Bidiagonal Triads and the Tetrahedron Algebra

Abstract

We introduce a linear algebraic object called a bidiagonal triad. A bidiagonal triad is a modification of the previously studied and similarly defined concept of bidiagonal triple. A bidiagonal triad and a bidiagonal triple both consist of three diagonalizable linear transformations on a finite-dimensional vector space, each of which acts in a bidiagonal fashion on the eigenspaces of the other two. A triad differs from a triple in the way these bidiagonal actions are defined. We modify a number of theorems about bidiagonal triples to the case of bidiagonal triads. We also describe the close relationship between bidiagonal triads and the representation theory of the tetrahedron Lie algebra.