Super Linear Algebra - Scope of Study - Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

In general, the action of a linear transformation may be quite complex. Attention to low-dimensional examples gives an indication of the variety of their types. One strategy for a general n-dimensional transformation T is to find "characteristic lines" that are invariant sets under T. If v is a non-zero vector such that Tv is a scalar multiple of v, then the line through 0 and v is an invariant set under T and v is called a characteristic vector or eigenvector. The scalar λ such that Tv = λv is called a characteristic value or eigenvalue of T.

To find an eigenvector or an eigenvalue, we note that

where Id is the identity matrix. For there to be nontrivial solutions to that equation, det(T − λ Id) = 0. The determinant is a polynomial, and so the eigenvalues are not guaranteed to exist if the field is R. Thus, we often work with an algebraically closed field such as the complex numbers when dealing with eigenvectors and eigenvalues so that an eigenvalue will always exist. It would be particularly nice if given a transformation T taking a vector space V into itself we can find a basis for V consisting of eigenvectors. If such a basis exists, we can easily compute the action of the transformation on any vector: if v₁, v₂, …, v_n are linearly independent eigenvectors of a mapping of n-dimensional spaces T with (not necessarily distinct) eigenvalues λ₁, λ₂, …, λ_n, and if v = a₁v₁ + ... + a_n v_n, then,

Such a transformation is called a diagonalizable matrix since in the eigenbasis, the transformation is represented by a diagonal matrix. Because operations like matrix multiplication, matrix inversion, and determinant calculation are simple on diagonal matrices, computations involving matrices are much simpler if we can bring the matrix to a diagonal form. Not all matrices are diagonalizable (even over an algebraically closed field).