The nullity theorem is a mathematical theorem about the inverse of a partitioned matrix, which states that the nullity of a block in a matrix equals the nullity of the complementary block in its inverse matrix. Here, the nullity is the dimension of the kernel. The theorem was proven in an abstract setting by, and for matrices by .
Partition a matrix and its inverse in four submatrices:
\begin{bmatrix}A&B\ C&D\end{bmatrix}-1=\begin{bmatrix}E&F\ G&H\end{bmatrix}.
The statement of the nullity theorem is now that the nullities of the blocks on the right equal the nullities of the blocks on the left :
\begin{align} \operatorname{nullity}A&=\operatorname{nullity}H,\\ \operatorname{nullity}B&=\operatorname{nullity}F,\\ \operatorname{nullity}C&=\operatorname{nullity}G,\\ \operatorname{nullity}D&=\operatorname{nullity}E.\end{align}
More generally, if a submatrix is formed from the rows with indices and the columns with indices, then the complementary submatrix is formed from the rows with indices \ and the columns with indices \, where N is the size of the whole matrix. The nullity theorem states that the nullity of any submatrix equals the nullity of the complementary submatrix of the inverse.