How does promoting derivatives to new variables convert any nth-order linear ODE into a first-order matrix system whose eigenvalues are the characteristic roots?
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Turning into a system
Set the vector unknown , adjoin the trivial equation , and write out with first row and second row .
Shape of the companion matrix
Record that an -th order equation yields an matrix holding the equation's coefficients in row one and a subdiagonal of 's, sketching the fifth-order case as the example.
Eigenvalues as the characteristic roots
State that the eigenvalues of the companion matrix are exactly the characteristic roots of the original higher-order equation.