English

On Fillmore's theorem over integrally closed domains

Rings and Algebras 2025-02-18 v1

Abstract

A well-known theorem of Fillmore says that if AMn(K)A\in\operatorname{M}_{n}(K) is a non-scalar matrix over a field KK and γ1,,γnK\gamma_{1},\dots,\gamma_{n}\in K are such that γ1++γn=Tr(A)\gamma_{1}+\dots+\gamma_{n}=\operatorname{Tr}(A), then AA is KK-similar to a matrix with diagonal (γ1,,γn)(\gamma_{1},\dots,\gamma_{n}). Building on work of Borobia, Tan extended this by proving that if RR is a unique factorisation domain with field of fractions KK and AMn(R)A\in\operatorname{M}_{n}(R) is non-scalar, then AA is KK-similar to a matrix in Mn(R)\operatorname{M}_{n}(R) with diagonal (γ1,,γn)(\gamma_{1},\dots,\gamma_{n}). We note that Tan's argument actually works when RR is any integrally closed domain and show that the result cannot be generalised further by giving an example of a matrix over a non-integrally closed domain for which the result fails. Moreover, Tan gave a necessary condition for AMn(R)A\in\operatorname{M}_{n}(R) to be RR-similar to a matrix with diagonal (γ1,,γn)(\gamma_{1},\dots,\gamma_{n}). We show that when RR is a PID and n3n\geq3, Tan's condition is also sufficient.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.11636,
  title  = {On Fillmore's theorem over integrally closed domains},
  author = {Alexander Stasinski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.11636},
  year   = {2025}
}