A conjecture of Kippenhahn about the characteristic polynomial of a pencil generated by two Hermitian matrices. II

Let A be an n × n matrix; write A = H+iK, where i²=—1 and H and K are Hermitian. Let f(x,y,z) = det(zI?xH?yK). We first show that a pair of matrices over an algebraically closed field, which satisfy quadratic polynomials, can be put into block, upper triangular form, with diagonal blocks of size 1×1 or 2×2, via a simultaneous similarity. This is used to prove that if $\text{f(x,y,z) = g(x,y,z)]}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$, where g has degree 2, then for some unitary matrix U, the matrix U¹AU is the direct sum of $\text{n}\text{2}$ copies of a 2×2 matrix A₁, where A₁ is determined, up to unitary similarity, by the polynomial g(x,y,z). We use the connection between f(x,y,z) and the numerical range of A to investigate the case where f(x,y,z) has the form (z?αax? βy)^rg(x,y,z)]^s, where g(x,y,z) is irreducible of degree 2.