The noncommutative bispectral problem for operators of order one (Q937241)

The authors consider a noncommutative bispectral problem of finding a sequence of matrix valued orthogonal polynomials \(P_n(t)\) satisfying the first order recurrence relation \[ B_n\,P_n(t)+P_{n+1}(t)=t\,P_n(t), \] where \(P_{-1}(t)\equiv0\) (the zero matrix) and \(P_0(t)\equiv I\) (the identity matrix) and the first order differential equation \[ P'_n(t)\,\tilde A_1(t)+P_n(t)\,\tilde A_0(t)=\Lambda_n\,P_n(t), \] where \(\tilde A_1(t)\) and \(\tilde A_0(t)\) are coefficients independent of \(n\) and \(\Lambda_n\) is independent of \(t\). This paper provides a first systematic study of this bispectral problem in the matrix case when both (difference and differential) operators are of the first order, compared with the results on the second order operators in the literature. A key role is played by the so-called ad-conditions which are formulated in terms of a commutator bracket involving the matrix three-diagonal representation of the difference operator. These ad-conditions yield three equations for the coefficients \(B_n\) and \(\Lambda_n\) (more precisely, for \(B_n\), \(B_{n-1}\), \(\Lambda_{n+1}\) \(\Lambda_n\), \(\Lambda_{n-1}\), \(\Lambda_{n-2}\)). The authors study separately in detail the \(2\times2\) matrix case and then the general \(N\times N\) matrix case.