On types of matrices and centralizers of matrices and permutations (Q741281)

It is known that the centralizer of a matrix over a finite field depends, up to conjugacy, only on the type of the matrix, in the sense defined by J. A. Green. In this paper, the authors generalize Green's definition of type to matrices over an arbitrary field, and an analogue of the type invariant is defined that in general captures more information; using this invariant the result on centralizers is extended to arbitrary fields. The converse is also proved: thus two matrices have conjugate centralizers if and only if they have the same generalized type. The paper ends with the analogous results for symmetric and alternating groups.