When a multivariate random variable (X1,X2,…,Xn) has a nondegenerate covariance matrix C=(γij)=(Cov(Xi,Xj)), the set of all real linear combinations of the Xi forms an n-dimensional real vector space with basis E=(X1,X2,…,Xn) and a non-degenerate inner product given by
⟨Xi,Xj⟩=γij .
Its dual basis with respect to this inner product, E∗=(X∗1,X∗2,…,X∗n), is uniquely defined by the relationships
⟨X∗i,Xj⟩=δij ,
the Kronecker delta (equal to 1 when i=j and 0 otherwise).
The dual basis is of interest here because the partial correlation of Xi and Xj is obtained as the correlation between the part of Xi that is left after projecting it into the space spanned by all the other vectors (let's simply call it its "residual", Xi∘) and the comparable part of Xj, its residual Xj∘. Yet X∗i is a vector that is orthogonal to all vectors besides Xi and has positive inner product with Xi whence Xi∘ must be some non-negative multiple of X∗i, and likewise for Xj. Let us therefore write
Xi∘=λiX∗i, Xj∘=λjX∗j
for positive real numbers λi and λj.
The partial correlation is the normalized dot product of the residuals, which is unchanged by rescaling:
ρij∘=⟨Xi∘,Xj∘⟩⟨Xi∘,Xi∘⟩⟨Xj∘,Xj∘⟩−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−√=λiλj⟨X∗i,X∗j⟩λ2i⟨X∗i,X∗i⟩λ2j⟨X∗j,X∗j⟩−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−√=⟨X∗i,X∗j⟩⟨X∗i,X∗i⟩⟨X∗j,X∗j⟩−−−−−−−−−−−−−−√ .
(In either case the partial correlation will be zero whenever the residuals are orthogonal, whether or not they are nonzero.)
We need to find the inner products of dual basis elements. To this end, expand the dual basis elements in terms of the original basis E:
X∗i=∑j=1nβijXj .
Then by definition
δik=⟨X∗i,Xk⟩=∑j=1nβij⟨Xj,Xk⟩=∑j=1nβijγjk .
In matrix notation with I=(δij) the identity matrix and B=(βij) the change-of-basis matrix, this states
I=BC .
That is, B=C−1, which is exactly what the Wikipedia article is asserting. The previous formula for the partial correlation gives
ρij⋅=βijβiiβjj−−−−−√=C−1ijC−1iiC−1jj−−−−−−√ .