  The affine rank minimization problem consists of finding a matrix of minimum
rank that satisfies a given system of linear equality constraints. Such
problems have appeared in the literature of a diverse set of fields including
system identification and control, Euclidean embedding, and collaborative
filtering. Although specific instances can often be solved with specialized
algorithms, the general affine rank minimization problem is NP-hard. In this
paper, we show that if a certain restricted isometry property holds for the
linear transformation defining the constraints, the minimum rank solution can
be recovered by solving a convex optimization problem, namely the minimization
of the nuclear norm over the given affine space. We present several random
ensembles of equations where the restricted isometry property holds with
overwhelming probability. The techniques used in our analysis have strong
parallels in the compressed sensing framework. We discuss how affine rank
minimization generalizes this pre-existing concept and outline a dictionary
relating concepts from cardinality minimization to those of rank minimization.
