Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/ib/paper-2/15g/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 ib Paper 2 15G b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose an invertible change-of-basis matrix so that is the Jordan normal form of . Write each block aswhere has ones on its first superdiagonal and all other entries zero. DefineEvery because is invertible, so is an invertible diagonal matrix. The matrix is strictly upper triangular and hence nilpotent. On each block is a scalar multiple of the identity, so it commutes with on that block and therefore on the whole space. This gives
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