TITLE: Inverse matrix's eigenvalue?
QUESTION [48 upvotes]: It's from the book "linear algebra and its application" by gilbert strang, page 260.
$(I-A)^{-1}$=$I+A+A^{2}+A^{3}$+...
Nonnegative matrix A has the largest eigenvalue $\lambda_{1}$<1.  
Then, the book says, $(I-A)^{-1}$ has the same eigenvector, with eigenvalue $\frac{1}{1-\lambda_{1}}$.
Why? Is there any other formulas between inverse matrix and eigenvalue that I don't know?

REPLY [196 votes]: A matrix $A$ has an eigenvalue $\lambda$ if and only if $A^{-1}$ has eigenvalue $\lambda^{-1}$. To see this, note that
$$A\mathbf{v} = \lambda\mathbf{v} \implies A^{-1}A\mathbf{v} = \lambda A^{-1}\mathbf{v}\implies A^{-1}\mathbf{v} = \frac{1}{\lambda}\mathbf{v}$$
If your matrix $A$ has eigenvalue $\lambda$, then $I-A$ has eigenvalue $1 - \lambda$ and therefore $(I-A)^{-1}$ has eigenvalue $\frac{1}{1-\lambda}$.

REPLY [14 votes]: If you are looking at a single eigenvector $v$ only, with eigenvalue $\lambda$, then $A$ just acts as the scalar $\lambda$, and any reasonable expression in $A$ acts on $v$ as the same expression in $\lambda$. This works for expressions $I-A$ (really $1-A$, so it acts as $1-\lambda$), its inverse $(I-A)^{-1}$, in fact for any rational function of $A$ (if well defined; this is where you need $\lambda_1<1$) and even for $\exp A$.