How statement and proof provenance work
The first chip identifies the source of the statement or construction; the second identifies the source of its local proof or verification.
- Literature-sourced: the exact statement appears in a cited source; only wording and notation differ.
- AI-adapted: a semantically identical restatement of literature-sourced material, modulo indexing, notation, and boundary cases adopted by the library.
- AI-generated: a genuinely novel statement formulated by AI, with no source for the claim itself.
These labels describe origin, not correctness: citations and verification chips remain separate evidence.
Primary decomposition: the irreducible-power factors of split into their invariant kernels
Statement
Let be an endomorphism of a finite-dimensional vector space over , and factor its minimal polynomial in the UFD as
where the are distinct monic irreducibles and . Then the subspaces are -invariant and
Moreover, the minimal polynomial of is exactly . If , then and this is the empty direct sum.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A finite-dimensional endomorphism and the displayed irreducible factorisation of .
Every polynomial ring over a field is a unique factorisation domain (For every field , is a unique factorisation domain).
If coprime satisfy , then (If and , then ).
A polynomial annihilates an endomorphism exactly when it is divisible by its minimal polynomial (The annihilator ideal is nonzero and has a unique monic generator; if and only if ).
Proof
By [L1], the distinct powers are pairwise coprime. Since , repeated application of [L2] gives .
Each summand is -invariant because commutes with . The restriction is annihilated by , so [L3] gives .
Suppose for some that is a proper divisor of . Put . On , the first factor annihilates; on with , the factor annihilates. Step 1.1 therefore gives .
The polynomial has smaller degree than and so cannot be divisible by , contradicting [L3]. Hence by monicity. If , then , [L3] gives , and , which is precisely the empty direct sum.
Depends on
Used by
- Each projection in the primary decomposition is a polynomial in the endomorphism Corollary
- If the minimal polynomial splits, V is the direct sum of the stabilised generalised eigenspaces Corollary
- A nilpotent shift has minimal polynomial xⁿ and, for n>0, a single primary component Example
- Primary decomposition over ℚ with one linear and one irreducible quadratic factor Example
- An endomorphism is diagonalisable if and only if its minimal polynomial is a product of distinct linear factors Theorem
Dependency tree · next 3 levels
Direct dependencies and their dependencies through the next three levels: 50 results over 9 levels. An arrow runs from a result to what uses it, and this result sits at the bottom with a heavier outline. Click the chart to enlarge it.
Sources
- Anthony W. Knapp, Basic Algebra, 2nd ed., Ch. V, §5, Theorem 5.19 (standard reference, not scraped)