The Jordan Normal Form (JNF) is a canonical form for a square matrix that simplifies the analysis of linear transformations. To compute the JNF of a matrix , one must first determine its eigenvalues by solving the characteristic polynomial , where is the identity matrix and represents the eigenvalues. For each eigenvalue, the next step involves finding the corresponding Jordan chains by examining the null spaces of for increasing values of until the null space stabilizes.
These chains help to organize the matrix into Jordan blocks, which are upper triangular matrices structured around the eigenvalues. Each block corresponds to an eigenvalue and its geometric multiplicity, while the size and number of blocks reflect the algebraic multiplicity and the number of generalized eigenvectors. The final Jordan Normal Form represents the matrix as a block diagonal matrix, facilitating easier computation of functions of the matrix, such as exponentials or powers.
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