NAME:

Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at Arlington

Ph.D. Preliminary Examination A, Linear Algebra, August 2009
This test is for 2 hours. Write your answers on one side of paper only, with each page clearly marked
with your name and the question number. No calculators allowed. Show all work and justify your
answers.
Problem 1 is REQUIRED. Choose three questions out of problems 2-5; turn in only those three that you
choose (and problem 1). If you turn in all five problems, then only problems 1-4 will be graded.
In what follows, F is either R or C; In is the identity matrix (linear transformation) from Fn to Fn , or
simply I if n is clear from the context; X is the conjugate transpose of X Fmn . By convention, all
vectors of Fn are column vectors, unless specified otherwise.
1

... ...

J =

...

1. (REQUIRED)
(a) Let J Fnn be a Jordan block, i.e.,

, where F.

Find the minimal polynomial of J, i.e., a polynomial p(t) = tm + am1 tm1 + + a1 t + a0

with the smallest degree such that
p(J) = J m + am1 J m1 + + a1 J + a0 I = 0.
(b) State (without proof) the Jordan canonical form theorem of a matrix.
(c) Prove the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem: (A) = 0, where A is an n n matrix and
(t) = det(tIn A).

7 2
8
3
0 ,
(d) Find (with justification) the Jordan canonical form of A = 0
4
1 5

given that

A has eigenvalues 1 (with multiplicity one) and 3 (with multiplicity two).

2. Let x, y Fn , X, Y Fnk , and A Fnn . Suppose that A is invertible. Prove that C = A + XY

is invertible if and only if Ik + Y A1 X is invertible, and verify that
C 1 = A1 A1 X[Ik + Y A1 X]1 Y A1
when C = A + XY is invertible.
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3. Let P Fnn . Assume that P 2 = P .

(a) Prove that P is a projector, i.e., that there are two subspaces V and W of Fn such that
Fn = V W and P x = x and P y = 0 for any x V and y W.
(b) Prove that P is diagonalizable. What are its possible eigenvalues? (Justify)
(c) Let F = C equipped with the standard inner product, i.e., hx, yi = y x. Prove that P is an
orthogonal projector if and only if P = P .

4. (a) Let V and W be two subspaces of a finite-dimensional vector space. Is V W necessarily a

subspace? If not, describe the smallest subspace that contains V W.
(b) Let V be the inner-product space of real-valued continuous functions defined on the interval
[1, 1] with inner-product defined by
hf, gi =

f (x)g(x) dx,

and let S be the subspace of V spanned by f0 , f1 , f2 , where

f0 (x) = 1,

f1 (x) = x,

f2 (x) = x2

for all x.

Find an orthonormal basis for S.

5. Decide if the following statements are true or false; justify your claim with a proof or counterexample,
as appropriate.
(a) If vector 0 is included among the vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk , then these vectors are linearly independent.
(b) If vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly independent, and if a vector vk+1 is not a linear combination
of v1 , v2 , . . . , vk , then v1 , v2 , . . . , vk , vk+1 are linearly independent.
(c) If a vector u is not a linear combination of vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk , then u, v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly
independent.
(d) If vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly independent, then none of them is a linear combination of
the others.
(e) Vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly independent if none of them is a linear combination of the
others.
(f) Suppose k 3. If all choices of k 1 vectors from v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly independent, then
v1 , v2 , . . . , vk are linearly independent.
(g) If a vector u is a linear combination of vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vm , and if each vi (1 i m) is a
linear combination of vectors u1 , u2 , . . . , un , then u is a linear combination of u1 , u2 , . . . , un .
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