AlgebraDifficulty 7.7National olympiad, round 2Find the answer
Determine all positive integers n for which there exist n×n real invertible matrices A and B that satisfy AB−BA=B2A.
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
We prove that there exist such matrices A and B if and only if n is even. I. Assume that n is odd and some invertible n×n matrices A,B satisfy AB−BA=B2A. Hence B=A−1(B2+B)A, so the matrices B and B2+B are similar and therefore have the same eigenvalues. Since n is odd, the matrix B has a real eigenvalue, denote it by λ1. Therefore λ2:=λ12+λ1 is an eigenvalue of B2+B, hence an eigenvalue of B. Similarly, λ3:=λ22+λ2 is an eigenvalue of B2+B, hence an eigenvalue of B. Repeating this process and taking into account that the number of eigenvalues of B is finite we will get there exist numbers k≤l so that λl+1=λk. Hence λk+1=λk2+λk…λl=λl−12+λl−1λk=λl2+λl Adding these equations we get λk2+λk+12+…+λl2=0. Taking into account that all λi 's are real (as λ1 is real), we have λk=…=λl=0, which implies that B is not invertible, contradiction. II. Now we construct such matrices A,B for even n. Let A2=[0110] and B2=[−1−11−1]. It is easy to check that the matrices A2,B2 are invertible and satisfy the condition. For n=2k the n×n block matrices A=A20⋮00A2⋮0……⋱…00⋮A2,B=B20⋮00B2⋮0……⋱…00⋮B2 are also invertible and satisfy the condition.
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