Let , a primitive fourteenth root of unity. The geometric series gives . Taking the real part and adding the remaining fifteenth term therefore yields
The upper summation limit matters: the first fourteen terms complete one full cycle, and the fifteenth supplies one additional term.
Rearrange as . The characteristic polynomial factors as , giving the homogeneous solutions . A particular polynomial solution obeys and . Hence
This is the full two-constant solution of the second-order linear differential equation.
The elementary row operation gives
The nonzero rows here have distinct pivots. Therefore the matrix rank is
There is always at least one nonzero row, so rank zero is impossible.
Write with real . The complex hyperbolic sine is . Its zero real part requires . If , the magnitude of the imaginary part would be , which cannot equal . Therefore and . All solutions are
On the Argand diagram these are two interlaced arithmetic sequences on the imaginary axis; both repeat with imaginary period .
Figure 1.
All roots lie on the imaginary axis in two families repeating every
. Details.
The determinant is . The adjugate matrix formula gives
When or we have a singular matrix, so no inverse matrix exists. This criterion holds for real or complex .

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