Questions in Theorem 6 of Chapter 6 of Hoffman Kunze Linear Algebra

invariant-theorylinear algebra

While self studying Linear Algebra from Hoffman Kunze I am unable to understand some deductions in Theorem-6 on Page 204 .

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$(1)$ In 7th last line from below I am not able to deduce how $q- q(c_{j})$ equals $( x-c_{j} ) h$ despite the definition of $q$ being clear to me ( It's given in line above.

$(2)$ How did in 3rd last line from below $p(T)\alpha=0$? And how does that implies the belonging of $q(T)\alpha$ in $W$? The equality of $p(T)\alpha = (T-c_{j}I ) q(T)\alpha$ is clear but I don't know how they became equal to $0$.

Kindly help.

Best Answer

(1) Of course, $c_j$ is a root of $q-q(c_j)$. Hence there is some polynomial $h$ such that $q-q(c_j) = (x-c_j)\cdot h$.

(2) Since $p$ is the minimal polynomial of $T$, one has $p(T) = 0$ by definition.

Moreover, $W$ was defined to be the span of all characteristic vectors of $T$. Here, one has $0 = (T-c_j I)q(T)\alpha$. In other words, $q(T)\alpha \in \mathrm{ker}(T-c_jI)$, which means that $q(T)\alpha$ is a characteristic vector of $T$ to the eigenvalue $c_j$ (or $q(T)\alpha = 0$).