On a general form of join matrices associated with incidence functions (Q2481700)

Let \((P,\leq)=(P,\lor)\) be a join-semilattice with finite principal order filters and let \(\Psi_\lor\) denote the function on \(P\times P\) defined by \[ \Psi_\lor(x,y)=\sum\limits_{x\lor y\leq z} f(x,z)g(y,z)h(z), \] where \(f\) and \(g\) are incidence functions of \(P\) and \(h\) is a complex-valued function on \(P\). We calculate the determinant and the inverse of the matrix \([\Psi_\lor(x_i,x_j)]\), where \(S=\{x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n\}\) is a join-closed subset of \(P\) and \((x_i,x_j\in S, x_i\leq x_j\leq z)\Rightarrow f(x_i,z)=f(x_j,z)\) holds for all \(z\in P\). As special cases we obtain formulae for join matrices \({([S]_h)_{ij}}={h(x_i\lor x_j)}\). The determinant formulae obtained for join matrices are known in the literature, whereas the inverse formulae are new. We also obtain new results for LCM and LCUM matrices, which are number-theoretic special cases of join matrices. Similar results for a general form of meet matrices are obtained in \textit{I. Korkee} and \textit{P. Haukkanen} [Linear Multilinear Algebra 53, No. 5, 309--321 (2005; Zbl 1088.11019)]. These papers belong to the field of Smith's determinant, see \textit{P. Haukkanen}, \textit{J. Wang} and \textit{J. Sillanpää} [Linear Algebra Appl. 258, 251--269 (1997; Zbl 0883.15002)].