THE CAYLEY-HAMILTON THEOREM FOR SUPERMATRICES

Starting from the expression for the superdeterminant of (xI - M), where M is an arbitrary supermatrix, we propose a definition for the corresponding characteristic polynomial and we prove that each supermatrix satisfies its characteristic equation. Depending upon the factorization properties of the basic polynomials whose ratio defines the above mentioned superdeterminant we are able to construct polynomials of lower degree which are also shown to be annihilated by the supermatrix. Some particular cases and examples are discussed.