Operational calculus for rows, columns, and blocks of linear relations

Columns and rows are operations for pairs of linear relations in Hilbert spaces, modelled on the corresponding notions of the componentwise sum and the usual sum of such pairs. The introduction of matrices whose entries are linear relations between underlying component spaces takes place via the row and column operations. The main purpose here is to offer an attempt to formalize the operational calculus for block matrices, whose entries are all linear relations. Each block relation generates a unique linear relation between the Cartesian products of initial and final Hilbert spaces that admits particular properties which will be characterized. Special attention is paid to the formal matrix multiplication of two blocks of linear relations and the connection to the usual product of the unique linear relations generated by them. In the present general setting these two products need not be connected to each other without some additional conditions.