Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / ib / Paper 1 / 14G / a / Solution

After choosing a basis of $V$, a linear endomorphism is specified by an $n$ by $n$ matrix, with $n^2$ freely chosen coefficients. ThereforeThe $n^2+1$ endomorphisms $I,\alpha ,\dots ,{\alpha }^{n^2}$ are linearly dependent. Some nonzero coefficient list gives a nonzero polynomial $p$ satisfying $p(\alpha )=0$.

For nonzero $V$, the minimal polynomial $m_{\alpha }$ is the monic polynomial of least degree annihilating $\alpha$. It is unique: subtracting two monic least-degree choices would give a lower-degree annihilator. More generally division of any annihilator $p$ by $m_{\alpha }$ gives $p=q{m}_{\alpha }+r$, with $\mathrm{deg}r<\mathrm{deg}{m}_{\alpha }$, and evaluation implies $r(\alpha )=0$. Minimality forces $r=0$, so every annihilator is divisible by $m_{\alpha }$. If $V=\{0\}$, the convention $m_{\alpha }=1$ handles the degenerate case.

The arguments work over the underlying scalar field. In part (b), roots in that field correspond to eigenvalues there; to discuss other roots one extends scalars, for example by complexifying a real vector space.