title: Is there (or why there is not) a matrix square root operation for sparse matrices in SciPy?
body: <p>I was searching for a matrix square root operation like <code>scipy.linalg.sqrtm</code> (<em>not</em> element wise square root) on SciPy sparse matrices, but I cannot find anything. In other words, <code>scipy.sparse.linalg.sqrtm</code> does not exists. Does anybody know a way to do this operation on sparse matrices (besides converting to dense matrices and using SciPy's <code>linalg.sqrtm</code>)</p>
  
  <p>People have suggested ways to do matrix powers on sparse matrices by doing <code>sparse_matrix**power</code>, but it can only handle integer powers.</p>