The contragredient equivalence: Application to solve some matrix systems (Q1300904)

\textit{H. Flanders} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 2, 871-874 (1951; Zbl 0044.00602)] initiated the study of the relationship between the elementary divisors of the matrices \(AB\) and \(BA\), where \(A\) and \(B\) are doubly multiplicable (i.e., \(A\) is an \(m\times n\) complex matrix and \(B\) is an \(n\times m\) complex matrix). Moreover, he found a necessary and sufficient condition on square matrices \(P\) and \(Q\) (of possibly different sizes) so that matrices \(A\) and \(B\) exist for which \(P=AB\) and \(Q=BA\). The present authors analyze in great detail the result of Flanders and find a necessarily somewhat complicated algorithm for determining the number of inequivalent solutions, when one exists. They use their results to find a solution \((X,Y)\) to the matrix system \(AX=YC\), \(BY=XD\).