The maximal and minimal ranks of a quaternion matrix expression with applications

In this paper, we establish the formulas of the extermal ranks of the quaternion matrix expression f(X₁, X₂) = C₇ ? A₄X₁B₄ ? A₅X₂B₅ where X₁, X₂ are variant quaternion matrices subject to quaternion matrix equations A₁X₁ = C₁, A₂X₁ = C₂, A₃X₁ = C₃, X₂B₁ = C₄, X₂B₂ = C₅, X₂B₃ = C₆. As applications, we give a new necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of solutions to some systems of quaternion matrix equations. Some results can be viewed as special cases of the results of this paper.