Nonnegative ranks, decompositions, and factorizations of nonnegative matrices

Abstract

The nonnegative rank of a nonnegative matrix is the smallest number of nonnegative rank-one matrices into which the matrix can be decomposed additively. Such decompositions are useful in diverse scientific disciplines. We obtain characterizations and bounds and show that the nonnegative rank can be computed exactly over the reals by a finite algorithm.