# Add between row spacing in a complex matrix

I have the following matrix:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}
$\begin{bmatrix} \begin{vmatrix} 168 & 368 \\ 368 & 1026 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 26 & 368\\ 70 & 1026 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 26 & 168\\ 70 & 368 \end{vmatrix}\\ \begin{vmatrix} 26 & 70\\ 368 & 1026 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 5 & 70\\ 70 & 1026 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 5 & 26\\ 70 & 368 \end{vmatrix}\\ \begin{vmatrix} 26 & 70\\ 168 & 368 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 5 & 70\\ 26 & 368 \end{vmatrix} & \begin{vmatrix} 5 & 26\\ 26 & 168 \end{vmatrix} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 36944 & -916 & -2192 \\ \end{bmatrix}$
\end{document}


Each row contains a 2x2 determinant. The problem is that the vertical lines of the neighboring determinants are touching, creating the impression that this is a 3x1 matrix with three 6x2 determinants. I have experimented a little with adding [3pt] after the delimiting \\, but had no success. Any help will be appreciated!

By the way, I am calling LaTeX from a Markdown document, which means using extra/alternative packages is highly undesirable (albeit possible after a manual intervention during text conversion). Thanks in advance!

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please edit your example to be a complete document showing the packages required (I assume amsmath, but you don't say). Otherwise we don't know what it's supposed to look like... –  David Carlisle Dec 24 '13 at 19:48
My apologies. I've included the full document. –  Maxim.K Dec 24 '13 at 20:11

The [] optional argument does not add that much space, but rather specifies a minimumn dept, but your matrices are already deep, so you need a larger value.

Both BMatrix and VMatrix takes an optional argument that specifies the \arraystretch used (default is 1). The outer BMatrix is set with an \arraystretch of 2.