives . The component is the requested diagonal entry of the matrix inverse, proving the Schur complement formula for a diagonal resolvent entry:
The product is bilinear, with transpose, because is real and is real symmetric, even when the inverse is complex. In a complex Hermitian matrix version the row is instead. The final belongs inside the denominator, as in the original PDF; the converted TeX misplaces it outside the fraction.
The inverse hypotheses matter if is real: is invertible at , while its one-by-one principal minor is not. Thus existence of the full inverse alone is not sufficient to use this formula.
For a zero-diagonal real symmetric matrix, put and . The Schur complement formula for a diagonal resolvent entry gives . Subtracting the comparison value gives . Upper-half-plane positivity and the principal minor resolvent trace bound control this defect by the average of plus a trace correction.