Cayley Hamilton
Cayley Hamilton
Cayley Hamilton
Next we observe that the theorem must be true for any matrix similar to
a diagonal matrix, i.e. for a diagonalizable matrix.. To see this, note
that If G = P AP −1 , then
(G − λI) = (P AP −1 − λI) = P (A − λI)P −1
and so taking determinants, G and A have the same characteristic polyno-
mials, say f (λ).
Then
f (G) = f (P AP −1 ) = P f (A)p−1 = P 0P −1 = 0.
Thus the theorem is proved for all diagonalizable matrices.
Now we finish the proof for any square matrix. However, this depends on
some general ideas which, at first, may seem too abstract. They will become
clear after some thought.
1
• In this part, we may find it easier to replace λ by a variable X,
so that the results seem more natural. These ideas are standard
in a course in theory of equations.
Suppose a square matrix A has characteristic polynomial f (X) =
det(A − XI) and suppose that f (X) and its derivative f 0 (X) have
no common factors. Then all roots of f (X) are simple (i.e. of
multiplicity 1).
Moreover, if we replace our ground field by its algebraic closure,
then f (X) would have exactly n distinct roots, if A is n × n.
• Thus, we may assume that our f (X) has n distinct linear factors
X − a1 , X − a2 , · · · X − an , so that A has n distinct eigenvalues
a1 , a2 , · · · , an .
• Then we know that A is diagonalizable and hence f (A) = 0 as
required.
• Now assume that A is a matrix with n2 different variable entries
{yij } so that