On zero-pattern invariant properties of structured matrices

It is interesting that inverse M-matrices are zero-pattern (power) invariant. The main contribution of the present work is that we characterize some structured matrices that are zero-pattern (power) invariant. Consequently, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for these structured matrices to be inverse M-matrices. In particular, to check if a given circulant or symmetric Toeplitz matrix is an inverse M-matrix, we only need to consider its pattern structure and verify that one of its principal submatrices is an inverse M-matrix.