Vector spaces

15 February 2016

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Binary operations

Recall: If S is a non-empty set, then the Cartesian product

of S with itself is the set of all ordered pairs (x, y ), with
x, y S, i.e.,
S S = {(x, y ) : x, y S}.
For example, R R is the Cartesian plane.
Also recall N0 = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .} and N = {1, 2, 3, . . .}.

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Binary operations
Let S be a non-empty set. Then a binary operation on S is
a function on S S, i.e., a function which takes two inputs
from S.
If we denote the binary operation by , then we denote the
value of the function at (x, y ) by x y .
We say S is closed under the operation if the value x y
is in S for all x, y S, i.e., the output of the function is in S
too.
For example, + is a binary operation on the set of integers Z,
and Z is closed under +.

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Groups

A group is a set of elements, together with a binary operation

on the set, such that the set is closed under the operation, and
the operation has some nice properties.
Groups come up all over the place in mathematics!

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Definition of a group
A group is an ordered pair (G , ) where G is a non-empty set
and is a binary operation on G with the following properties:
1. Closure: G is closed under , i.e., for all a, b G we
have a b G .
2. Associativity: For all a, b, c G , we have
a (b c) = (a b) c.
3. Identity: There is an element e G , the identity
element, such that for all a G , we have
e a = a e = a.
4. Inverse: For every a G , there exists an element b
(called an inverse of a) of G with the property that
a b = b a = e.

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Groups continued

For convenience we usually just say G is a group under .

If is commutative as well (i.e., x y = y x for all x, y S),
we say (G , ) is an Abelian or commutative group.

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Some examples

(Z, +) is an Abelian group (the identity is 0 and the

inverse of and integer a Z is a, which is also in Z).

(N0 , +) is not a group, because only 0 has an inverse.

(Q \ {0}, ) is an Abelian group.

(Q, ) is not a group, because 0 doesnt have an inverse.

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Some more examples

I

The set Mmn (R) of n n real matrices is not a group

under matrix multiplication, because not every square
matrix has an inverse.

But the set of all n n invertible real matrices is a

(non-abelian) group under matrix multiplication.

The set of all functions from a set A into itself is not a

group under composition, because not every one of these
functions has an inverse.

But the set of invertible functions on a set A forms a

group under composition. (This is the same as the set of
functions on A that are one-to-one and onto, or the set of
bijections on A, or the set of permutations of A.)

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Basic results on groups

Theorem
The identity element of a group is unique.

Proof.
Suppose e1 and e2 are both identity elements in the group.
Then
e1 = e2 e1 = e2 ,
where the first equals sign follows because e2 is an identity and
the second because e1 is.
So from now on we can talk about the identity element.

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Basic results on groups continued

Theorem
Each element has exactly one inverse in a group.

Proof.
Let a be an element of a group G , and suppose b1 and b2 are
both inverses of a in G . Then we have
b1 = b1 e = b1 (a b2 ) = (b1 a) b2 = e b2 = b2 ,
so a only has one inverse.
So elements in a group come in pairs of inverses.

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Fields

Now we consider a set with two binary operations, which we

can think of as addition and multiplication, and which have
the properties were used to from those operations.
The essential characteristic of a field is that we can also divide
in it i.e., every element except the zero has a multiplicative
inverse.

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Definition of a field
A field is an ordered triple (F , +, ), where F is a nonempty
set and + and are binary operations (addition and
multiplication) on F such that:
1. (F , +) is an abelian group (the additive identity is
denoted 0).
2. (F \ {0}, ) is an abelian group (the multiplicative identity
is denoted 1).
3. Distributivity: For all x, y , z F ,
x (y + z) = x y + x z.
For convenience, we usually just denote the field by F instead
of (F , +, ), and we write the product x y as xy .

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Some examples
I

The rational numbers, real numbers, and complex

numbers are all fields under the normal addition and
multiplication.

The integers do not form a field, because not every

non-zero integer has a multiplicative inverse.

(R R, +, ) is not a field , because for example (0, 1)

would have no multiplicative inverse.

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Vector spaces

Now we have two sets: a field F and a set V of elements

called vectors, and two operations: a binary operation called
vector addition that takes two vectors and gives another
vector, and an operation called scalar multiplication that
takes a scalar and a vector and gives a vector.

