More on Similarity of Matrices

Author(s): Richard A. Davis

Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 88, No. 10 (Dec., 1981), pp. 761-762
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2321479
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1981] CLASSROOM NOTES 761

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CLASSROOM NOTES

EDITED BY J.ARTHUR SEEBACH, JR.

Materialforthisdepartment J. ArthurSeebach,Jr.,Department
shouldbe sentto Professor St.
of Mathematics,
MN 55057.
Olaf College,Northfield,

MORE ON SIMILARITY OF MATRICES

RICHARD A. DAVIS
and Computer
ofMathematics
Department Science,ManhattanCollege,Bronx,NY 10471

proofof thefollowing:
WilliamWatkins,in [1],has givenan elementary
matrices.
THEOREM. LetA andB be realn-by-n thenA is
If A is similartoB overthecomplexes,
similartoB overthereals.
Thosefamiliar withthepolynomial invariants shouldhavelittledifficulty
of an endomorphism
in provingthisresultforarbitrary fromthat
fields,althoughthemethodofproofis quitedifferent
in [1]. See, forexample,[2, pp. 305-309].The purposeof thisnoteis to indicatehowWatkins's

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762 PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS [December

techniquecan be modifiedto handlemoregeneralsituations, suchas thosegivenin thetheorem

below,wherethetheoryof polynomial invariantsdoes notapply.
The following factsare assumed:First,if the determinant of a matrixis nonzero,thenthe
Second,iff(x1, x2,..., Xm) is a nonzeropolynomial
matrixis invertible. overan infinitefieldK,
then thereexist kI, k2,..., kmbelongingto K such thatf(kI, k2,..., kmn)# 0. See [2, pp.
120-123].Finally,thereexistsa basis foranyvectorspace overa field,finitelygenerated or not.
See [2,pp. 85-87].
DEFINITION. Suppose{AJ}J j and {BJ}1Jj are setsof n-by-nmatricesovera fieldK. We say
thatthesesets are similarover K if thereis an invertible n-by-nmatrixS over K such that
Ai= S-BjS forallj inJ.
THEOREM. Suppose K is an infinite fieldand L is anyfieldcontainingK. Let A. JE and fBJJ J
be sets of n-by-nmatricesover K. If thesesets are similarover L, thentheyare similarover K.
Proof. SupposethatA. S - 1BjS forall] inJ,whereS is an invertible
matrixoverL. We can
writeS = Plhl + P2h2 + * +Pmhm, wheretheh, areelementsofL, linearly independent over
K, and thePI aren-by-n overK fori = 1,2,.. ., m. ThenSA - BJS = 0 impliesthatthe
matrices
sum (PIAJ - BJPI)hl + (P2AJ - BJP2)h2 + * +(PmAj - BPm)hm = O, and so PIA, = BJP,
foreach i andj.
f(Xi,X2,...,XM) =det(P1x1 +P2X2 + +PmXm)

is a polynomial
overK and is notidentically zerosincef( h I, h2, .. ., hm)= detS # 0. Thus,there
are elementskI, k2, .. ., km in K such thatf(k1 mk2,... mkm)#0, and thematrixM = PI kI +
P2k2 + *.. +Pmk.m is invertibleoverK. SinceMA1 = BjM forallj in J, we are finished.
This proofcarriesoverunchangedif K is finitewithmorethann elements, and withslight
modificationswe can provethetheorem whenK has n or fewerelements.See [3, pp. 198-202],
whosetreatment we havefollowedhere.
The notionof similarityof setsof matricesand thetheoremprovedabovecan be applied,for
example,in situations
involving thesimultaneous or diagonalization
triangulation of a familyof
commuting matrices.See [4,p. 206].
References
1. W. Watkins,Similarity of matrices,thisMONTHLY, 87 (1980) 300.
2. S. Lang, Algebra,Addison-Wesley, Reading,Mass., 1965.
3. C. W. Curtisand I. Reiner,RepresentationTheoryof FiniteGroups and AssociativeAlgebras,Interscience,
New York, 1962.
4. K. Hoffmanand R. Kunze, LinearAlgebra,Prentice-Hall, EnglewoodCliffs,N.J., 1961.

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

EDITED BY J.L. BRENNER, VLADIMIR DROBOT, AND ROGER C. LYNDON

EDITOR EMERITUS: EMORY P. STARKE. ASSOCIATE EDITOR: A. P. HILLMAN. COLLABORATING EDITORS:

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