Let T : V → V {\displaystyle T:V\rightarrow V} be a linear transformation of a vector space V {\displaystyle V} and let v {\displaystyle v} be a vector in V {\displaystyle V} . The T {\displaystyle T} -cyclic subspace of V {\displaystyle V} generated by v {\displaystyle v} , denoted Z ( v ; T ) {\displaystyle Z(v;T)} , is the subspace of V {\displaystyle V} generated by the set of vectors { v , T ( v ) , T 2 ( v ) , … , T r ( v ) , … } {\displaystyle \{v,T(v),T^{2}(v),\ldots ,T^{r}(v),\ldots \}} . In the case when V {\displaystyle V} is a topological vector space, v {\displaystyle v} is called a cyclic vector for T {\displaystyle T} if Z ( v ; T ) {\displaystyle Z(v;T)} is dense in V {\displaystyle V} . For the particular case of finite-dimensional spaces, this is equivalent to saying that Z ( v ; T ) {\displaystyle Z(v;T)} is the whole space V {\displaystyle V} . 1
There is another equivalent definition of cyclic spaces. Let T : V → V {\displaystyle T:V\rightarrow V} be a linear transformation of a topological vector space over a field F {\displaystyle F} and v {\displaystyle v} be a vector in V {\displaystyle V} . The set of all vectors of the form g ( T ) v {\displaystyle g(T)v} , where g ( x ) {\displaystyle g(x)} is a polynomial in the ring F [ x ] {\displaystyle F[x]} of all polynomials in x {\displaystyle x} over F {\displaystyle F} , is the T {\displaystyle T} -cyclic subspace generated by v {\displaystyle v} .2
The subspace Z ( v ; T ) {\displaystyle Z(v;T)} is an invariant subspace for T {\displaystyle T} , in the sense that T Z ( v ; T ) ⊂ Z ( v ; T ) {\displaystyle TZ(v;T)\subset Z(v;T)} .
Let T : V → V {\displaystyle T:V\rightarrow V} be a linear transformation of a n {\displaystyle n} -dimensional vector space V {\displaystyle V} over a field F {\displaystyle F} and v {\displaystyle v} be a cyclic vector for T {\displaystyle T} . Then the vectors
form an ordered basis for V {\displaystyle V} . Let the characteristic polynomial for T {\displaystyle T} be
Then
Therefore, relative to the ordered basis B {\displaystyle B} , the operator T {\displaystyle T} is represented by the matrix
This matrix is called the companion matrix of the polynomial p ( x ) {\displaystyle p(x)} .3
Hoffman, Kenneth; Kunze, Ray (1971). Linear algebra (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. p. 227. ISBN 9780135367971. MR 0276251. 9780135367971 ↩