On the rank structure of the Moore-Penrose inverse of singular \(k\)-banded matrices (Q6618709)

The authors are interested in the rank structure of the Moore-Penrose inverse or the pseudoinverse of a singular complex matrix \(B\) of order \(n\) and of rank \(r<n\) which is strictly \(k\)-banded, i.e., the \(k\)-th superdiagonal and the \(k\)-th subdiagonal of \(B\) contain no zero entries. The main result of this paper is the proof that the Moore-Penrose inverse \(B^\dag\) of such a matrix satisfies an \((s,k)\)-generator representability condition. This means that there exist two matrices \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) of rank at most \(s=\min\{r,n+k-r\}\) whose parts strictly below the \(k\)-th superdiagonal (\(M_1\)) and above the \(k\)-th subdiagonal (\(M_2\)) coincide with the same parts of \(B^\dag\). This property strengthens a known fact that \(B^\dag\) is \((s,k)\)-semiseparable, that is, all submatrices located below, resp., above, the \(k\)-th superdiagonal, resp., subdiagonal, of \(B^\dag\) have rank at most \(s\).\N\NIn addition, it is proved that when \(n\geq 3k\), these two matrices \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) have rank exactly \(s\). It is also illustrated through a lot of examples that when \(n < 3k\), those matrices may have rank less than \(s\). The authors also provide an algorithm to produce matrices \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) from \(B^\dag\) for any \(0\leq k < n\).\N\NThis investigation was firstly inspired by analogous results concerning the inverse of nonsingular strictly \(k\)-banded matrices and by a previous paper by the same authors on the particular case of singular strictly tridiagonal matrices (\(k=1\)) [the authors, Appl. Math. Comput. 459, Article ID 128154, 14 p. (2023; Zbl 1545.15002)].