Rhaly matrices (Q1110007)

In p-Cesàro matrices [Houston J. Mat. (to appear)], \textit{H. C. Rhaly} studies the infinite matrices \(C_ s\) \((s>0)\) and determines certain of their mapping properties on \(l^ 2\). Here \(C_ s\) is the triangular matrix whose nth row is \(n^{-s},...,n^{-s}\), 0,0,... Thus \(C_ 1=C\) is the Cesàro matrix, many of whose \(l^ 2\) properties were established in the fundamental article of \textit{A. Brown}, \textit{P. R. Halmos}, \textit{A. L. Shields} [Acta. Sci. Math. 26, 125-137 (1965; Zbl 0149.099)]. Among these are: C is hyponormal, \(\| C\| =2\), and the spectrum of C is the closed disk \(\{\) z:\(| 1-z| \leq 1\}\). Rhaly shows that if \(s<1\), \(C_ s\) does not act boundedly on \(l^ 2\) while if \(s>1\), \(C_ s\) is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator, hence compact and therefore certainly bounded. He also shows that \(C_ s\), \(s>1\), is not hyponormal and he establishes additional results concerning the norm and spectrum of \(C_ s\). One key observation of Rhaly's is a pair of factorizations involving \(C_ s\), the Cesàro operator C, and diagonal matrices. In this paper, I extend parts of Rhaly's work in two directions. In one, I retain the operators \(C_ s\), although I usually allow the parameter to be complex, but change from the Hilbert space \(l^ 2\), with its rich structure, to the spaces \(l^ p\), \(1\leq p\leq \infty\). In the other, I generalize to what I call the Rhaly matrices, in which the sequence \(\{n^{-s}\}\) is replaced by an arbitrary sequence of scalars. These matrices do not seem to have been studied extensively in the past, so I have attempted to collect here the consequences of applying to them various standard techniques of analysis.