Assignment I

Q1) Determine which of the following is a vector space. In case a vector space, find the dimension as
well as a basis for the space.

a) The set of irrational numbers over the field of real numbers b) The set of rational numbers over
the field of rational numbers c) The set of N x N Hermitian matrices over the field of real numbers d)
The set of N x N Hermitian matrices over the field of complex numbers e) The set of all polynomials
(with real coefficients) up to degree N over the field of real numbers.

Q2. Let V1 & V2 be two subspaces of a vector space with dimensions m and n respectively. Which of
the following are also subspaces? If a subspace, then what is its dimension (in case it can be
determined)? Answer with proper justification.

i) V1  V2 ii ) V1  V2 iii ) V1  V2

[ V1  V2 is the set of vectors that are of the form | u1  + | u 2  , where | u1   V1 and

| u 2   V2 ]

Q3a) Prove that in the vector space of N N real symmetric matrices over real numbers, the
following is an inner product.

<A|B> = Tr(AB)

b) Consider the vector space of 2 x 2 real symmetric matrices. (5)

0 1 1 1   0 1
Prove that the three matrices  ,   ,   form a basis for this vector space.
1 0  1 0  1 1 

c) Using the inner product defined above and Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization, construct an
orthonormal basis out of these three basis vectors.

Q4) Consider the vector space of real, continuous, bounded functions over the interval (a , b), with
b


the inner product defined as  f | g  = f ( x ) g( x ) dx . Now, consider a linear operator K̂ on this
a

vector space, defined as follows.

b
K̂ | f  = | g , where , g( x ) =  K( x, x ) f ( x ) dx 
a

Here K ( x , x ) is a continuous function in both the arguments, over the rectangle

a  x b , a  y  b .

a) Show that the operator is linear and that its Hermitian conjugate is given by
 b
K̂ + | f  = | h  , where , h ( x ) =  K( x, x ) f ( x) dx
a

b) Under what condition will K̂ be Hermitian?

Q5) Consider the vector space V of 2 x 2 real symmetric matrices, on which inner product is defined
as

<A|B> = Tr(AB)

The following three matrices form an orthonormal basis in this space (refer to Q3) .

 0 1 1 0   0 0 
1 2   ,   ,  
1 0   0 0   0 1 

Use this orthonormal basis in the following calculations.

 −1 2
a) Given the matrix   , obtain its column-vector representation in the orthonormal basis
 2 1
above.

b) Let A 0 be a fixed 2 x 2 symmetric matrix. Now define an associated operator  0 on the vector
space V as follows.

 0 B = A 0 B + BA 0

where, B is any vector (i.e, a 2 x 2 symmetric matrix) in V.

Show that  0 is a proper operator on V and that it is a linear operator. Would  0 be an operator
on V if its action was given as Â0 B = A0 B ?

c) Find the matrix representation of  0 of part b in the given orthonormal basis. Take A 0 to be the
matrix of part a).

d) Is  0 , as defined in part b) a Hermitian operator?

Q6a) Prove that a set of pair wise orthogonal vectors in an inner product space is a linearly
independent set of vectors.

b) Let V be a vector space and let U be a proper subspace of V . The orthogonal complement of
U , denoted as U ⊥ , is the set of all vectors in V orthogonal to every vector in U . Prove that U ⊥ is
a subspace. Also show that every vector in V can be uniquely written as a vector from U and a
vector from U ⊥ . Thus, we can write V = U  U ⊥ (see Q2 for direct sum of subspaces)

c) Consider the vector space V of all polynomial up to degree 4 over the interval [-1. 1]. Let U be
the subspace of all even polynomials in this vector space i) What is the dimension of U ? ii) What is
the orthogonal complement of this subspace? iii) Given any arbitrary vector (polynomial) in the
vector space V , write it as a sum of vectors from the two mutually orthogonal and complementary
subspaces U & U ⊥ .

[In part b and c the inner product is the standard inner product on space of functions]

Q7) Consider the following Hermitian matrix, which could be the representation of a Hermitian
operator in a three dimensional vector space..

 1 i − 2 
 
− i 1 − 2 i
 
− 2 2i 0 


a) Find its eigenvalues and eigenvectors. If an eigenvalue is degenerate, then find all the linearly
independent eigenvectors corresponding to it.

b) Show that the eigenvalues and eigenvectors satisfy the properties of eigenvalues and
eigenvectors of Hermitian operators.

c) If the linearly independent eigenvectors of the degenerate eigenvalue are not mutually
orthogonal, then construct mutually orthogonal eigenvectors by GS method. Note that the new,
mutually orthogonal vectors will be eigenvectors.

Q8a) Show that if a linear operator is invertible, then it cannot have zero as an eigenvalue.

b) Show that if  is an eigenvalue of an invertible operator, then 1  is an eigenvalue of A −1 .

Q9a) Prove that the eigenvalues of a unitary operator ( A + = A −1 ) are of unit magnitude, so that,
they are of the form  = e i .

b) Prove that eigenvectors corresponding to two distinct eigenvalues of a unitary operator are
mutually orthogonal. Proceed along the same lines as for proof that eigenvectors of a Hermitian
operator, corresponding to distinct eigenvalues, are mutually orthogonal and use part b).

Q10a) Prove that the orthogonal complement of a subspace of a vector space is unique. Can there
be two distinct subspaces each of which is orthogonal (not necessarily orthogonal complement) to a
given subspace? If so, give an example.

m m mp
b) Let V 1 , V 2 ........ V be p mutually (pair wise) orthogonal subspaces of a vector space V N of
dimension N. The dimensions of the subspaces, as their superscripts indicate, are m1 , m 2 , ......., m p
respectively. Let V M be the M dimensional subspace

V M  V m1  V m 2  ..........  V
mp

where, M = m1 + m 2 + ........ + m 2 . Assume that M < N.

 mp
Prove that V⊥M is orthogonal to each of the p subspaces V m1 , V m 2 ........ V .

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