A REDUCE package for the computation of several matrix normal forms
Matt Rebbeck · 2004
Introduction When are two given matrices similar? Similar matrices have the same trace, determinant, characteristic polynomial, and eigenvalues, but the matrices U = # 0 1 0 0 # and V = # 0 0 0 0 # are the same in all four of the above but are not similar. Otherwise there could exist a nonsingular N#M 2 (the set of all 2 2 matrices) such that U = N V N -1 = N 0 N -1 = 0 , which is a contradiction since U #= 0 . Two matrices can look very di#erent but still be similar. One approach to determining whether two given matrices are similar is to compute the normal form of them. If both matrices reduce to the same normal form they must be similar. NORMFORM is a package for computin