Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ib / Paper 2 / 1G (Linear Algebra)

The monomials $x^i{y}^j$ with $i,j\ge 0$ and $i+j\le n$ form a basis of the given vector space. There are $k+1$ of total degree $k$, soOn that basis the linear operator is diagonal:Both summands of the eigenvalue are nonnegative integers. Their sum is zero precisely when $i,j\in \{0,1\}$. Thus the kernel is the span of those members of $1,x,y,xy$ whose total degree is at most $n$. In particular it is $\mathrm{span}\{1,x,y\}$ for $n=1$ and $\mathrm{span}\{1,x,y,xy\}$ for $n\ge 2$; for $n=0$ it is the constants. The image of a linear map is the span of all the other permitted monomials, since each has a nonzero diagonal eigenvalue and hence is the image of its reciprocal multiple. No excluded monomial can occur in an image because its diagonal coefficient is zero.

The trace is the sum of these eigenvalues. At degrees zero and one all contributions vanish. At degree two the contributions are $2,0,2$, summing to four; at degree three they are $6,2,2,6$, summing to sixteen; at degree four they are $12,6,4,6,12$, summing to forty. ThereforeThis is the diagonal monomial action of a second-order Euler operator.