1. Introduction
Circulant matrices represent a significant category of structured matrices that naturally emerge in various domains of applied and pure mathematics, such as numerical analysis, signal processing, coding theory, probability, and linear system theory. Owing to their highly regular structure, circulant-type matrices facilitate explicit spectral analysis, rendering them particularly appealing for both theoretical exploration and practical application. In particular, these matrices possess an inherent cyclic (shift-invariant) symmetry, whereby each row is obtained from the previous one by a fixed shift, leading to a natural diagonalization in terms of roots of unity. This symmetry plays a fundamental role in determining their spectral properties and enables the derivation of explicit eigenvalue formulas. A thorough examination of circulant matrices and their algebraic properties is available in the monograph by Davis [
1], while general matrix-theoretic methodologies are comprehensively documented in the seminal works of Horn and Johnson [
2,
3].
An
matrix
is called an
r-circulant matrix if it is of the following form:
Since
is completely determined by its first row and the parameter
r, it is customary to denote:
In the special case
, the matrix
reduces to the classical circulant matrix:
which has been extensively studied in the literature.
One of the fundamental advantages of
r-circulant matrices is that their eigenvalues admit closed-form expressions. Specifically, in [
4,
5] the eigenvalues of
are given by:
where
is a primitive
nth root of unity and
is an
nth root of
r. This explicit diagonalization facilitates the analysis of spectral properties, determinants, inverses, and various matrix norms.
In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the study of circulant and r-circulant matrices whose entries are defined by special number sequences. Such matrices provide a natural bridge between number theory and matrix analysis and have been shown to yield elegant closed-form results for eigenvalues, determinants, and norm estimates.
The investigation of matrix norms for circulant matrices with specific numerical sequences as entries has garnered significant scholarly interest over the past two decades. One of the initial comprehensive studies was conducted by Solak [
6], who derived norm estimates for circulant matrices generated by classical Fibonacci and Lucas numbers. Subsequently, Ipek [
7] calculated exact spectral norms for analogous matrices, while Shen and Cen [
8] expanded these findings to
r-circulant matrices, providing both upper and lower bounds for their norms. In this context, He et al. [
9] conducted an investigation into
r-circulant matrices characterized by entries involving Fibonacci and Lucas numbers, as well as their various combinations. They established upper bound estimates for the spectral norm and demonstrated that these results offer more precise bounds than those previously obtained by Solak, Shen, and Cen. Moreover, the efficacy and accuracy of these enhanced bounds were corroborated by numerical examples. Related identities were established in [
10,
11], where circulant-type matrices incorporating binomial coefficients and harmonic numbers were analyzed. Specifically, the spectral norms of even-order
r-circulant matrices were examined in [
12].
In parallel with these developments, several scholars have investigated circulant and
r-circulant matrices associated with generalized Fibonacci-type sequences. Bahşi and Solak [
13] examined the norms of circulant and
r-circulant matrices whose elements are hyper-Fibonacci and hyperharmonic Fibonacci numbers. Related research involving generalized Horadam sequences and
k-Horadam numbers was conducted by Alptekin et al. [
14] and Yazlik and Taskara [
15]. More recently, circulant matrices generated by bi-periodic Fibonacci and Lucas numbers [
16], as well as matrices involving Mersenne and Fermat numbers [
5], have been analyzed from a spectral norm perspective.
Another significant area of research involves the study of circulant matrices defined through geometric or mixed constructions. In this regard, Kızılateş and Tuglu [
17,
18] have developed norm estimates for
r-circulant and geometric circulant matrices associated with hyperharmonic Fibonacci numbers. Further advancements have been made by Shi and Kızılateş [
19], who investigated the spectral norms of
circulant matrices. Additionally, recent contributions by Anđelić et al. [
20] have introduced
r-min and
r-max matrices incorporating harmonic higher-order Gauss Fibonacci numbers, underscoring the increasing interest in integrating structured matrices with higher-order Fibonacci-type sequences.
