Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/ib/paper-3/13e/ii/solution

Take a size-three Jordan block at one and a scalar block at three:
Triangularity gives . On the first block, is zero but is not; on the last component the eigenvalue is three. Thus both factors with exactly those powers are needed, and their product annihilates . Its minimal polynomial is therefore also .

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