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MA2101 Tutorial 5

1. The document contains 9 questions about linear algebra concepts such as bases, dual bases, linear transformations, matrices, traces, and commutators. 2. It discusses representations of linear transformations as matrices, with the rule that a transformation from an n-dimensional space to an m-dimensional space is represented by an m×n matrix. 3. It also addresses that the transpose of a linear transformation T represented by a matrix Tij is equal to the matrix with elements Tji, showing agreement between two definitions of transpose.

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49 views2 pages

MA2101 Tutorial 5

1. The document contains 9 questions about linear algebra concepts such as bases, dual bases, linear transformations, matrices, traces, and commutators. 2. It discusses representations of linear transformations as matrices, with the rule that a transformation from an n-dimensional space to an m-dimensional space is represented by an m×n matrix. 3. It also addresses that the transpose of a linear transformation T represented by a matrix Tij is equal to the matrix with elements Tji, showing agreement between two definitions of transpose.

Uploaded by

leetianyi34
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MA2101 TUTORIAL 5

Question 1
Let ei bethe canonical
 basis of R2 and let ϵi be the dual basis (see 
Question
 3 of Tutorial
a 0
4). Let   be any vector in R2 . Find the result of letting   ⊗ (1 0) act on
b 1
 
a
 . What do you notice?
b

Question 2
Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space and consider the mapping τ which takes any
element of L(V, V ) to its transpose. Show that τ is a linear map. What is the name of
the vector space to which it belongs?

Question 3
Let v ∈ V and α ∈ V̂ . Show that the transpose of v ⊗ α is given by α ⊗ K(v), where K
ˆ
is the linear isomorphism K : V → V̂ defined in Question 6 in Tutorial 4.
Since K is a canonical isomorphism, we sometimes say that the transpose of v ⊗ α
is α ⊗ v, which isn’t really strictly correct of course. I suggest that you avoid this until
later. Much later.

Question 4
Let T be a linear map from a vector space V to a DIFFERENT vector space W . Give a
sensible definition of the transpose of T .

Question 5
In the lecture notes, we discussed linear mappings T from an n-dimensional vector space V
to an m-dimensional vector space W . About this, I said that T is represented by an m × n
matrix, NOT an n × m matrix. Confirm this statement in a concrete example, as follows:
Let n = 3 and m = 2. So the elements of V are represented by 3-dimensional column
vectors with respect to some basis, and those of W are represented by 2-dimensional
column vectors. So what sort of matrix represents T ? (Write out an explicit matrix
acting on a vector, don’t use the theory.)

Question 6
If v, w ∈ V, and α, β ∈ V̂ , show that

v ⊗ α w ⊗ β = α(w)v ⊗ β.

(Remember that the left side is really (v ⊗ α) ◦ (w ⊗ β) .)


Question 7
Suppose we have a linear map S from V̂ to V̂ . Now the matrix of S relative to some
basis ζ i should be found by letting S act on the basis and then putting the components
of the result down the COLUMNS. This is the rule we always follow! So for example we
should have the components of Sζ 2 running down the second column, which has entries
S21 , S22 , S23 , and so on. That is,

Sζ 2 = S21 ζ 1 + S22 ζ 2 + S23 ζ 3 + . . .

Agree? But sadly this messes up our index conventions: this is one of those rare cases
where we have to allow a summation on a superscript with a superscript:

Sζ 2 = S2k ζ k ,

or in general
Sζ i = Sik ζ k .
Notice that i is a superscript on the left, but a subscript on the right. Of course there
is no law that forbids this.....No, I don’t like it either, but we have no choice in this rare
case.
Now the dual basis for ζ i is K(zi ) (as you can easily check!) so this means that any
linear transformation on V̂ can be written as

S = Sik ζ k ⊗ K(zi ).

Show that, if T = Tij zj ⊗ ζ i is any linear transformation of a vector space V to itself,


then the components of T̂ satisfy
T̂ij = Tji .
Which shows that our two apparently very different definitions of “transpose” actually
agree.

Question 8
 
1
Compute the trace of the outer product of the column vector  2 

 with the row vector
3
(4 5 6) . Compute their inner product.

Question 9
Show that, if M and N are n × n matrices, then T r(M N ) = T r(N M ). Remark 1:
We asserted this in Chapter 1, but we didn’t prove it. Remark 2: by definition, the
COMMUTATOR of M and N is [M, N ] ≡ M N − N M. So what you have shown is that
Tr is zero on all commutators (since Tr is linear). Remark 3: It is possible (NOT easy)
to prove the converse, that is, every zero-trace matrix can be expressed as a commutator
of some pair of matrices.

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