Despite this growing body of work, the spectral and norm properties of
r-circulant matrices generated by
higher-order Fibonacci numbers remain largely unexplored. These numbers, introduced by Pashaev and Nalci [
21], naturally generalize the classical Fibonacci sequence and arise in various contexts of mathematical physics and discrete dynamical systems. Their rich algebraic structure suggests that matrices constructed from higher-order Fibonacci numbers may exhibit new and nontrivial spectral behavior.
Motivated by these observations, the aim of this paper is to introduce and systematically study r-circulant matrices whose entries are given by higher-order Fibonacci numbers. In particular, we derive explicit formulas for their eigenvalues and determinants, establish bounds for the 1-, ∞-, Euclidean (Frobenius), and spectral norms, and analyze how these properties depend on the parameters r, s, and the matrix dimension n. Our results extend and unify several known results for classical Fibonacci-based circulant matrices and provide new insights into the interplay between generalized Fibonacci sequences and structured matrix theory.
The structure of this paper is as follows:
Section 2 presents the necessary preliminaries, including the basic definitions and properties of higher-order Fibonacci numbers, along with fundamental concepts from matrix norms and auxiliary results. In
Section 3, we introduce the
r-circulant matrices generated by higher-order Fibonacci numbers and establish several essential summation identities that underpin our analysis.
Section 4 is dedicated to the spectral investigation of these matrices, where explicit formulas for eigenvalues and determinants are derived, and various matrix norms are examined in detail, including precise bounds for the spectral norm under different conditions on the parameter
r. In
Section 5, numerical examples are provided to illustrate and validate the theoretical findings. Finally,
Section 6 concludes this paper with a summary of the main results and potential directions for future research.
2. Preliminaries
In this section, we present the essential definitions and supplementary results that will be referenced throughout this paper.
The Fibonacci sequence
is defined by the recurrence relation:
with initial conditions
and
. Similarly, the Lucas sequence
satisfies:
with
and
.
Let
and
be the roots of the characteristic equation
that is,
Then, the classical Binet formulas for Fibonacci and Lucas numbers are given by
and
respectively.
Following Pashaev and Nalci [
21], the higher-order Fibonacci numbers (
) are defined by:
Since
is divisible by
, each
is an integer. Clearly, the classical Fibonacci sequence is recovered for
.
Higher-order Fibonacci numbers (also called Fibonacci divisors) and their properties have been studied extensively, particularly in connection with applications in mathematical physics; see, for instance, Pashaev [
22] and the references therein.
Next, we recall several matrix norms that will be used throughout this paper. Let
be a complex square matrix of order
n. The Euclidean (Frobenius) norm, spectral norm, 1-norm, and
∞-norm of
F are defined, respectively, by
where
denotes the conjugate transpose of
F and
is the largest eigenvalue.
The Euclidean and spectral norms satisfy the well-known inequalities:
The Hadamard product of two matrices
and
of the same size is defined by:
The following inequalities will be essential in estimating the spectral norms of Hadamard products.
Lemma 1 ([
3])
. Let F and Q be two matrices. Then: Lemma 2 ([
3])
. Let and be two matrices. Then:where Finally, we recall a classical product identity that will be used in the derivation of eigenvalues and determinants of r-circulant matrices.
Lemma 3 ([
5,
23])
. Let be the circulant parameter and let ρ be a fixed nth root of r, that is, , and let ω be a primitive nth root of unity. Then, for any : Lemma 4. Let with . Define:Then: Lemma 5. Let with . Define:Then: Lemma 6. Let with and let . Then:where the right-hand side is obtained by differentiating the geometric sum with respect to γ. 4. Spectral Properties and Matrix Norms
In this section, we examine the spectral properties and various matrix norms of the r-circulant matrix. Initially, explicit expressions for the eigenvalues are derived by leveraging the r-circulant structure of the matrix, in conjunction with the Binet representation of higher-order Fibonacci numbers. These eigenvalue formulas are subsequently employed to obtain a closed-form expression for the determinant. Thereafter, explicit formulas for the 1-norm and ∞-norm are presented, followed by a comprehensive analysis of the Euclidean norm. Particular emphasis is placed on the spectral norm, for which the lower and upper bounds are established. Given that the behavior of the spectral norm is significantly influenced by the magnitude of the parameter r, the cases and are addressed separately.
