Cofactor expansion on tridiagonal matrices yields a simple recurrence, revealing that the determinant of a tridiagonal matrix of ones cycles with period 6.
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The tridiagonal matrix of ones
Write with ones on the diagonal and on both adjacent diagonals and zeros elsewhere, then compute , and directly.
The recurrence
Expand along the first row, track the term and the term coming from the second entry, and state the recurrence for all .
The cycle of period 6
Run the recurrence out to in a table, mark where the values start repeating, and use the period to give .