Matrix orthogonal polynomials whose derivatives are also orthogonal Original Research Article

In this paper we prove some characterizations of the matrix orthogonal polynomials whose derivatives are also orthogonal, which generalize other known ones in the scalar case. In particular, we prove that the corresponding orthogonality matrix functional is characterized by a Pearson-type equation with two matrix polynomials of degree not greater than 2 and 1. The proofs are given for a general sequence of matrix orthogonal polynomials, not necessarily associated with a hermitian functional. We give several examples of non-diagonalizable positive definite weight matrices satisfying a Pearson-type equation, which show that the previous results are non-trivial even in the positive definite case.