A A problem in multilinear algebra

  • A
  • Thread starter Thread starter steenis
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Algebra
steenis
Messages
312
Reaction score
18
TL;DR
A one-to-one correspondence between bilinear non-degenerate maps and invertible linear maps
I have the following problem in multilinear algebra:
Let ##W## and ##V## be real finite-dimensional vector spaces, ##V^*## is the dual space of ##V##
Let ##L:W \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}## be a non-degenerate bilinear map
Define ##g:W \rightarrow V^*## by ##g(w)(v)=L(w,v)##
To prove: ##g## is an isomorphism

The map ##g## is obviously linear
##g## is injective, because if ##g(w)=0## for ##w \in W##, then for all ##v \in V## we have that ##g(w)(v)=L(w,v)=0##, so, because ##L## is non-degenerate, we have ##w=0##
Remains to prove that ##g## is surjective

If ##dim W=dim V=n##, then we are ready, because in that case ##dim W=dim V^*=n## and ##g## is surjective if and only if ##g## is injective. On the other hand, if ##g## is bijective, then ##g## is an isomorphism and ##dim W=dimV=dim V^*##. However, it is not a-priori given that ##W## and ##V## have the same dimension

Can anybody help me with this problem, can the statement be proven or is the statement not true?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
You are correct. The difficulty is that we only can conclude ##\dim W \leq \dim V##.
What happens if you consider ##h\, : \,V\longrightarrow W^*## with ##h(v)(w):=L(w,v)##?
 
In the same way, ##h## is injective and therefore ##dim V \leq dim W##. Now we have ##dim W=dim V=dim V^*##, thus the map ##g## is surjective and therefore an isomorphism (##h## is also an isomorphism)
 
The world of 2\times 2 complex matrices is very colorful. They form a Banach-algebra, they act on spinors, they contain the quaternions, SU(2), su(2), SL(2,\mathbb C), sl(2,\mathbb C). Furthermore, with the determinant as Euclidean or pseudo-Euclidean norm, isu(2) is a 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb RI\oplus isu(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (1,3), i\mathbb RI\oplus su(2) is a Minkowski space with signature (3,1), SU(2) is the double cover of SO(3), sl(2,\mathbb C) is the...