Proof of Cayley-Hamilton

Definition 1. Let V be an n-dimensional space. Given T ∈ L(V ) and v ∈ V , let m be

the first positive integer such that T m v is a linear combination of a linearly independent set
{T j v}m−1
j=0 , or
m−1
X
m
T v=− aj T j v. (1)
j=0

Notice that the aj are uniquely determined by the v. Then, we will define the minimal
polynomial for (T, v) as
m−1
X
m
min PT,v = x + aj x j , (2)
j=0

where the aj are defined by (1).

Theorem 1. (Cayley-Hamilton) Let T ∈ L(V ). Then χT (T ) = 0, where χT is the
characteristic polynomial of T .
Proof. Let v ∈ V where dim(V ) = n and let min PT,v have degree k ≤ n. Then, we can see
that {v, T v, T 2 v, · · · , T k−1 v} is a linearly independent set and its span is T -invariant. We
can then extend this to a basis of V , {v, T v, T 2 v, · · · , T k−1 v, uk+1 , · · · , un }. Define A as the
matrix representation of T in this basis. Since span(v, Tv , T 2 v, · · · , T k−1 v) is T -invariant,
all of the entries in the first k columns and the last n − k rows will all be zero. In other
words, the first k columns represent the subspace {v, T v, T 2 v, · · · , T k−1 v} and since it is
T -invariant, the vectors uk+1 , · · · , un are not represented in the first j columns, except by
zeros. Therefore, A looks like the following:
 
B C
A= ,
0 D
where B is a k × k matrix and D is an n − k × n − k matrix. However, the matrix B is just
k−1
the companion matrix for min PT,v . Therefore, let min PT,v (x) = xk + aj xj , then we have
P
j=0
the following matrix representation for B:
 
0 0 · · · 0 −a0
1
 0 · · · 0 −a1  
B = 0
 1 · · · 0 −a2  .
 .. .. . . .. .. 
. . . . . 
0 0 · · · 1 −ak−1
By the definition of the characteristic polynomial, we have that χB (T ) = det(B − λIk ) =
(−1)k min PT,v .1 Therefore,
χT = χA = χB χD = (−1)k χD min PT,v .
1
To compute this determinant, utilize the last column as your co-factors.
Thus, we can see that for all v ∈ V , min PT,v | χT . Now, let w ∈ V . Then, observe the
following calculations, where Q(T ) is a uniquely determined polynomial:

χT (T )w = [Q(T ) min PT,w (T )] w

= Q(T ) min PT,w (T )w
= Q(T )(0)
= 0,

where the third line is found by referring back to the definitions provided in (1) and (2).
Therefore, since this is for all w ∈ V , we can assert that χT (T ) = 0.

Adapted from Katznelson/Katznelson