The double determinant of Vandermonde's type over quaternion field (Q1969937)

Let \(a_1,\dots,a_n\) be elements of the real quaternion algebra (denoted by \(\mathbb H\) in the following). The authors denote by \(\|V(a_1,\dots,a_n) \|\) the \(n\)-order Vandermonde double determinant associated to \(a_1,\dots,a_n\), where \(V(a_1,\dots,a_n)\) is the usual Vandermonde matrix and \(\|\cdot \|\) denotes the double determinant as introduced by \textit{L. Chen} [Sci. China, Ser. A 34, No. 5, 528-540 (1991; Zbl 0741.15005)]. If \(a\in {\mathbb H}\), then \(\|a\|=a \bar{a}\). The authors introduce the following terminology: two elements of \(\mathbb H\) are said ``belonging to the same kind'', if there exists \(p\) invertible in \(\mathbb H\) such that \(p a p^{-1}=b\) (i.e. \(a\) and \(b\) belong to the same conjugacy class). Then the main result of the paper under review looks as follows: we have \(\|V(a_1,\dots,a_n) \|=0\) if and only if there are three elements belonging to the same kind or two elements are equal. Furthermore, if non zero, we have \[ \|V(a_1,\dots,a_n) \|=\prod_{k=0}^{n-2} \prod_{i=k+2}^n \|a_{i,k}-a_{k+1,k} \|, \] with \(a_{i,0}=a_i\), \(a_{i,1}=(a_i-a_1)a_i (a_i-a_1)^{-1}\), \(i=1,\dots,n\). And \(a_{i,k}=(a_{i,k-1}-a_{k,k-1})a_{i,k-1} (a_{i,k-1}-a_{k,k-1})^{-1}\), assuming \(a_{i,k-1}\neq a_{k,k-1}\) with \(k=2,3,\dots, n-2\), and \(i=k+1,\dots,n\). Notice that this result can be easily generalized to an arbitrary quaternion (division) algebra over a field.