On periodic block-tridiagonal matrices (Q1187506)

Consider an \(N\times N\) tridiagonal matrix \(X\) with entries \(a_1,\ldots,a_N\) down the main diagonal,\(b_1,\ldots, b_{N-1}\) and \(c_1,\ldots,c_{N-1}\) down the super and sub-diagonal files respectively, and zeros elsewhere. Suppose further that the \(a\)-, \(b\)- and \(c\)-sequences are periodic of period \(m\) and that \(N\equiv -1\pmod m\). Under these conditions, \textit{L. Elsner} and \textit{R. M. Redheffer} [Numer. Math. 10, 153--161 (1967; Zbl 0166.03404)] and \textit{P. Rózsa} [Linear Algebra Appl. 2, 267--274 (1969; Zbl 0174.31801)] proved an elegant formula for the characteristic polynomial of \(X\) involving the zeros of the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind. The authors give an ingenious partial generalization of this result to the case where the \(a_i\), \(b_i\), \(c_i\) are replaced by \(q\times q\) blocks \(A_i\), \(B_i\), \(C_i\). They have to impose the additional conditions that \(A_i=A_{m-i}\) \((1\leq i\leq m-1)\), \(C_i=B_{m-i-1}\) \((1\leq i\leq m-2)\), \(B_{m-1}=C_ m\), \(C_{m-1}=B_m\). A rather simpler version of the result is proved for the case where the \(B_i\) and \(C_i\) are nonsingular.