Proper conditional autoregressive spatial covariance structure
car.RdProper conditional autoregressive spatial covariance structure. The returned dimensionless covariance shape is intended for use inside vsm, which supplies the single overall variance scale.
Details
Let \(D=\mathrm{diag}(W\mathbf{1})\). The proper CAR precision and covariance are $$Q=D-\rho W,\qquad M=Q^{-1},\qquad K=M/M_{11}.$$ The constructor requires positive row sums, so isolated levels are not allowed. The admissible open interval for rho is obtained from the eigenvalues of \(D^{-1/2}WD^{-1/2}\) and is enforced through a bounded-logit working coordinate. This is a proper, nonsingular CAR model; an intrinsic singular CAR is not used by the current precision-based Henderson implementation. The covariance derivative is analytic.