Theorem 4. Let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s, let denote the primitive nth root of unity, and let ρ be a fixed nth root of r, i.e., . Note that any two such choices of ρ differ by a factor ; so, the set is independent of the choice of ρ. Then, the eigenvalues of are given bywhere α and β are the roots of . Proof. Recall that and are the roots of the classical equation , whereas the sequence satisfies a second-order recurrence whose characteristic roots are and , the roots of . This distinction is used throughout the proof.
Using Equation (
1), the eigenvalues of the
r-circulant matrix
are given by
Employing the Binet-type formula for the higher-order Fibonacci numbers,
we obtain
Since both sums are geometric series, this yields
Since
, we have
, and hence
Since
, we have
. Therefore, by the Binet formulas for
and
, the above expression reduces to
Equivalently,
which completes the proof. □
Theorem 5. Let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Assume that and . Then, the determinant of is given bywhere the denominator is nonzero under the stated assumption. Proof. It is well known that the determinant of a square matrix equals the product of its eigenvalues. Hence, by Theorem 4, we have
Substituting the explicit expression of
yields
Rearranging the numerator terms, we obtain
Using the identity
together with
, we arrive at
Finally, since
and
, the denominator simplifies to
Therefore:
which completes the proof. □
Remark 1. When , the matrix reduces to a strictly upper triangular matrix with zero diagonal and with on all diagonal entries. In this case, all eigenvalues are zero and hence .
The following lemma is obvious.
Lemma 7. Let be an r-circulant square matrix. Then, its induced 1
-norm and ∞-norm coincide, that is, Theorem 6. Let and let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Then, the induced 1
-norm and ∞-norm of coincide and are given byHere, denotes the sth Lucas number. Proof. By Lemma 7, we have ; hence it suffices to determine the maximum absolute row sum of .
Since
for all
, every absolute value below equals the corresponding term, and we may write the sums without bars after this point. Using
, the
i-th row of
consists of the
entries
carrying no factor of
r, together with the
wrap-around entries
carrying the factor
r. Hence its absolute row sum is
where the last step uses
. In particular,
so row 1 carries no factor of
r, whereas row
n has every off-diagonal entry multiplied by
r. Note that the two index ranges
and
partition
, a fact we use repeatedly below.
Likewise
. Thus the maximum row sum is attained by row
n, and
Applying the summation formula of Theorem 1 gives
Case 2: . For any
, we get
Likewise
. Thus the maximum row sum is attained by row 1, and
Applying Theorem 1 once more yields
Combining the two cases completes the proof. □
Theorem 7. Let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Then, the Euclidean (Frobenius) norm of is given byHere, , , and are defined as in Theorem 3, and denotes the kth Lucas number. Proof. By definition, the Euclidean (Frobenius) norm of
is given by
We first analyze the structure of
to count how many times each entry
appears in the matrix. The
r-circulant matrix
has the property that the entry
appears exactly:
times without the factor r (in positions above the main diagonal and on it), contributing to ,
l times multiplied by r (in positions below the main diagonal), contributing to .
Therefore:
Taking into account the structure of the
r-circulant matrix
, each entry
appears
times without the factor
r and
l times multiplied by
r. Hence, we obtain
Since
, this reduces to
We now substitute the explicit expressions from Theorems 2 and 3 and distinguish three cases.
