Wednesday, 22 November 2017

linear algebra - Same Eigenvalues = Similar Matrices?

While watching Strang's lecture on similar matrices he stated that if any two matrices,A and B, have the same eigenvalues then they can be put in the form A=PBP1
. This is very easy to see when B is the diagonal matrix housing As eigenvalues. In this example A and B are not diagonal matrices.




But if this is not the case and say we are in R2 and if A has eigenvectors v1 and v2 with eigenvalues λ1 and λ2 and a angle of θ(say 30 degrees) from each other. And B has the same eigenvalues but they make some angle θ2(say 120 degrees) then how can I intuitively see that they are similar?



The intuition for similar matrices is often said as "they are the same transformation just in different basis". This is easy to see if the θs are same as then P is just a rotation matrix but I want to understand why its true for all matrices of equal eigenvalues. And how can this P then be found?



Edit: Please dont state the example of a matrix having all equal eigenvalues and not being similar to identity. This is stated and we are assuming distinct eigenvalues for this question.

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