As I noted in a comment, you can use scipy.signal.lfilter. In this case (assuming A is a one-dimensional numpy array), all you need is:
B = lfilter([a], [1.0, -b], A)
Here’s a complete script:
import numpy as np
from scipy.signal import lfilter
np.random.seed(123)
A = np.random.randn(10)
a = 2.0
b = 3.0
# Compute the recursion using lfilter.
# [a] and [1, -b] are the coefficients of the numerator and
# denominator, resp., of the filter's transfer function.
B = lfilter([a], [1, -b], A)
print B
# Compare to a simple loop.
B2 = np.empty(len(A))
for k in range(0, len(B2)):
if k == 0:
B2[k] = a*A[k]
else:
B2[k] = a*A[k] + b*B2[k-1]
print B2
print "max difference:", np.max(np.abs(B2 - B))
The output of the script is:
[ -2.17126121e+00 -4.51909273e+00 -1.29913212e+01 -4.19865530e+01
-1.27116859e+02 -3.78047705e+02 -1.13899647e+03 -3.41784725e+03
-1.02510099e+04 -3.07547631e+04]
[ -2.17126121e+00 -4.51909273e+00 -1.29913212e+01 -4.19865530e+01
-1.27116859e+02 -3.78047705e+02 -1.13899647e+03 -3.41784725e+03
-1.02510099e+04 -3.07547631e+04]
max difference: 0.0
Another example, in IPython, using a pandas DataFrame instead of a numpy array:
If you have
In [12]: df = pd.DataFrame([1, 7, 9, 5], columns=['A'])
In [13]: df
Out[13]:
A
0 1
1 7
2 9
3 5
and you want to create a new column, B, such that B[k] = A[k] + 2*B[k-1] (with B[k] == 0 for k < 0), you can write
In [14]: df['B'] = lfilter([1], [1, -2], df['A'].astype(float))
In [15]: df
Out[15]:
A B
0 1 1
1 7 9
2 9 27
3 5 59