Case 1: s even. Substituting from Theorems 2 and 3:
Therefore:
Case 2: s odd,
n even. Substituting from Theorems 2 and 3:
Therefore:
Case 3: s odd,
n odd. Substituting from Theorems 2 and 3:
Therefore:
Combining the three cases yields the desired result. This completes the proof. □
Theorem 8. Let and let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Then, the spectral norm admits the following lower bounds:Here, denotes the kth Lucas number. Proof. From the definition of the Euclidean (Frobenius) norm, we have
Since
, this reduces to
For
, we clearly have
for all
. Therefore:
Taking square roots yields
Using the explicit expressions for
given in Theorem 2, we obtain
Finally, since the spectral norm is bounded below by the Euclidean norm via
the desired lower bounds for
follow immediately. This completes the proof. □
Theorem 9. Let and let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Then, the spectral norm satisfies the following upper bounds:Here, denotes the kth Lucas number. Proof. Define the matrices
and
Then, the matrix
can be written as the Hadamard (entrywise) product
Let
A direct computation yields
since
. Using the explicit expressions for
given in Theorem 2, we obtain
Similarly,
which, again by Theorem 2, gives
By the well-known inequality for the Hadamard product,
we conclude that
. Combining the above expressions for
and
yields exactly the stated upper bounds for the spectral norm of
. This completes the proof. □
Theorem 10. Let be an r-circulant matrix generated by higher-order Fibonacci numbers. For , the spectral norm of satisfies the following lower bounds: Proof. From the definition of the Euclidean (Frobenius) norm,
Since
, we obtain
Now, since
, it follows that
and therefore
Using (
15), we obtain
Hence,
Finally, by the inequality (
10),
we conclude that
which completes the proof. □
Theorem 11. Let and let be the r-circulant matrix generated by the higher-order Fibonacci numbers of order s. Then, the spectral norm admits the following upper bounds:Here, denotes the kth Lucas number. Proof. Define the matrices
and
Then, the matrix
can be written as the Hadamard product
Let
Since each row of
contains exactly
n entries of modulus at most 1 and
, we immediately obtain
Moreover,
Using the explicit expressions for
given in Theorem 2, we have
By the standard inequality for the Hadamard product,
we conclude that
Substituting the above expressions for
yields exactly the stated upper bounds for the spectral norm of
when
. This completes the proof. □
6. Conclusions
In this study, a new class of r-circulant matrices generated by higher-order Fibonacci numbers has been introduced and investigated from a spectral and norm-theoretic perspective. Explicit expressions for the eigenvalues of these matrices were derived by employing the Binet formula together with the structural properties of r-circulant matrices. Based on the obtained eigenvalue representations, a closed-form formula for the determinant was established.
Furthermore, several important matrix norms, including the Euclidean norm, the one-norm, the ∞-norm, and the spectral norm, were analyzed in detail. Lower and upper bounds for the spectral norm were obtained separately for cases and by means of Hadamard product techniques and classical norm inequalities. The results reveal that the parameter r plays a decisive role in the spectral behavior of the matrices, leading to fundamentally different norm estimates in these two regimes.
Finally, numerical examples were presented to illustrate and validate the theoretical findings. The proposed framework not only extends several known results for circulant and r-circulant matrices with classical Fibonacci-type entries, but also provides a unified approach that can be applied to other families of special number sequences. Future research directions may include analogous investigations for r-circulant matrices associated with other generalized Fibonacci-type sequences, as well as potential applications in numerical analysis and signal processing.
While the present work is theoretical in nature, we note that structured matrices including circulant and
r-circulant families continue to arise in a wide range of modern computational and engineering applications. For instance, explicit spectral and norm properties of structured matrices are relevant to large-scale graph processing [
24], dynamic matrix inversion via neural networks [
25], singular-value-based fault diagnosis in industrial systems [
26], and structured tensor models for signal processing [
27]. Although these works do not directly concern Fibonacci-type
r-circulant matrices, they illustrate the broader significance of deriving explicit eigenvalue, determinant, and norm formulas for structured matrix classes, which is the primary contribution of the present paper.