Decompositions of matrices into diagonalizable and square-zero matrices

Abstract

ABSTRACT In order to find a suitable expression of an arbitrary square matrix over an arbitrary field, we prove that every square matrix over an infinite field is always representable as a sum of a diagonalizable matrix and a nilpotent matrix of order less than or equal to two. In addition, each 2 × 2 matrix over any field admits such a representation. We, moreover, show that, for all natural numbers n ≥ 3, every n × n matrix over a finite field having no less than n + 1 elements also admits such a decomposition. The latter completes a recent example due to Breaz [Matrices over finite fields as sums of periodic and nilpotent elements. Linear Algebra Appl. 2018;555:92–97]. As a consequence of these decompositions, we show that every nilpotent matrix over a field can be expressed as the sum of a potent matrix and a square-zero matrix. This somewhat improves on recent results due to Abyzov et al. [On some matrix analogues of the little Fermat theorem. Mat Zametki. 2017;101(2):163–168] and Shitov [The ring is nil-clean of index four. Indag Math (N.S.). 2019;30:1077–1078].