The Riemannian median of positive-definite matrices
Abstract
We propose a definition of the Riemannian median of a tuple of positive-definite matrices . We will define it as a positive-definite matrix using Landers and Rogge's work \cite{Lan81} partially, not as a set unlike Yang's work \cite{Yan10}. Then, in the set of positive-definite matrices with the Riemannian trace metric, we show where , is the Karcher mean of , and is the Riemannian distance induced by the Riemannian trace metric. This inequality is an analogue of , where , and are the mean, the median and the standard deviation of real-valued data points. Moreover, we investigate the commutative case, how outliers have an effect on the Riemannian median, the congruence invariance, the joint homogeneity, the self-duality and the monotonicity in a special case, and construct a counter example showing that the monotonicity of the Riemannian median does not hold in general.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.14007,
title = {The Riemannian median of positive-definite matrices},
author = {Yutaro Nakagawa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.14007},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
18 pages