Eigenvalue

An eigenvalue of a square matrix $A$ is a complex number $\lambda$ such that

$A{\boldsymbol {x}}=\lambda {\boldsymbol {x}}$

for some vector ${\boldsymbol {x}}\in \mathbb {R}$ known as a eigenvector. The eigenvalue is the zero of a matrix's charateristic polynomial.

All the eigenvectors of a particular eigenvalue span a vector space called the eigenspace.