Structural and sparsity properties of symmetric 7-matrices (Q2427931)

The authors study a class of matrices \(A= (a_{ij})\) whose entries satisfy the recurrence relation \(\alpha a_{i-1, j-1} + \beta a_{i-1,j}=a_{ij}\), where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are a pair of nonzero real numbers. Such matrices are said to be \(7_{\alpha, \beta}\)-matrices since the relative positions of the entries \(a_{i-1, j-1}\), \(a_{i-1,j}\) and \(a_{ij}\) resemble the ``figure 7'' shape. Here, a special class of \(7_{\alpha, \beta}\)-matrices, the \(n \times n\) real and symmetric \(7_{\alpha, \beta}\)-matrices belonging to the set \(S_n(\alpha, \beta)\), are considered. Such matrices compared with general \(7_{\alpha, \beta}\)-matrices have a simple structure and some interesting properties. For the case of two matrices \(A, B \in S_n(\alpha, \beta)\), where \(AB\) is not symmetric in general, a sufficient and necessary condition is given under which \(AB\) is symmetric or equivalently \(A\) and \(B\) commute. Also, the largest number of zeros of \(A \in S_n(\alpha, \beta)\) is derived and the matrices which attain this maximum are determined.