Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2025 / ib / Paper 4 / 9E / b / i / Solution

Make $V$ a $k[x]$-module by $xv=\phi (v)$. The structure theorem over the Euclidean domain $k[x]$ decomposes its torsion module aswhere the $p_{\alpha }$ are monic irreducibles. Each summand is indecomposable: its submodules form a chain, so two nonzero submodules cannot form a direct sum. This is the desired decomposition into invariant indecomposable subspaces.

The characteristic polynomial iswhereas the minimal polynomial is the least common multiple