MATH4018 Introduction to Linear Algebra (I) NTU 113-1
Instructor : Kwok-Wing Tsoi
Homework 6 (Suggested Solutions)
Section A Exercise A1 : (a) What does it mean by the kernel, image, nullity and rank of a matrix A ? (b) How do row operations operations correspond to multiplication of elementary row matrices ? (c) What does it mean for a matrix to be in its REF ? How do we tell the rank and the nullity (correctly) of a matrix in its REF ? (d) State QAP Theorem. Use it to prove that rank(A) = rank(At ). Hence, write down as many quantities as possible that equal rank(A). (a) Let a matrix A ∈ Mm×n (F ). Consider the linear transformation fA : F n → F m defined by v 7→ Av. The kernel, image, nullity and rank of the matrix A refers to that of the linear map fA . (b) Each row operation corresponds to left multiplication by an elementary matrix. (c) See lecture notes for the definition of REF. If A is in its REF, then — the rank of A is the number of non-zero rows in its REF, — the nullity of A equals the number of columns of A minus the rank of A (as a consequence of the Rank-Nullity Theorem). (d) For every matrix A ∈ Mm×n (F ), there are invertible matrices P , Q such that QAP is in its Smith normal form. See lecture notes for a proof of rank(A) = rank(At ). The following quantities are equal : rank(A), rank(At ), number of non-zero rows in REF, number of linearly independent rows of A, number of linearly independent columns of A.
Section B Exercise B1 : Consider the matrices 1 2 3 3 3 3 A = 4 5 6 and A′ = 1 2 3 7 8 9 7 8 9
Find a matrix Q such that QA = A′ .
By row operations, 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 3 3 r ↔r r →r −r A = 4 5 6 1→ 2 1 2 3 1 →1 2 1 2 3 = A′ 7 8 9 7 8 9 7 8 9 III Therefore, in terms of elementary matrices, we have E−1,2,1 I E1,2 A = A′ . Hence, we can take 1 −1 0 0 1 0 −1 1 0 III I Q = E−1,2,1 E1,2 = 0 1 0 1 0 0 = 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
Exercise B2 : For each of the following matrices A ∈ Mm×n
(ii) Write down the rank and nullity of A. (iii) Are the rows of A linearly independent in Rn ? (iv) Are the columns of A linearly independent in Rm ? (v) Write down a basis for im(A). 2 1 (a) (i) A REF is given by 0 2.5 0 0 (ii) rank(A) = 2, nullity(A) = 0 (iii) Since rank(A) = 2 < 3, the rows of A are not linearly independent. (iv) Since rank(A) = 2, the columns of A are linearly independent. (v) After sifting the columns, a basis of im(A) = {(2, −1, 2)t , (1, 2, −1)t }. 1 2 1 (b) (i) A REF is given by 0 −3 −3 0 0 0 (ii) rank(A) = 2, nullity(A) = 1 (iii) Since rank(A) = 2 < 3, the rows of A are not linearly independent. (iv) Since rank(A) = 2 < 3, the columns of A are not linearly independent. (v) After sifting the columns, a basis of im(A) = {(1, 2, 1)t , (2, 1, 5)t }. 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 −2 (c) (i) A REF is given by 0 0 0 6 7
0 0 0 0 2 (ii) rank(A) = 4, nullity(A) = 1 (iii) Since rank(A) = 4, the rows of A are linearly independent. (iv) Since rank(A) = 4 < 5, the columns of A are not linearly independent. (v) After sifting the columns, a basis of im(A) = {(1, 2, 3, −4)t , (0, 1, 2, 1)t , (1, 3, 5, 3)t , (1, 0, 1, 1)t }.
Exercise B3 : Let A be a matrix with n columns and P is an invertible n × n matrix. Prove that rank(AP ) = rank(A). Use this to deduce that column operations do not change the rank of a ma- trix.
Suppose P is invertible (i.e. P −1 exists). Then note that by Rank inequalities,
Exercise B4 : Let A, B ∈ Mm×n (F ). Prove that rank(A) = rank(B) if and only if there exists invertible matrices P and Q such that B = QAP .
(⇒) Suppose rank(A) = rank(B). Then A and B have the same Smith normal form. Therefore, by QAP Theorem, there exists invertible matrices P1 , P2 , Q1 , Q2 such that
Q1 AP1 = Q2 BP2 ⇒ Q−1 −1
2 Q1 AP1 P2 = B.
Therefore, we may take Q = Q−1 −1
2 Q1 and P = P1 P2 (which are invertible).
(⇐) Suppose there exists invertible matrices P and Q such that B = QAP . Therefore, we have rank(B) = rank(QAP ). Since multiplying by invertible matrices does not change the rank, we have
rank(B) = rank(QAP ) = rank(AP ) = rank(A).
Section C Exercise C1 : Let A, B be two m × n matrices over a field F . (a) Prove that im(A + B) ⊆ im(A) + im(B). (b) Deduce that rank(A + B) ≤ rank(A) + rank(B).
(a) Let w ∈ im(A + B). By definition, it means w = (A + B)(v) for some v. Therefore, w = (A + B)v = |{z} Bv ∈ im(A) + im(B). Av + |{z} ∈im(A) ∈im(B)
This proves im(A + B) ⊆ im(A) + im(B).
(b) By (a), we have dim(im(A + B)) ≤ dim(im(A) + im(B)) = dim(im(A)) + dim(im(B)) − dim(im(A) ∩ im(B)) ≤ dim(im(A)) + dim(im(B)). This proves rank(A + B) ≤ rank(A) + rank(B). Exercise C2 : Suppose A is a square matrix such that rank(A2 ) = rank(A). Prove that im(A) ∩ ker(A) = {0}. ( Av = 0 Let v ∈ im(A) ∩ ker(A). Then we have . v = Au for some u Combining these we have A2 u = 0 so u ∈ ker(A2 ).
Since we are given rank(A2 ) = rank(A), by Rank-Nullity Theorem, we have nullity(A2 ) = nullity(A) as well. Observe that ker(A) ⊆ ker(A2 ). The equality on dimension asserts that ker(A) = ker(A2 ).
Therefore, we have u ∈ ker(A2 ) = ker(A) and thus Au = 0. Hence, v = Au = 0.
This proves that im(A) ∩ ker(A) = {0}.
An alternative proof. (Cheap but required deeper understanding in various concepts)
A Consider the linear map im(A) −→ im(A2 ). By HW4 Exercise B3, this linear map is surjective. Since we are given that dim(im(A)) = dim(im(A2 )), TFAE implies that this linear map is an isomorphism. In particular, the only element in im(A) that gets sent to 0 under A is just 0. This is equivalent to saying that im(A) ∩ ker(A) = {0}. 1 0 2 0 −2 Exercise C3 : Suppose the REF of a matrix A ∈ M3×5 (R) is 0 1 −5 0 −3. It is known that the 0 0 0 1 6 1 0 1 first column, second column and fourth column of A are −1, −1, −2. Find the two missing 3 1 0 columns of A. (Hint. If done correctly, this can be done in one-line with minimum calculations) 1 0 1 Let B = −1 −1 −2 be the matrix formed by the 1st, 2nd, 4th columns of A and it becomes 3 1 0 the identity matrix after reducing to REF. Since row operations correspond to multiplying invertible matrices to the left, the operations involved in this case correspond to multiplying B −1 . Therefore, we can ‘undo’ these operations by multiplying B to the left and hence the missing 3rd and 5th columns are 1 0 1 2 2 1 0 1 −2 4 −1 −1 −2 −5 = 3 and −1 −1 −2 −3 = −7 3 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 6 −9 respectively.
