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SciMax Toolbox >> ncharpoly

ncharpoly

Maxima Function

Calling Sequence

ncharpoly (M, x)

Description

Returns the characteristic polynomial of the matrix M with respect to x. This is an alternative to Maxima's charpoly.

ncharpoly works by computing traces of powers of the given matrix, which are known to be equal to sums of powers of the roots of the characteristic polynomial. From these quantities the symmetric functions of the roots can be calculated, which are nothing more than the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial. charpoly works by

forming the determinant of x * ident [n] - a. Thus ncharpoly wins, for example, in the case of large dense matrices filled with integers, since it avoids polynomial arithmetic altogether.

load ("nchrpl") loads this file.

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