Explicit Jordan form for certain block triangular matrices (Q2277542)

Let \(J_r\) denote the \(r\times r\) nilpotent Jordan block. Let \(M\) be the block upper triangular matrix \(\begin{pmatrix} A & X\\ 0 & B\end{pmatrix}\) where \(A\) and \(B\) are given square matrices. The ``Carlson problem'' is to find all the possible Jordan forms of the matrix \(M\). The authors give a specific description of the Jordan form of \(M\) when \(A\) has block diagonal form \(J_{n_1}\oplus J_{n_2}\oplus\cdots\oplus J_{n_p}\), \(B=J_m\) and \(X=(Y_1,Y_2,\ldots,Y_p)^t\) is blocked compatibly with \(A\). The result is stated in terms of the numbers \(n_1,n_2,\ldots,n_p\), \(m\) and \(\phi (Y_1), \phi (Y_2),\ldots,\phi (Y_p)\), where \(\phi (Y_i)\) is the number of initial diagonal sums of \(Y_i\) which are zero. They show that their method of characterization fails when \(B\) is the direct sum of two Jordan blocks, but in this case they do succeed in solving the problem when \(p=2\).