Math 520B
Written Assignment No. 5

due Friday, December 9, 2005

Directions. Although you may refer to books for definitions and standard theorems, searching for solutions to these written exercises is not permitted. You may not seek help from others.


  1. Let f be the Z-linear map from Z4 to Z3 defined by fx=Mx for all xZ4 where M is the 3×4 matrix M=2430-36-421424-34-443448-62-76. Represent the cokernel of f as a direct sum of cyclic groups.

  2. Find one matrix in each of the similarity classes of matrices over the field C (of complex numbers) that share the characteristic polynomial t3-t2-t+1.

  3. Let A be the 5×5 matrix in the field F2=Z/2Z A=1000101111010101011101100. Find a direct sum of companion matrices that is similar to A.

  4. Let M be the 6×6 rational matrix M=102-5271-2116-16324-157228-6978-57357-182244-6649-60532-286356-8819-8236-26203-24-6532-286356-9019-80. Find the sequence of successively divisible invariant factors as well as the minimal and characteristic polynomials of M.

  5. Let V and W be n-dimensional vector spaces over a field F, and let b:V×WF be F-bilinear. The bilinear form b determines a linear map ϕbHomFV,Wˇ, with Wˇ=HomFW,F, that is defined by ϕbv=wbv,w.

    1. Show that ϕb is an isomorphism if and only if for given bases v1,,vn of V and w1,wn of W one has detbvi,wj0.

    2. Produce such a bilinear form in the case where V=ΛpU and W=Λk-pU when U is a k-dimensional vector space over F.

    3. To what extent may one generalize the two preceding items to correct statements when F is a commutative ring, V,W free F-modules of rank n, and U a free F-module of rank k?