Two linear transformations each tridiagonal with respect to an eigenbasis of the other: comments on the split decomposition (Q1772359)

A Leonard pair is a pair of linear transformations \(A,A^*\) of a vector space \(V\) such that in some basis \(A\) is tridiagonal and \(A^*\) diagonal, and in some other basis \(A\) is diagonal and \(A^*\) is tridiagonal. The author previously showed that for a split pair, one can find a basis in which \(A\) acts lower bidiagonally and \(A^*\) upper bidiagonally, called a split decomposition. In this paper he gives, under nonmultiplicity assumptions, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of split decompositions, in terms of projection operators to eigenspaces of the matrices, and for being Leonard pairs given the split decompositions.