Canonical forms under similarity; Rational, Jacobson and Jordan canonical forms; hypercompanion matrix

Rational Canonical Form. Given an nxn matrix A, let be the companion matrices of the non-trivial invariant factors of λI - A. Then the rational canonical form for all matrices similar to A is

In other words, the rational form is the direct sum of the companion matrices :

                                    S = diag ( )

● Every square matrix A is similar to the direct sum of the companion matrices of the non-trivial invariant factors of λI - A.

A second canonical form. Given an nxn matrix A, let be the companion matrices of the elementary divisors of λI - A. Then a canonical form for all matrices similar to A is

In other words, the form is the direct sum of the companion matrices :

● Every square matrix A over F is similar to the direct sum of the companion matrices of the elementary divisors over F of λI - A.

Hypercompanion matrix. Let {p(λ)}^q be one of the elementary divisors of the characteristic matrix of some λ-matrix and let C(p) be the companion matrix of p(λ). The hypercompanion matrix H associated with the elementary divisor {p(λ)}^q is given by

where M is a matrix of the same order as C(p) having the element 1 in the lower left-hand corner and zeros elsewhere. The diagonal of the hypercompanion matrix H consists of q identical C(p) matrices. Note that there is a continuous line of 1's just above the diagonal.

● Every square matrix A over F is similar to the direct sum of the hypercompanion matrices of the elementary divisors over F of λI - A.

The Jacobson canonical form. The Jacobson canonical form of a square matrix A consists of the direct sum of the hypercompanion matrices of the elementary divisors over F of

λI - A i.e. the matrix J

where is the hypercompanion matris associated with the i-th elementary divisor.

The Classical (or Jordan) canonical form. Let the elementary divisors of the characteristic matrix of a matrix A be powers of linear polynomials. The canonical form is then the direct sum of hypercompanion matrices of the form

corresponding to the elementary divisor {p(λ)}^q = ( λ - )^q . The diagonal contains q identical . This special case of the Jabobson canonical form is known as the Jordan or Classical canonical form.

● Let F be the field in which the characteristic polynomial of a matrix A factors into linear polynomials. Then A is similar over F to the direct sum of hypercompanion matrices of the form (1) above, each matrix corresponding to an elementary divisor ( λ - )^q .

● An n-square matrix A is similar to a diagonal matrix if and only if the elementary divisors of λI - A are linear polynomials, that is, if and only if the minimum polynomial of A is the product of distinct linear polynomials.

References

  Ayres. Matrices.