Pairs of companion matrices and their simultaneous reduction to complementary triangular forms (Q2365666)

Let \(a(\lambda)\), \(z(\lambda)\) be complex monic polynomials of the same degree \(m\). Let \(A,Z\) be the corresponding \(m\times m\) companion matrices, the coefficients of \(a(\lambda)\) appearing in the last column of \(A\) and those of \(z(\lambda)\) in the first column of \(Z\). The author solves the problem of the simultaneous similarity of the pair \(A,Z\) to a pair \(A_ U\), \(Z_ L\), where \(A_ U\) is upper triangular, \(Z_ L\) lower triangular and the diagonal entries of \(A_ U\), \(Z_ L\) appear in prescribed order. This is a variant of the original problem solved by \textit{H. Bart} and \textit{H. Hoogland} [ibid. 103, 193-228 (1988; Zbl 0645.15012)], in which the coefficients of both polynomials appear in the last column of the corresponding companion matrices. These are interesting problems, arising from factorizations of transfer matrices in systems theory.