6.3 Annihilating Polynomials

这一节主要是引入了一个新的定义：minimal polynomial。之前看过的教材中对此的定义是degree最低的能让T或者A为0的多项式，其实这个最低degree是有点概念性上的东西，但是这本书由于之前引入了ideal和generator，所以定义起来要严谨得多。比较容易证明的几个结论是：$T$和$[T{]}_{\mathfrak{B}}$有相同的minimal polynomial，相似的矩阵有相同的minimal polynomial.
后面的主要内容就是两个定理，Theorem 3说明特征多项式和最小多项式有相同的roots。Theorem 4即有名的Cayley-Hamilton定理，$T$的特征多项式可以annihilate $T$，因此最小多项式整除特征多项式，这一节中对此定理的证明用了行列式的方法。

Exercises

1.Let $V$ be a finite-dimensional vector space. What is the minimal polynomial for the identity operator on $V$? What is the minimal polynomial for the zero operator?
Solution: The minimal polynomial for $I$ is $p=x-1$, since $p(I)=I-I=0$. The mininal polynomial for $0$ is $p=x$.

2.Let $a,b,c$ be elements of a field $F$, and let $A$ be the following $3\times 3$ matrix over $F$:
$$A=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& c\\ 1& 0& b\\ 0& 1& a\end{array}\right].$$
Prove that the characteristic polynomial for $A$ is $x^3-a{x}^2-bx-c$ and that this is also the minimal polynomial for $A$.
Solution: We have
$$\begin{array}{rl}\det (xI-A)& =\left|\begin{array}{ccc}x& 0& -c\\ -1& x& -b\\ 0& -1& x-a\end{array}\right|=x\left|\begin{array}{cc}x& -b\\ -1& x-a\end{array}\right|-c\left|\begin{array}{cc}-1& x\\ 0& -1\end{array}\right|\\ & =x(x^2-ax-b)-c=x^3-a{x}^2-bx-c\end{array}$$
To see this is also the minimal polynomial for $A$, notice that
$$A^2=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& c\\ 1& 0& b\\ 0& 1& a\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& c\\ 1& 0& b\\ 0& 1& a\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& c& ac\\ 0& b& c+ab\\ 1& a& b+a^2\end{array}\right]$$
thus for any polynomial $f$ of degree 2, we write $f=m{x}^2+nx+q$, then
$$f(A)=m\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& c& ac\\ 0& b& c+ab\\ 1& a& b+a^2\end{array}\right]+n\left[\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& c\\ 1& 0& b\\ 0& 1& a\end{array}\right]+q[\begin{array}{c}\\ 1\end{array}$$