Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-linear-algebra-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/2/c/ii/solution

Take the Nilpotent Jordan block
Then
Suppose that a complex matrix of size three satisfied . We would have , so would be a nilpotent matrix. Every eigenvalue of must then be zero: if with , applying gives . Its characteristic polynomial is therefore , and the Cayley-Hamilton theorem gives . This contradicts . Hence
The obstruction is that a nilpotent matrix of size three cannot have nilpotency index greater than three.

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