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Section 35.4 Triangular-block form

What.

A block-diagonal form matrix

P−1AP=[U1U2⋱Uℓ],

where each block U corresponds to a specific eigenvalue λ of A, has size equal to the algebraic multiplicity of λ, and is in scalar-triangular form with λ down the diagonal.

When.

The characteristic polynomial of A factors completely as

cA(λ)=(λ−λ1)m1(λ−λ2)m2⋯(λ−λℓ)mℓ.
How.

Follow the scalar-triangular form procedure (Procedure 29.4.1) with λ=λ1, but stop when you have m1 linearly independent vectors. Use these vectors as the first columns of P. Repeat with λ=λ2 to get the next m2 columns of P. And so on.