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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Let AA be a non-invertible square matrix of order nn with real entries, n2n \ge 2, and let AA^* be the adjoint of AA. Prove that tr(A)1\text{tr}(A^*) \ne -1 if and only if the matrix In+AI_n + A^* is invertible.

Solution

As AA is non-singular, we get rank(A)n1\text{rank}(A) \le n - 1. Distinguish two cases:

i) rank(A)n2\text{rank}(A) \le n - 2. Then A=OnA^* = O_n and the conclusion follows immediately.

ii) rank(A)=n1\text{rank}(A) = n-1. Then AA=OnAA^* = O_n and by Sylvester's inequality 0rank(A)+rank(A)n0 \ge \text{rank}(A) + \text{rank}(A^*) - n, that is rank(A)1\text{rank}(A^*) \le 1.
It follows that A=CLA = CL where LMn,1(R)L \in \mathcal{M}_{n,1}(\mathbb{R}) and CM1,n(R)C \in \mathcal{M}_{1,n}(\mathbb{R}). It follows that LC=(a)M1(R)LC = (a) \in \mathcal{M}_1(\mathbb{R}), with a=tr(A)a = \text{tr}(A^*) and (A)2=CLCL=C(a)L=aA(A^*)^2 = CLCL = C(a)L = aA^*. Denote by B=In+AB = I_n + A^*. Then (BIn)2=a(BIn)(B - I_n)^2 = a(B - I_n) or, equivalently, B((a+2)InB)=(a+1)InB((a+2)I_n - B) = (a+1)I_n, which, in turn, implies a1a \ne -1, that is BB is invertible.

Moreover, if BB is invertible but a=1a = -1, then from B(InB)=OnB(I_n - B) = O_n we deduce B=InB = I_n. Thus A=OnA^* = O_n implying 1=tr(A)=0-1 = \text{tr}(A^*) = 0, a contradiction.

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