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HW 5

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28 views2 pages

HW 5

Uploaded by

Chí Vũ
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Math 55a Homework 5

Due Wednesday October 9, 2024.

• You are encouraged to discuss the homework problems with other students. However, what
you hand in should reflect your own understanding of the material. You are NOT allowed
to copy solutions from other students or other sources. Also, please list at the end of the
problem set the sources you consulted and people you worked with on this assignment.

• Questions marked * may be on the harder side.

Material covered: Generalized eigenvectors, nilpotent operators, Jordan normal form; categories
and functors; bilinear forms, inner product spaces, orthogonality. (Axler chapters 6 and 8; Artin
§4.4-4.7 and 8.1-8.5; handout on categories and functors.)

1. Let V be an n-dimensional vector space, and T : V → V a linear map; suppose that T is


nilpotent, i.e. T N = 0 for some N > 0.
(a) Show that T n = 0.
(b) Show that I + T is invertible (where I is the identity operator), and give a formula for its
inverse.

2. Let V be a vector space over a field k and ϕ : V → V a linear operator.


(a) Show that for all m ≥ 1, Im(ϕm+1 ) ⊂ Im(ϕm ), and if Im(ϕm+1 ) = Im(ϕm ) then Im(ϕn ) =
Im(ϕm ) for all n ≥ m.
(b) The eventual image of ϕ, denoted evIm(ϕ), is the set of vectors which can be expressed as ϕm (v)
for all m ∈ N, i.e. evIm(ϕ) = m≥1 Im(ϕm ). Show that evIm(ϕ) is an invariant subspace for ϕ.
T

(c) Show that, if V is finite-dimensional, then the eventual image of ϕ and its generalized kernel
gKer(ϕ) = {v ∈ V | ∃m ∈ N, ϕm (v) = 0} coincide with the image and kernel of ϕn where n = dim V ,
and the restriction of ϕ to evIm(ϕ) is surjective.
(d) Still assuming V is finite-dimensional, deduce from the above results that V decomposes into
the direct sum of invariant subspaces V = evIm(ϕ) ⊕ gKer(ϕ), where ϕ is invertible on evIm(ϕ)
and nilpotent on gKer(ϕ).
(e) Show that, if V is infinite-dimensional, then none of the statements in (d) need to hold: find
an infinite-dimensional vector space V and two linear operators ϕ, ψ : V → V for which:

1. evIm(ϕ) = gKer(ϕ) = V , the restriction of ϕ to evIm(ϕ) is not injective, and the restriction
of ϕ to gKer(ϕ) is not nilpotent;

2. evIm(ψ) = gKer(ψ) = 0.

3. Fix a field k, and consider the category Vectk of all vector spaces over k.
(a) Show that there exists a contravariant functor from the category Vectk to itself, which on objects
takes each vector space V to its dual V ∗ = Hom(V, k).
(b) Recall that for each vector space V we have a “natural” homomorphism evV : V → V ∗∗ taking
every vector v ∈ V to the element evV (v) of V ∗∗ = Hom(V ∗ , k) which maps ℓ ∈ V ∗ to ℓ(v) ∈ k.

1
Show that these homomorphisms determine a natural transformation from the identity functor to
the square of the functor of part (a).

4. Suppose the rows of an n × n real matrix A ∈ Mn (R) form an orthonormal basis for Rn with its
usual inner product. Show that the same is true of the columns of A.
(Hint: consider the product of A with its transpose.)

5. Let V ⊂ R[x] Rbe the space of real polynomials of degree at most 2, and define an inner product
1
on V by ⟨f, g⟩ = 0 f (x)g(x) dx. Find an orthonormal basis of V with respect to this inner product.

6. Let V be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field k, and b : V × V → k a non-degenerate


bilinear form. A subspace Λ ⊂ V is called isotropic for b if b(v, w) = 0 ∀v, w ∈ Λ. Show that, if Λ
is isotropic, then dim(Λ) ≤ 21 dim(V ).

7. Let V be an n-dimensional vector space over a field k, with char(k) ̸= 2. The set of bilinear
forms V × V → k has the structure of a vector space B(V ), of dimension n2 . We say that a bilinear
form is symmetric if b(v, w) = b(w, v) for all v, w ∈ V , skew-symmetric if b(v, w) = −b(w, v) for all
v, w ∈ V .
(a) Show that the subset Bsymm (V ) ⊂ B(V ) of symmetric bilinear forms is a subspace of B(V ),
and calculate its dimension.
(b) Similarly, show that the subset Bskew (V ) ⊂ B(V ) of skew-symmetric bilinear forms is a subspace
of B(V ) and calculate its dimension.
(c) Show that B(V ) = Bsymm (V ) ⊕ Bskew (V ). Does this remain true if char(k) = 2?

8.* Let V be an n-dimensional vector space over a field k, with char(k) ̸= 2.


(a) How should one define the notion of a trilinear form t : V ×V ×V → k? Show that the set T (V )
of trilinear forms on V can be given the structure of a vector space, and calculate its dimension.
(b) Say a trilinear form t : V × V × V → k is symmetric if the value t(u, v, w) is unchanged if we
permute the variables, and denote by Tsymm (V ) ⊂ T (V ) the subset of symmetric trilinear forms.
Show that Tsymm (V ) is a subspace of T (V ), and calculate its dimension.
(c) Say a trilinear form t : V × V × V → k is skew-symmetric (or alternating) if permuting the
variables multiplies the value t(u, v, w) by ±1 according to the sign of the permutation. Show that
the subset Tskew (V ) ⊂ T (V ) of skew-symmetric trilinear forms is a subspace of T (V ), and calculate
its dimension.
(d) Show that, if n ≥ 2, then we do not have T (V ) = Tsymm (V ) ⊕ Tskew (V ). (The reason for this
will become clearer when we discuss the representation theory of the symmetric group.)

9.* Let S1 , . . . , Sm be subsets of {1, . . . , n} such that Si contains an odd number of elements for
each 1 ≤ i ≤ m, and Si ∩ Sj contains an even number of elements for each 1 ≤ i < j ≤ m. Show
that m ≤ n.
(Hint: construct vectors v1 , . . . , vm in (F2 )n , and use the standard dot product (mod 2) to show
they are linearly independent).

10. How long did this assignment take you? How hard was it? What resources did you use,
and how much help did you need? (Remember to list the students you collaborated with on this
assignment.) Did you have any prior experience with this material?

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