Sunday, May 7, 2017

linear algebra - Relation between the rank of the matrix and its characteristic polynomial?



Is there some kind of relation between the rank of the matrix and its characteristic polynomial?After searching through various posts


Say if $A \in M_{5}(\Bbb{R})$ and its characteristic polynomial is $\alpha x^5 + \beta x^4 + \gamma x^3 =0 $,then the rank of matrix $A$ = ?


I am unable to estalish the relation ,like I know that from characteristic polynomial i can obtain the eigenvalues and hence the trace and determinant of the matrix and now the question is if i know the trace and determinat of the matrix can i obtain some information about the rank of the matrix(the number of linearly independent rows in the rref).


I was looking at this question but still i am not aware of any trick or relation.


Answer



If the matrix is diagonalizable, rank = degree of the characteristic polynomial minus the order of multiplicity of root 0 (in the example, the rank of the matrix is 5 - 3 = 2).


In fact, in this case, writing $M=PDP^{-1}$ with $D$ diagonal matrix with $n-r$ zeros, and transforming it into $MP=PD$, it means that if the columns of $P$ are denoted $P_k$, we have $MP_k=\lambda_k P_k$ with, say, the last $n-r$ vectors associated with eigenvalue $0$, (and only them) i.e. we have exactly $n-r$ independant vectors belonging to the kernel.


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