When is the product of two matrices diagonalizable

diagonalizationeigenvalues-eigenvectorslinear algebramatrices

Say, I have two square matrices, $A$ and $B$, not necessarily Hermitian, whose eigenvalues and eigenvectors are known, and I also know if they are diagonalizable. Is there a way to figure out if their product $AB$ is diagonalizable without explicitly calculating the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of $AB$?

Best Answer

For example, try $A = \pmatrix{1 & 1\cr 0 & 1\cr}$ and $B = \pmatrix{1 & t\cr 0 & 1\cr}$ where $t \ne 0$. $A$ and $B$ both are non-diagonalizable with eigenvalue $1$ and eigenvector $\pmatrix{1\cr 0\cr}$. $AB = \pmatrix{1 & 1+t\cr 0 & 1\cr}$, which is also non-diagonalizable except when $t = -1$, in which case it is diagonalizable.

So you can't always tell whether $AB$ will be diagonalizable by just looking at the diagonalizability, eigenvalues and eigenvectors of $A$ and $B$ separately.