Bernoulli, Ramanujan, Toeplitz and the triangular matrices

Abstract

By using one of the definitions of the Bernoulli numbers, we prove that they solve particular odd and even lower triangular Toeplitz (l.t.T.) systems of equations. In a paper Ramanujan writes down a sparse lower triangular system solved by Bernoulli numbers; we observe that such system is equivalent to a sparse l.t.T. system. The attempt to obtain the sparse l.t.T. Ramanujan system from the l.t.T. odd and even systems, has led us to study efficient methods for solving generic l.t.T. systems. Such methods are here explained in detail in case n, the number of equations, is a power of b, b=2,3 and b generic.