Tensor Formulation of the General Linear Model with Einstein Notation

The general linear model is a universally accepted method to conduct and test multiple linear regression models. Using this model, one has the ability to simultaneously regress covariates among different groups of data. Moreover, there are hundreds of applications and statistical tests associated with the general linear model.

However, the conventional matrix formulation is relatively inelegant which yields multiple difficulties including slow computation speed due to a large number of computations, increased memory usage due to needlessly large data structures, and organizational inconsistency. This is due to the fundamental incongruence between the degrees of freedom of the information the data structures in the conventional formulation of the general linear model are intended to represent and the rank of the data structures themselves.

Presented here is an elegant reformulation of the general linear model which involves the use of tensors and multidimensional arrays as opposed to exclusively flat structures in the conventional formulation. To demonstrate the efficacy of this approach, a few common applications of the general linear model are translated from the conventional formulation to the tensor formulation.

Keywords:General Liner Model; Tensor; Multidimensional Array; Computational Efficiency; Einstein Notation