Saturday, September 21, 2019

linear algebra - Efficient method for computing the properties of a block anti-diagonal matrix




EDIT: the title and content of this question were reformulated for the sake of clarity and to avoid diverting attention from the main issue.



I was trying to answer a question about a system of linear differential equations and it was necessary to find the eigenvalues, eigenvectors and generalized eigenvectors for the following matrix:
M=[0E×B×0],
where E=[E1,E2,E3]T,B=[B1,B2,B3], ETB=0 and E×,B× are the representation of vectors through antisymmetric matrices:
E×=(0E3E2E30E1E2E10),B×=(0B3B2B30B1B2B10).

With WolframAlpha it is possible to see that all eigenvalues are zero and the kernel has dimension 2. I have tried to find some method to obtain these results without resort to software or brute force (solve a linear system step by step), but I could not.



Then my question is the following: is it possible to determine the null space, eigenvalues and generalized eigenvectors for matrix M efficiently without resort to software or brute force?



It is always possible to compute them the hard way: computing the characteristic polynomial det(Mλ1), finding its roots, substituting in (Mλ1)v=0 to find eigenvectors v and using them to determine the generalized eigenvectors. What I am looking for is a answer that computes the null space, eigenvalues and (generalized) eigenvectors making use of the properties of matrix M, not brute force.


Answer



We assume that the system {E,B} is linearly independent.



Note that (double cross product) ExBxX=BETXX(ETB)=BETX, that is, ExBx=BET and, in the same way, BxEx=EBT.




M[X,Y]T=[E×Y,B×X]T and a basis of ker(M) is {[B,0]T,[0,E]T}.



Moreover det(MλI6)=det(λ2IBET); BET has rank 1 and trace 0; then it is nilpotent and M also.



About the generalized eigenvectors, M2=diag(BET,EBT) and M2[X,Y]T=0 can be written BETX=0,EBTY=0, that is, XE,YB, that implies that dim(ker(M2))=4.



It is not difficult to see that M3=0 and we are done.


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