Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ia / Paper 1 / 6C / c / Solution

The Cayley-Hamilton theorem states that a square matrix satisfies its characteristic polynomial. If a $2\times 2$ matrix is diagonalisable, $A=S\mathrm{diag}({\lambda }_1,{\lambda }_2)S^{-1}$; applying $p(t)=(t-{\lambda }_1)(t-{\lambda }_2)$ to the diagonal matrix gives zero and hence $p(A)=0$.

If $B^k=0$, every eigenvalue $\lambda$ satisfies ${\lambda }^k=0$, so all eigenvalues are zero and the characteristic polynomial is $t^n$. Cayley--Hamilton then gives $B^n=0$.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.