On the classification of endomorphisms on infinite-dimensional vector spaces (Q2041370)

Let \(V\) be a vector space over the field \(k\). Denote by \(\operatorname{End}_{k}(V)\) the \(k\)-vector space of endomorphisms of \(V\) and by \(\Aut_{k}(V)\) the group of automorphisms of \(V\). We have an action of \(\Aut_{k}(V)\) on \(\operatorname{End}_{k}(V)\) by conjugation: \(\Aut_{k}(V)\times \operatorname{End}_{k}(V)\rightarrow \operatorname{End}_{k}(V),\) \[ (\tau ,f)\mapsto \tau f\tau ^{-1}. \] Consider a subset \(X\) of \(\operatorname{End}_{k}(V)\) that is invariant under the action of \(\Aut_{k}(V)\) by conjugation. The classification problem on \(X\) refers to a characerization of the quotient set \(X/\Aut_{k}(V)\). Let \(X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}\) be the subset of \(\operatorname{End}_{k}(V)\) of all endomorphisms of \(V\) with an annihilating polynomial, i.e., \[ X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}=\{ f\in \operatorname{End}_{k}(V):p(f)=0\text{ for a certain }p\in k[ x]\}. \] Note that \(p(f)=0\) implies \(p(\tau f\tau ^{-1})=0\) for all \(\tau \in \Aut_{k}(V)\), and therefore \(\Aut_{k}(V)\) acts on \(X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}\) by conjugation. Let \(K=k[ x] /p(x)\) and \[ v_{i}(V,p(f))=\dim _{K}( \operatorname{Ker}p(f)^{i}/[ \operatorname{Ker }p(f)^{i-1}+p(f)\operatorname{Ker}p(f)^{i+1}]). \] With the main result of the paper, the author provides a characterization of the quotient set \(X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}/\Aut_{k}(V)\). The paper has three sections. In Section 2, the author recalls the statement of the classification problem for endomorphisms, and the well-known theory of the classification of endomorphisms on finite-dimensional vector spaces. He gives a description of a new method to construct Jordan bases and remarks that this method can be generalized to infinite-dimensional vector spaces. In Section 3, he uses the existence of Jordan bases for endomorphisms with an annihilating polynomial to characterize the quotient set \(X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}/\Aut_{k}(V)\). The main result follows. By \(a_{f}\) we denote the annihilator polynomial of \(f\). Let \(f,g\in X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}\). Then \(f\sim g\) modulo \(\Aut_{k}(V)\) (i.e., \([ f] = [ g] \in X_{V}^{\mathrm{anh}}/\Aut_{k}(V)\)) if and only if the following assertions hold: (i) \(a_{g}(x)=a_{f}(x)=p_{1}(x)^{n_{1}}\cdots p_{r}(x)^{n_{r}}\) with \( p_{i}(x)\), \(i=1,2,\ldots ,r\), being irreducible polynomials in \(k[ x] \); (ii) \(v_{i}(V,p_{j}(f))=v_{i}(V,p_{j}(g))\) for all \(1\leq j\leq r\) and \(1\leq i\leq n_{j}\). As an example the author gives an explicit description of the quotient set obtained from the classification of endomorphisms with an annihilating polynomial on a countable-dimensional vector space \(V\). The author concludes the paper with a remark that the above theorem offers a classification of endomorphisms with an annihilator polynomial on arbitrary vector spaces that generalizes the well-known classification of endomorphisms on finite-dimensional vector spaces.