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×=(0−E3E2E30−E1−E2E10),B×=(0−B3B2B30−B1−B2B10).
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(M−λ1), finding its roots, substituting in (M−λ1)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=BETX−X(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(M−λI6)=det(λ2I−BET); 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, X∈E⊥,Y∈B⊥, that implies that dim(ker(M2))=4.
It is not difficult to see that M3=0 and we are done.
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