I derive this question while trying to prove the monotonicity of a differentiable vector function $f(x)$ that maps from $X\subset R^n$ to $R^n$ (Here function $f(x)$ is called monotone if $(x-y)'(f(x)-f(y))\geq 0$, $\forall x,y\in X$). The domain $X$ only consists of vectors $x$ such that $1'x=0$, here $1$ is the vector of all ones. Using the mean-value theorem, we have that $f(x)$ is locally monotone at $x$ (namely $(y-x)'(f(y)-f(x))\geq 0$, $\forall y\in X$) if its Jacobian matrix evaluated at $x$, which we label as $A$, satisfies the following condition: $$v'Av\geq 0,\quad \forall v \text{ such that } 1'v=0.$$ This is a weaker condition than positive semidefiniteness. However, while there are a number of ways to characterize positive semidefinite matrices, for example, see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive-semidefinite_matrix#Characterizations">this Wikipedia page</a>, how can I characterize the above defined matrices?