Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-1/5/b/solution

An invertible matrix is a square matrix for which there is a matrix with . Write its assumed diagonalization as , where is invertible and . Then
If the determinant is nonzero, every is nonzero, so exists and . If the determinant is zero, at least one eigenvalue is zero; its nonzero eigenvector is mapped to zero, which an invertible map cannot do. Hence
The equivalence holds even without diagonalizability, but the eigenbasis proves the stated case directly.

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