Three-term recurrence relations with matrix coefficients. The completely indefinite case

In the space {ol _p ² of vector sequences, we consider the symmetric operatorL generated by the expression (lu)j:=Bj ^uj+1+Aj ^uj+ _B ^j−1/* uj−1, whereu−1 = 0,u ₀,u ₁, … ∈ ℂ ^p ,A _j andB _j arep × p matrices with entries from ℂ,A _j ^* =A_j, and the inversesB _j ⁻¹ (j = 0, 1, …) exist. We state a necessary and sufficient condition for the deficiency numbers of the operatorL to be maximal; this corresponds to the completely indefinite case for the expressionl. Tests for incomplete indefiniteness and complete indefiniteness forl in terms of the coefficientsA _j andB _j are derived. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 709–716, May, 1998. This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grant No. 96-01-00333.