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Assignment-18
Ankur Aditya - EE20RESCH11010

Abstract—This document contains the problem related Hence the characteristic polynomial of A is,
to characteristic and minimal polynomial (Hoffman Page-
198, Q-2) λ3 − aλ2 − bλ − c (3.0.5)
Download the latex-file from Now for any r,s ∈ F and considering the annihilating
https://github.com/ankuraditya13/EE5609− polynomial f with degree 2.
Assignment18 f (A) = A2 + rA + s (3.0.6)
     
1 Problem 0 c ac  0 0 rc  s 0 0
=⇒ 0 b c + ba +  r 0 rb + 0 s 0
    
Let a, b and c be the elements of a field F, and 1 a b + a2 0 r ra 0 0 s
let A be the following 3× 3 matrix over F (3.0.7)
 
0 0 c
A = 1 0 b (1.0.1) ac + rc
 
 s c 
0 1 a ∴ f (A) = A2 + rA + s =  r b + s c + ba + br  , 0
1 a + r b + a2 + ra + s

Prove that the characteristic polynomial for A is x3 −
(3.0.8)
ax2 −bx−c and that this is also minimal polynomial
for A. Element positioned at row-3 and column-1 is non-
zero, hence for any r, s ∈ F =⇒ f (A) , 0∀ f ∈
2 Definitions F. Hence minimal polynomial cannot have degree
Minimal polynomial of A is a polynomial which 2.3 Hence
2
degree of minimal polynomial is 3. Also
satisfies, x − ax − bx − c divides f. Hence from definition-1
1) P(A) = 0 we can conclude that,
2) P(x) is monic. p(x) = x3 − ax2 − bx − c (3.0.9)
3) It there is some other annihilating polynomial
q(x) such that, q(A) = 0, then q does not divide is a minimal polynomial.
p.

3 Solution
The characteristic polynomial is calculated by 4 Example
solving A − λI = 0
 
 
 
 −λ 0 c  Let a = 0,b = 0,c = 0 ∈ F. Hence,
=⇒ A − λI =  1 −λ

b  (3.0.1)
0 1 a − λ
 
  0 0 0
  A = 1 0 0 (4.0.1)
R2 ←R2 +λR3 
−λ 0 c
0 1 0
 
←−−−−−−→  1 0 b + aλ − λ2 

(3.0.2)
0 1 a−λ  Now finding characteristic polynomial by substitut-
 

−λ c
 ing the values of a,b, and c in equation (3.0.5) we
=⇒ A − λI = 1 
  
(3.0.3) get,
1 b + aλ − λ2 

=⇒ A − λI = (−λ)(b + aλ − λ2 ) − c
 
(3.0.4) λ3 = 0 (4.0.2)
 2

Now let r=0, s=0 ∈ F, Hence f(A) is given by using

the equation (3.0.8),
 
0 0 0
=⇒ f (A) = A2 + 0.A + 0 = 0 0 0 , 0
1 0 0
(4.0.3)
Hence, f (A) , 0, Hence degree of minimal polyno-
mial is 3 and is equal to,
p(x) = x3 (4.0.4)
Verification by calculating p(A),
   
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
p(A) = A3 = 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0
0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
(4.0.5)
  
0 0 0 0 0 0
=⇒ 0 0 0 1

0 0 (4.0.6)

1 0 0 0 1 0
 
0 0 0
=⇒ f (A) = 0 0 0 = 0

 (4.0.7)
0 0 0
Hence, from definition-1 it can be concluded that
p(x) = x3 is a minimal polynomial.

5 Conclusion
For the A given by equation (1.0.1) ,characteristic
and minimal polynomial is given by,
x3 − ax2 − bx − c (5.0.1)
Hence, Proved