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Math 40 Lecture 8: The Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices

The document summarizes key results about invertible matrices: (1) The Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices states that for an n×n matrix A, five conditions are equivalent for invertibility, including A having a unique solution to Ax=b for all b and the reduced row echelon form of A being the n×n identity matrix. (2) Properties of inverses are proved, including that the inverse of the inverse is the original matrix, and the inverse of the product of invertible matrices is the product of their inverses in reverse order. (3) It is shown that if BA or AB is the identity matrix, then A is invertible and the other matrix is

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71 views3 pages

Math 40 Lecture 8: The Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices

The document summarizes key results about invertible matrices: (1) The Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices states that for an n×n matrix A, five conditions are equivalent for invertibility, including A having a unique solution to Ax=b for all b and the reduced row echelon form of A being the n×n identity matrix. (2) Properties of inverses are proved, including that the inverse of the inverse is the original matrix, and the inverse of the product of invertible matrices is the product of their inverses in reverse order. (3) It is shown that if BA or AB is the identity matrix, then A is invertible and the other matrix is

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MATH 40 LECTURE 8: THE FUNDAMENTAL THEOREM OF

INVERTIBLE MATRICES
DAGAN KARP

In our last lecture we were introduced to the notion of the inverse of a matrix, we used
the Gauss-Jordan method to find the inverse of a matrix, and we saw that any linear system with an invertible matrix of coefficients is consistent with a unique solution.Now, we
turn our attention to properties of the inverse, and the Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices.
Theorem 1. The following hold.
(a) If A is invertible, then A1 is invertible, and
(A1 )1 = A.
(b) If A is invertible and 0 6= c R, then cA is invertible and
1
(cA)1 = (A1 ).
c
(c) If A and B are both invertible matrices of the same size, then AB is invertible and
(AB)1 = B1 A1 .
(d) For any matrices A and B,
(A + B)T = AT + BT , and
(AB)T = BT AT .
(e) If A is invertible, then AT is invertible and
(AT )1 = (A1 )T .
(f) If A is an invertible matrix, then An is invertible for all n N, and
(An )1 = (A1 )n .
P ROOF.
(a) Note that
A(A1 ) = (A1 )A = I.
Thus A1 is invertible, with inverse A.
(b) Note that for any matrices X and Y and scalar c, we have
c(XY) = (cX)Y = X(cY),
whenever the product exists. Thus, we have
cA(A1 /c) = c/c(AA1 ) = I = (A1 A)c/c = (A1 /c)(cA).
Date: February 2, 2012.
These are lecture notes for HMC Math 40: Introduction to Linear Algebra and roughly follow our course
text Linear Algebra by David Poole.
1

(c) We must find a matrix X such that


X(AB) = (AB)X = I.
We compute
(B1 A1 )(AB) = B1 (A1 A)B = B1 IB = B1 B = I.
Similarly, ABB1 A1 = I. Thus AB is invertible with inverse B1 A1 .
(d) Let A = (aij and B = (bij ). Then AT = (aji ) and BT = (bji ). Then
(A + B)T = (aij + bij )T = (aji + bji ) = AT + BT .
Now, note that
(AB)Tij = (AB)ji
= rowj (A) columni (B)
= columnj (AT ) rowi (BT )
= rowi (BT ) columnj (AT )
= (BT AT )ij .
(e) Exercise 3.3.15
(f) Induction.

Theorem 2 (Fundamental Theorem of Invertible Matrices). Let A be an n n invertible


matrix. TFAE (The Following Are Equivalent.)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)

A is invertible.
A~x = ~b has a unique solution for every vector ~b Rn .
A~x = ~0 has only the trivial solution.
The reduced row echelon form of A is In .
A is a product of elementary matrices.

P ROOF. We will prove (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (1). We proved (1) (2) in
Lecture 7. Any homogeneous system has the trivial solution, thus (2) (3). If A~x = ~0
has only the trivial solution, then the augmented matrix (A|~0) has no free variables. Thus
there are no zero rows in the reduced row echelon form of A. Therefore the reduced
row echelon form of A has n nonzero rows, each with leading term 1, each to the left
of those below. The only such matrix is In . Applying an elementary row operation to
A corresponds to multiplying A by the appropriate elementary matrix. Since A can be
reduced to I by elementary row operations, it follows that there are elementary matrices
E1 , . . . , Er such that
E1 Er A = I.
The result follows by solving for A. Finally, any product of elementary matrices is invertible, and thus (5) (1).

Theorem 3. Let A be an n n matrix. If B is an n n matrix such that either BA = I or
AB = I, then A is invertible and B = A1 .
P ROOF. Suppose BA = I. We will show A is invertible with inverse B. Consider the
homogeneous linear system A~x = ~0. Since BA = I, we have
B(A~x) = (BA)~x = I~x = ~x = ~0.
2

Thus the equation A~x = ~0 has only the trivial solution. Therefore, by the FTIM, A is
invertible. Thus A1 exists and
B = BI = B(AA1 ) = (BA)A1 = IA1 = A1 .

P ROOF (of Gauss-Jordan.) Let E1 , . . . , Er be elementary matrices corresponding to the


elementary row operations transforming A to I. Then
E1 E2 Er A = I.
Therefore A1 = E1 Er since inverses are unique by FTIM. Therefore
E1 Er I = A1 ,
and thus our sequence of elementary row operations corresponding to E1 through Er
transform I into A1 .

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