PHY 204

Jia-Ming Liou (Frank)

Department of Mathematics, University of California, Davis.
E-mail: frankliou@math.ucdavis.edu
Website: http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/∼frankliou/

October 8, 2008

3.1.1 (a)  
 1 0 1       
=1· 1 0 
    0 0   0 1 
 0 1 0  0 − 0 ·  + 1 ·  = 0 − 0 + (−1) = −1.

 1
 0   1 0   1 0 
0 0 

(b)  
 1 2 0       
=1· 1 2 
    3 2   3 1 
 3 1 2  3 − 2 ·  + 0 ·  = (1 − 6) − 2(3 − 0) + 0 = −11.

 0
 1   0 1   0 3 
3 1 

(c)  √ 
√0 3 0 0 √
   
 1 2 0
 −( 3)4
    
1  3 0 2  = √9  1 9
√0 0 
  
√  =  0 0 1 =√ .
2 0 2 √0 3 
 2 
 0 1 0

 2 0 1  2
 0 0 3 0 

3.1.2 We could write the system into

    
1 3 3 x 0
 1 −1 1  y  =  0 .
2 1 3 z 0

The system has a unique solution by the Cramer’s rule since

     
 −1 1   1 1   1 −1 
|A| = 
  − 3
  + 3  = −4 − 3 + 9 = 2 6= 0.
1 3  2 3  2 1 

3.1.5 If Cij is the cofactor of element aij , show that

P P
(a) i aij Cij = i aji Cji = |A|
P P
(b) i aij Cjk = i aji Cki = 0, for j 6= k.

Proof. Let Ai be the column vector  

a1i
 a2i 
Ai = 
 
.. 
 . 
ani
of a matrix A. Then we can treat the determinant function det as a function of column vectors of A,
that is,
det(A) = f (A1 , A2 , · · · , An ).

1
Then f is a multilinear function from the definition of determinant, that is,
X
f (aA1 , A2 , · · · , An ) = sgn(σ)(aa1σ(1) )a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn
X
=a sgn(σ)(a1σ(1) )a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn

= af (A1 , A2 , · · · , An ),

and for each B1 ,

X
f (A1 + B1 , A2 , · · · , An ) = sgn(σ)(a1σ(1) + b1σ(1) )a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn
X X
= sgn(σ)a1σ(1) a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n) + sgn(σ)b1σ(1) a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn σ∈Sn

= f (A1 , A2 , · · · , An ) + f (B1 , A2 , · · · , An )

and
X
f (A2 , A1 , · · · , An ) = sgn(σ)a2σ(1) a1σ(2) a3σ(3) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn
X
= sgn(τ σ)(−1)a1σ(1) a2σ(2) a3σ(3) · · · anσ(n)
τ σ∈Sn

= −f (A1 , A2 , · · · , An ).

where τ is the transposition (1, 2) and the sgn(τ ) = −1. (Similarly if you want to switch i and j column
vector, you only need to consider the transposition i → j, j → i.) Therefore from the definition of a
cofactor Cij , we know that

Cij = f (A1 , A2 , · · · , Aj−1 , ei , Aj+1 , · · · , An ),

where {ei } is the standard basis for Rn . Since the j-th column vector Aj can be expressed by
n
X
Aj = aij ei ,
i=1

then by the linearity of f , we find

n
X
f (A1 , A2 , · · · , An ) = f (A1 , A2 , · · · , Aj−1 , aij ei , Aj+1 , · · · , An )
i=1
n
X
= aij f (A1 , A2 , · · · , Aj−1 , ei , Aj+1 , · · · , An )
i=1
Xn
= aij Cij .
i=1

Similarly, if you define A0i to be the row vector of A, that is,

A0i = (ai1 , ai2 , · · · , ain )

and f 0 (A01 , A02 , · · · , A0n ) = det A, then f 0 is again a multilinear function. Therefore applying the same
trick we did before, one can show that
X
f 0 (A01 , A02 , · · · , A0n ) = aji Cji det A.
i

Now by our definition of f , we find

n
X
aij Cjk = f (A1 , · · · , Ai , · · · , Ak−1 , Ai , Ak+1 , · · · , An ).
i=1

2
 Using the property of determinant, we know

f (A1 , · · · , Ai , · · · , Ak−1 , Ai , Ak+1 , · · · , An ) = f (A1 , · · · , Ai , · · · , Ak−1 , Ai + (−1)Ai , Ak+1 , · · · , An )

→
−
= f (A1 , · · · , Ai , · · · , Ak−1 , 0 , Ak+1 , · · · , An )
= 0.
Pn 0
Hence
P we prove i=1 aij Cjk = 0. Similarly, we use the property of f , then we can prove that
i aji Cki = 0, since
X
aji Cki = f 0 (A01 , · · · , A0i , · · · , A0k−1 , A0i , A0k+1 , · · · , A0n ).
i

3.2.1 Show that (AB)C = A(BC).

Proof. Suppose A = (aij ) and B = (bjk ) and C = (ckl ), then

X X
(AB)ik = aij bjk , (BC)jl = bjk ckl .
j k

Therefore we obtain for any i, l

 
X X X X
((AB)C)il = (AB)ik ckl =  aij bjk  ckl = aij bjk ckl
k k j k,j

and !
X X X X
(A(BC))il = aij (BC)jl = aij bjk ckl = aij bjk ckl .
j j k k,j

Hence we find (AB)C = A(BC).

3.2.5 If A is an n × n matrix, show that det(−A) = (−1)n det A.

Proof. For any n × n matrix A,

X
det A = sgn(σ)a1σ(2) a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n) ,
σ∈Sn

where Sn denotes the symmetric group on n letters. Therefore

X
det(−A) = sgn(σ)(−a1σ(2) )(−a2σ(2) ) · · · (−anσ(n) )
σ∈Sn
X
= (−1)n sgn(σ)a1σ(2) a2σ(2) · · · anσ(n)
σ∈Sn

= (−1)n det(A).

3.2.8 Given  
0 0 i
K =  −i 0 0  ,
0 −i 0
show that K n = 1 with some proper choice of n.

3
Proof. Using matrix multiplication one can see that
    
0 0 i 0 0 i 0 1 0
K 2 =  −i 0 0   −i 0 0  =  0 0 1 ,
0 −i 0 0 −i 0 −1 0 0

and  
−i 0 0
K3 =  0 −i 0  = −iI.
0 0 −i
Hence K 4 = −iK, K 5 = −iK 2 , K 6 = −i(−iI) = −I. Thus we find

K 12 = (K 6 )2 = (−I)2 = I.