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Minimal polynomial (linear algebra)


In linear algebra, the minimal polynomial μA of an n × n matrix A over a field F is the monic polynomial P over F of least degree such that P(A) = 0. Any other polynomial Q with Q(A) = 0 is a (polynomial) multiple of μA.

The following three statements are equivalent:

The multiplicity of a root λ of μA is the largest power m such that Ker((AλIn)m) strictly contains Ker((AλIn)m−1). In other words, increasing the exponent up to m will give ever larger kernels, but further increasing the exponent beyond m will just give the same kernel.

If the field F is not algebraically closed, then the minimal and characteristic polynomials need not factor according to their roots (in F) alone, in other words they may have irreducible polynomial factors of degree greater than 1. For irreducible polynomials P one has similar equivalences:

Like the characteristic polynomial, the minimal polynomial does not depend on the base field, in other words considering the matrix as one with coefficients in a larger field does not change the minimal polynomial. The reason is somewhat different from for the characteristic polynomial (where it is immediate from the definition of determinants), namely the fact that the minimal polynomial is determined by the relations of linear dependence between the powers of A: extending the base field will not introduce any new such relations (nor of course will it remove existing ones).


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