Diagonalizable Matrix

Diagonalizable Matrix

In linear algebra, a square matrix A is called diagonalizable if it is similar to a diagonal matrix, i.e., if there exists an invertible matrix P such that P −1AP is a diagonal matrix. If V is a finite-dimensional vector space, then a linear map T : V → V is called diagonalizable if there exists a basis of V with respect to which T is represented by a diagonal matrix. Diagonalization is the process of finding a corresponding diagonal matrix for a diagonalizable matrix or linear map. A square matrix which is not diagonalizable is called defective.

Diagonalizable matrices and maps are of interest because diagonal matrices are especially easy to handle: their eigenvalues and eigenvectors are known and one can raise a diagonal matrix to a power by simply raising the diagonal entries to that same power. Geometrically, a diagonalizable matrix is an inhomogeneous dilation (or anisotropic scaling) – it scales the space, as does a homogeneous dilation, but by a different factor in each direction, determined by the scale factors on each axis (diagonal entries).