Proper nomenclature for papers

[steve64]

I see a notation appear in many equations in both statistics and physics. Where the transpose of a (1xN) vector is multiplied with an (NxN) matrix and then again by itself, yielding a scalar quantity. Is there a general name for referencing this operation, that is agnostic to the application?

In the examples below let V be a 1xN vector, M be an NxN matrix

Example 1:
In quantum mechanics the scalar expectation value of the observable M given for a state V is: [tex]V^{T} \cdot M \cdot V[/tex]

Example 2:
In statistics the exponent in the multivariate probability density function where M is the covariance matrix is: [tex]e^{-\frac{1}{2} * \left( V^{T} \cdot M^{-1} \cdot V \right)}[/tex]

Is there one or two names for these operations:

[tex]V^{T} \cdot M \cdot V[/tex] and [tex]V^{T} \cdot M^{-1} \cdot V[/tex]

If I were writing a paper what would I call it:

Now take the ABC of vector V and Matrix M

or, if I were writing a program what would I name the function:

double ABC( Matrix& M, Vector& V ) { ...