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Definition of a vector space

A vector space V over a field F is a nonempty set of elements
called vectors together with two operations, vector addition
and scalar multiplication, satisfying the following conditions:
1. (V , +) is an abelian group. (The identity element is
denoted by 0, and the inverse of by .)
2. Closure: For all V and a F , we have a V .
3. Associativity: For all a, b F and V , we have
(ab) = a(b).
4. Distributivity:
(a) For all a, b F and V , we have
(a + b) = a + b.
(b) For all a F and , V , we have
a( + ) = a + a.

5. For all V , we have 1 = .

The elements of F are called scalars.

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Some examples
I

The real line R is a vector space over itself, with the

usual addition and multiplication.

More generally, the set of n-tupels

Rn = R
R} = {(x1 , . . . , xn )|xi R}
| {z
n times

is a vector space over R for each n N, if we define

addition and scalar multiplication componentwise as
(a) x = y xi = yi , i,
(b) x + y = (xi + yi ), and
(c) ax = (axi ).

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Examples continued
I

The set Mnm (R) of n m real matrices is a vector space

over R.

The set Mnm (R) of n m real matrices also forms a

vector space over Q, but not over C (because then it
wouldnt be closed under scalar multiplication).

The set of real-valued functions is a vector space over R

(here the vectors are functions).

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Examples continued

Let n N0 and let Rn [x] be the set of polynomials of

degree at most n. We can write any such polynomial as
p(x) = a0 + a1 x + a2 x 2 + + an x n .
This is a vector space, where the vector addition is the
sum of two polynomials and scalar multiplication is the
multiplication of a polynomial by a number.

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Examples continued

The set of vectors in the plane, with usual vector addition

and scalar multiplication is a real vector space (a vector
space over R).

The usual set of vectors in three-dimensional space, with

the usual vector addition and scalar multiplication, is a
real vector space.

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Examples continued

In fact the set of vectors Vn in any dimension, with the

usual vector addition and scalar multiplication, is a real
vector space.

Let V = {v R3 : v (1, 1, 1)} = {v = (x, y , z) :

x + y + z = 0}. This is a vector space sitting inside R3 ,
which you might recognise as a plane passing through the
origin. We say V is a subspace of R3 (well say a lot more
about subspaces starting tomorrow).

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Basic properties of vector spaces

The zero vector 0 in a vector space is unique, and so is the

inverse of each vector (because this is true for groups).
We can now also define subtraction on the vector space by
= + ().

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Basic properties continued

We can now show that multiplying any vector by the scalar 0
gives the zero vector:

Theorem
For all V , we have 0 = 0 (the 0 at left is from F, while
the zero at right is from V ).

Proof.
We have
= 1 = (1 + 0) = 1 + 0 = + 0.
Subtracting from both sides gives 0 = 0.

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Basic properties continued

Theorem
The inverse of a vector is equal to (1).

Proof.
We have
+ (1) = (1) + (1) = (1 + (1)) = 0 = 0.
Because the inverse is unique, this means the inverse of is
(1).

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Basic properties continued

Two more basic properties:

Theorem
Multiplying the zero vector by any scalar gives the zero vector
0, i.e., for all a F we have a0 = 0.

Theorem
If a = 0 (where a F and V ) then either a = 0 or
= 0.
Youll prove these yourself in Tutorial 2!

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Subspaces

Let V be a vector space over a field F .

A non-empty subset W of V that is itself a vector space over
F (using the same addition and multiplication) is called a
subspace of V . We denote this by W V .
Clearly {0} is a subspace of V (called the trivial subspace),
and V is a subspace of itself. A subspace that is neither {0}
nor V is called proper.

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How to check if W is a subspace of V

Let W be a subset of a vector space V over a field F . To
check if W is also a vector space over F , we need to check
that
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

W forms an abelian group under addition,

W is closed under scalar multiplication,
Scalar multiplication is associative,
The distributive laws hold, and
1 = for every W .

But we already know that (3), (4) and (5) hold and that
vector addition is associative, because this is all true in V .

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How to check if W is a subspace of V continued

So we only have to check that
1.
2.
3.
4.

W is closed under addition,

W is closed under scalar multiplication,
0 W , and,
For each W , the inverse W .

But in fact if W is closed under scalar multiplication, then (as

long as W contains some element ) the elements 0 = 0 and
(1) = will both be in W , which gives (3) and (4).
So all we actually have to check is...

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How to check if W is a subspace of V continued

Theorem
Let W be a subset of a vector space V . Then W is a
subspace if and only if
1. W 6= , and,
2. W is closed under vector addition and scalar
multiplication.

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