Paper 1, Section II, G
Part IB, 2014
Let be an -dimensional real vector space, and let be an endomorphism of . We say that acts on a subspace if .
(i) For any , show that acts on the linear span of .
(ii) If spans , show directly (i.e. without using the CayleyHamilton Theorem) that satisfies its own characteristic equation.
(iii) Suppose that acts on a subspace with and . Let be a basis for , and extend to a basis for . Describe the matrix of with respect to this basis.
(iv) Using (i), (ii) and (iii) and induction, give a proof of the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem.
[Simple properties of determinants may be assumed without proof.]