Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/ib/paper-3/10h/b/solution

Suppose belongs to the kernel of the displayed matrix . Define the polynomial . Then for all , and . These are distinct roots of a polynomial of degree at most . Repeated application of the factor theorem therefore makes identically zero, so every . Hence is injective and, by finite-dimensional rank-nullity theorem, invertible. Its transpose is invertible with inverse , proving both kernels are trivial.
For the second matrix, membership of the all-ones vector in the kernel means
Group the distinct nonzero values as , with multiplicities . Zero values contribute nothing to these positive powers. The first equations are
or . The proved transpose-kernel statement implies , contradicting its positive entries if . Therefore and
Conversely, all zero values plainly give a zero matrix. This proves the zero power sums force a finite complex multiset to vanish criterion, including repetitions and zero values rather than assuming all eigenvalues distinct.

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