A generalized solution of the orthogonal procrustes problem

A solutionT of the least-squares problemAT=B +E, givenA andB so that trace (E′E)= minimum andT′T=I is presented. It is compared with a less general solution of the same problem which was given by Green [5]. The present solution, in contrast to Green's, is applicable to matricesA andB which are of less than full column rank. Some technical suggestions for the numerical computation ofT and an illustrative example are given.