Semi-Infinite Quasi-Toeplitz Matrices with Applications to QBD Stochastic Processes

Denote by $\mathcal{W}_1$ the set of complex valued functions of the form $a(z)=\sum_{i=-\infty}^{+\infty}a_iz^i$ which are continuous on the unit circle, and such that $\sum_{i=-\infty}^{+\infty}|ia_i|<\infty$. We call CQT matrix a quasi-Toeplitz matrix $A$, associated with a continuous symbol $a(z)\in\mathcal W_1$, of the form $A=T(a)+E$, where $T(a)=(t_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb{Z}^+}$ is the semi-infinite Toeplitz matrix such that $t_{i,j}=a_{j-i}$, for $i,j\in\mathbb Z^+$, and $E=(e_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb{Z}^+}$ is a semi-infinite matrix such that $\sum_{i,j=1}^{+\infty}|e_{i,j}|$ is finite. We prove that the class of CQT matrices is a Banach algebra with a suitable sub-multiplicative matrix norm $\|\cdot\|$. We introduce a finite representation of CQT matrices together with algorithms which implement elementary matrix operations. An application to solving quadratic matrix equations of the kind $AX^2+BX+C=0$, encountered in the solution of Quasi-Birth and Death (QBD) stochastic processes with a denumerable set of phases, is presented where $A,B,C$ are CQT matrices.