Hermitian Operators and Projectors in Linear Algebra

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter LagrangeEuler
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Diagonalization Matrices
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
2 replies · 2K views
LagrangeEuler
Messages
711
Reaction score
22
Matrix
[tex] \left[<br /> \begin{array}{rr}<br /> 1 & 1 \\<br /> 0& 0 \\<br /> \end{array} \right][/tex]
is not symmetric. When we find eigenvalues of that matrix we get ##\lambda_1=1##, ##\lambda_2=0##, or we get matrix
[tex] \left[<br /> \begin{array}{rr}<br /> 1 & 0 \\<br /> 0& 0 \\<br /> \end{array} \right][/tex].
First matrix is not hermitian, whereas second one it is. How it is possible that some operator is hermitian in one basis, and is not in the other one. Second matrix is also a projector, and the first one it is not. How that is possible.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
fresh_42 said:
And what do you mean by a projector?.

In English linear algebra references, a projector (on an inner product space) typically is a linear transformation that is a projection, and that has orthogonal null space and range, i.e., idempotent and Hermitian. I am not sure if other languages make this distinction.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: fresh_42