Rational forms for block lower-triangular matrices (Q2029847)

The rational forms representing linear time invariant (LTI) systems exhibit important properties of the systems themselves. Here, the author seeks similar forms for linear time-variant (LTV) systems, which are expected to have comparable properties, and tries to generalize the LTI case. It turns out such forms exist and the theory given in this paper yields representations for block lower-triangular matrices as ratios of (block) echelon matrices. A Euclidean algorithm is lacking and the presented theory makes use of a technique derived from [\textit{P. van Dooren}, BIT 24, 681--699 (1984; Zbl 0549.93019)]. Applications in several areas are found. At the end, a conjecture is presented.