VARDHAMAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, HYDERABAD

An Autonomous Institute Affiliated to JNTUH

A5001 – LINEAR ALGEBRA AND ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

Handout # 1
Real and complex matrices and its properties

1.1. Real matrix: A matrix is said to be real matrix if every element of is real.

 A real square matrix is said to be Symmetric if

Example 1.1.
is a symmetric matrix

 A real square matrix is said to be Skew-Symmetric if

Example 1.2.
is a skew-symmetric matrix.
Note: In Skew-symmetric matrix all the principal diagonal elements are zeros.

 A real square matrix is said to Orthogonal if or

Example 1.3.

Similar

ly is an orthogonal matrix

1.2. Properties of Real Matrices:

Property 1: Every square matrix can be uniquely expressed as the sum of symmetric and skew-symmetric
matrices.

Proof: Let be any square matrix and where

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 is a symmetric matrix

Now

is a skew-symmetric matrix
To prove that the sum is unique,

If possible, let where and

Now

Similarly,

and
Thus, every square matrix can be uniquely expressed as the sum of symmetric and skew-symmetric
matrices.
Property 2: The inverse and transpose of an orthogonal matrix are orthogonal.

Proof: Let be an orthogonal matrix

(i) Taking transpose to equation (1), we get

is an orthogonal matrix.

(ii) Taking inverse to equation (1), we get

is an orthogonal matrix.

Property 3: If are orthogonal matrices of same order then and are orthogonal.

Proof: Let be the orthogonal matrices of same order

and

(i) Consider [By (1)]

Now [By (1)]

is an orthogonal matrix

(ii) Consider [By (1)]

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 Now [By (1)]

is an orthogonal matrix

Property 4: The determinant of an orthogonal matrix is

Proof: Let be an orthogonal matrix

Consider

Applying on both sides, we get

1.3. Complex matrix: A matrix is said to be complex matrix if at least one element of is a
complex number.

Conjugate of a matrix: A matrix is any given matrix, then is called the conjugate of

where is the complex conjugate of

Note: The transpose of a conjugate matrix is denoted by

Example 1.4.

And

 A complex square matrix is said to be Hermitian if

Example 1.5.

is a Hermitian matrix
Note: In Hermitian matrix all the principal diagonal elements are real.

 A complex square matrix is said to be Skew-Hermitian if

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Example 1.6.

is a skew-Hermitian matrix
Note: In Skew-Hermitian matrix all the principal diagonal elements are either zero or purely imaginary.

 A complex square matrix is said to be Unitary if or

7.

Example 1.

Now

Similarly is a unitary matrix.

1.4. Properties of Complex Matrices:
Property 1: Every square matrix can be uniquely expressed as the sum of Hermitian and skew- Hermitian
c matrices.

Proof: Let be any square matrix and where

is a Hermitian matrix

is a skew- Hermitian matrix

To prove that the sum is unique,

If possible, let where and

and
Thus, every square matrix can be uniquely expressed as the sum of Hermitian and skew- Hermitian

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matrices.

Property 2: Prove that every Hermitian matrix can be written as where is real and symmetric
and is real and skew- symmetric.

Proof: Let be a Hermitian matrix then

Let where

is real.

Now
is real and symmetric

Now is real.

Now

is real and skew-symmetric.

Thus, every Hermitian matrix can be written as where is real and symmetric and is real and
skew- symmetric.
Property 3: The inverse and transpose of a unitary matrix are unitary.

Proof: Let be a unitary matrix

(i) Taking transpose to equation (1), we get

is an unitary matrix.

(ii) Taking inverse to equation (1), we get

is an unitary matrix.
Property 4: The product of two unitary matrices is a unitary matrix.

Proof: Let be the unitary matrices of same order

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 and (1)

Consider [By (1)]

Now [By (1)]

is a unitary matrix.
Exercise 1
1) Express as the sum of a symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices where

a) b)
2) Verify that the following matrices are orthogonal or not:

a) b)

3) Find the values of if is orthogonal.

4) If is orthogonal, find and .

5) Verify that the following matrices are unitary: a) b)

6) If show that is a Hermitian matrix is the conjugate transpose of .

7) Express as the sum of a Hermitian and skew-Hermitian matrices where

8) Express as where is real and skew- symmetric and is real and

symmetric.

9) If , show that is Hermitian matrix and is a skew-Hermitian matrix.

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10) If show that is a unitary matrix.

11) Show that is skew-Hermitian and unitary.

Answers:

1) ,

2) a) Orthogonal b) Orthogonal 3) 4)
5) a) Unitary: b) Unitary

7) ,

8) ,

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