Varimax rotation

Varimax rotation is a change of coordinates used in principal component analysis that maximizes the sum of the variance of the loading vectors. That is, it seeks a basis such that most economically represents each individual—that each individual can be well described by a linear combination of only a few basis functions.

Suggested by Henry Felix Kaiser in 1958, it is a popular scheme for orthogonal rotation which cleans up the factors as follows: "for each factor, high loadings (correlations) will result for a few variables; the rest will be near zero."

The advantages and disadvantages of the technique is discussed at the website of Columbia University.