[Math] Does Anyone Know Anything about the Determinant and/or Inverse of this Matrix

linear algebramatrices

The matrix I am inquiring about here is the $n \times n$ matrix where the entry $A_{ij}$ is $\frac{1}{(i+j-1)^2}$. The $2 \times 2$ matrix looks like
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 1/4 \\
1/4 & 1/9
\end{pmatrix}.
$$
The $3 \times 3$ case looks like
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 1/4 & 1/9 \\
1/4 & 1/9 & 1/16 \\
1/9 & 1/16 & 1/25
\end{pmatrix}.
$$
The $n \times n$ matrix looks like
$$
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 1/4 & \cdots & 1/(n^2) \\
1/4 & 1/9 & \cdots & 1/{(n+1)^2} \\
\vdots & \vdots & \cdots & \vdots \\
1/(n^2) & 1/{(n+1)^2} & \cdots & 1/{(2n-1)^2}
\end{pmatrix}.
$$
If anyone has any information or knows of any papers talking about this matrix please let me know. Thanks!

Best Answer

Not an answer, but an amusing observation: The determinant of the matrix usually (but not always) has denominator a perfect square (empirically), while the numerator always seems to have a huge prime factor.

EDIT Actually, it seems that the expectation of $\log(P(n))/\log(n),$ where $P(n)$ is the largest prime factor of $n$ approaches the Golomb-Dickman constant, which is about 0.62. In view of this, the largest prime factor of the numerator is pretty much par for the course, or at least, not obviously NOT par for the course.

n=1: det = 1/1

n=2: det=7/(12^2)

n=3 det = 647/(2160^2)

n=4 det = (19 * 571)/(672000^2)

n=5 det = (179 * 179357)/(7*4233600000^2)

n=6 det = (97 * 157 * 384191938531)/(186313420339200000^2)

n=7 det = (23 * 1280587616051046200369)/(2067909047925770649600000^2)

n=8 det = (317 * 6337 * 25997 * 87403 * 511645991608091)/(365356847125734485878112256000000^2)

(and some more. Note that mysterious 7 which keeps popping up in the denominator, for n=5,9,11 )

n=9 det = (55091 * 7731550926975871647518813143593349)/(7 * 146968826339795671126721851844198400000000^2)

n=10 det = (257 * 47360083 * 530916328215423816923887043836865928533)/(15402297982638230438765209613012092908994560000000000^2)

n=11 det = (31 * 1193 * 2647 * 538580971 * 957346850101 * 71222443011485886519799225151)/(7 * 175251348661711183890804992735665222783492739007774720000000000^2))