On the spectrum of tridiagonal matrices with two-periodic main diagonal (Q6590689)

The authors chatacterize the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the \emph{hollow} irreducible tridiagonal matrix\N\[\NJ_n=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc} 0 & c_1 & 0 & \ldots & 0 & 0 \\\Na_1 & 0 & c_2 & \ldots & 0 & 0 \\\N0 & a_2 & 0 & \ldots & 0 & 0 \\\N\vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots & \vdots \\\N0 & 0 & 0 & \ldots & 0 & c_{n-1} \\\N0 & 0 & 0 & \ldots & a_{n-1} & 0 \end{array}\right) \in \mathsf{M}_n(\mathbb{C}), \qquad a_k, c_k \in \mathbb{C} \backslash\{0\}.\N\]\NIn particular, it is shown that the spectrum of \(J_n\) is {symmetric}, i.e., \N\[\N\lambda \in \sigma(J_n) \iff -\lambda \in \sigma(J_n).\N\]\NThe eigenvectors and generalized eigenvectors are then fully investigated. These results are used to characterize the spectrum and eigenvectors of an arbitrary irreducible complex tridiagonal matrix with two-periodic main diagonal (see Section 4).