Simultaneously Diagonalizable

Algebra Level 4

If square matrices A A and B B of the same order over C \mathbb C are both diagonalizable, which of the following statements is/are true?

Ⅰ. If A A and B B are simultaneously diagonalizable, that is, there exists a similarity matrix P P such that P 1 A P P^{-1}AP and P 1 B P P^{-1}BP are both diagonal, then A A and B B commute.

Ⅱ. If A A and B B commute, then they can be simultaneously diagonalizable.


Bonus: Generalize this for any number of matrices.

Neither Ⅰ only Ⅱ only Ⅰ and Ⅱ

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Brian Lie
Jan 11, 2019

Statement Ⅰ is true since diagonal matrices commute.

Statement Ⅱ is true: Perform a similarity transformation on both A A and B B that diagonalizes A A (but not necessarily B B ) and group together any repeated eigenvalues of A . A. If μ 1 , μ 2 , , μ d \mu_1,\mu_2,\dots,\mu_d are the distinct eigenvalues of A A and n 1 , n 2 , , n d n_1,n_2,\dots,n_d are their respective multiplicities, then we may assume that A = [ μ 1 I n 1 0 μ 2 I n 2 0 μ d I n d ] , μ i μ j , if i j A= \begin{bmatrix} \mu_1I_{n_1} & & & 0 \\ & \mu_2I_{n_2} & & \\   & & \ddots  &  \\   0 & & & \mu_dI_{n_d} \\ \end{bmatrix},\quad \mu_i\neq\mu_j,\text{ if }i\neq j Since A B = B A , AB=BA, we can see, by multiplication of block matrix, that B = [ B 1 0 B 2 0 B d ] , each B i M n i ( C ) B= \begin{bmatrix} B_1 & & & 0 \\ & B_2 & & \\   & & \ddots  &   \\   0 & & & B_d \\ \end{bmatrix},\quad \text{each }B_i\in M_{n_i}(\mathbb C) is block diagonal conformal to A . A. Since B B is diagonalizable, we can see, by induction, that each B i B_i is diagonalizable. Let T i M n i ( C ) T_i\in M_{n_i}(\mathbb C) be nonsingular and such that T i 1 B i T i T_i^{-1}B_iT_i is diagonal for each i = 1 , 2 , d . i=1,2,\dots d. Let T = [ T 1 0 T 2 0 T d ] T= \begin{bmatrix} T_1 & & & 0 \\ & T_2 & & \\   & & \ddots  &   \\   0 & & & T_d \\ \end{bmatrix} Then T i 1 μ i I n i T i = μ i I n i , T_i^{-1}\mu_iI_{n_i}T_i=\mu_iI_{n_i}, so T 1 A T = A T^{-1}AT=A and T 1 B T T^{-1}BT are both diagonal.


Generalization for any number of matrices could be:

Let F M n ( C ) \mathcal F\subset M_n(\mathbb C) be a family of diagonalizable matrices. Then F \mathcal F is a commuting family , that is, every pair of matrices in F \mathcal F commute, if and only if it is a simultaneously diagonalizable family , that is, there is a single nonsingular S M n ( C ) S\in M_n(\mathbb C) such that S 1 A S S^{-1}AS is diagonal for every A F . A\in\mathcal F.

References

[1] Roger A. Horn and Charles R. Johnson, Matrix analysis , Cambridge University Press, 2013.

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...