Inverses of tridiagonal Toeplitz and periodic matrices with applications to mechanics

Abstract

The linear algebraic equation Ax = b with tridiagonal coefficient matrix of A is solved by the analytical matrix inversion. An explicit formula is known if A is a Toeplitz matrix. New formulas are presented for the following cases: (1) A is of Toeplitz type except that A(1, 1) and A( n, n) are different from the remaining diagonal elements. (2) A is p-periodic ( p > 1), by which is meant that in each of the three bands of A a group of p elements is periodically repeated. (3) The tridiagonal matrix A is composed of periodic submatrices of different periods. In cases (2) and(3) the problem of matrix inversion is reduced to a second-order difference equation with periodic coefficients. The solution is based on Floquet's theorem. It is shown that for p = 1 the formulae found for periodic matrices reduce to special forms valid for Toeplitz matrices. The results are applied to problems of elastostatics and of vibration theory.