Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-and-computational-biology-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/e8/e/i/solution

The premise contains a wording error: must be a nonzero eigenvalue, rather than a nonzero eigenvector. Let satisfy
Then , since otherwise would force . Multiplying by gives
Thus , with eigenvector . Conversely, applying maps an eigenvector of with nonzero eigenvalue to one of .
These maps are inverses up to the factor on the corresponding eigenspaces, so the nonzero eigenvalues have equal multiplicities. Their zero eigenvalues need not have the same multiplicity because the two matrices can have different sizes. For a unit eigenvector and real , the normalized partner is , since .

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