Hessenberg pairs of linear transformations

Let denote a field and V denote a nonzero finite-dimensional vector space over . We consider an ordered pair of linear transformations A:V→V and A^*:V→V that satisfy (i)–(iii) below.

1. [(i)]Each of A,A^* is diagonalizable on V.

2. [(ii)]There exists an ordering of the eigenspaces of A such that

where V_-1=0, V_d+1=0.

3. [(iii)]There exists an ordering of the eigenspaces of A^* such that

where , .

We call such a pair a Hessenberg pair on V. In this paper we obtain some characterizations of Hessenberg pairs. We also explain how Hessenberg pairs are related to tridiagonal pairs.

Keywords: Leonard pair; Tridiagonal pair; q-Inverting pair; Split decomposition