Commutators, matrices and an identity of Copeland

Abstract

Given two elements $a$ and $b$ of a noncommutative ring, we express $\left( ba\right)^n$ as a "row vector times matrix times column vector" product, where the matrix is the $n$-th power of a matrix with entries $\dbinom{i}{j}\operatorname{ad}_a^{i-j}\left( b\right)$. This generalizes a formula by Tom Copeland used in the study of Pascal-style matrices.