Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-and-computational-biology-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/e8/e/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematical and Computational Biology course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 1 E8 e i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
The premise contains a wording error: must be a nonzero eigenvalue, rather than a nonzero eigenvector. Let satisfyThen , since otherwise would force . Multiplying by givesThus , 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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