In linear algebra, let A = (aij) be a n × n complex matrix. The comparison matrix M(A) = (αij) of complex matrix A is defined as

α i j = { − | a i j | if  i ≠ j , | a i j | if  i = j . {\displaystyle \alpha _{ij}={\begin{cases}-|a_{ij}|&{\text{if }}i\neq j,\\|a_{ij}|&{\text{if }}i=j.\end{cases}}} ¹