![Compute the log-determinant of a matrix](https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/files/2012/10/t_logdet.png)
The determinant of a matrix arises in many statistical computations, such as in estimating parameters that fit a distribution to multivariate data. For example, if you are using a log-likelihood function to fit a multivariate normal distribution, the formula for the log-likelihood involves the expression log(det(Σ)), where Σ is the