AlgebraDifficulty 7.6National Olympiad, round 2Find the answer
Does there exist a real 3×3 matrix A such that tr(A)=0andA^{2}+A^{t}=I?(tr(A)denotesthetraceofA,A^{t}isthetransposeofA,andI$ is the identity matrix.)
A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.
Solution
The answer is NO. Suppose that tr(A)=0andA^{2}+A^{t}=I.Takingthetranspose,wehaveA=I−(A2)t=I−(At)2=I−(I−A2)2=2A2−A4A4−2A2+A=0 The roots of the polynomial x4−2x2+x=x(x−1)(x2+x−1)are0,1, 2−1±5 so these numbers can be the eigenvalues of A;theeigenvaluesofA^{2}canbe0,1, 21±5.Bytr(A)=0, the sum of the eigenvalues is 0 , and by tr(A2)=tr(I−At)=3$ the sum of squares of the eigenvalues is 3 . It is easy to check that this two conditions cannot be satisfied simultaneously.
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