Change of Basis

Massoud Malek

A basis for a vector space V of dimension n is a sequence of n vectors { u 1 , u 2 , . . . , u n } with the

property that every vector in the space can be expressed uniquely as a linear combination of the basis
vectors. The matrix representations of operators are also determined by the chosen basis. Since it is
often desirable to work with more than one basis for a vector space, it is of fundamental importance to
be able to easily transform coordinate-wise representations of vectors and operators taken with respect
to one basis to their equivalent representations with respect to another basis. Such a transformation
is called a change of basis.
The standard basis B 0 for R n , is the ordered sequence { e 1 , e 2 , . . . , e n } , where e k is the element
of R n with 1 in the k-th place and 0 s elsewhere.
If T : R n 7→ R m is a linear transformation, the m × n matrix of T is the matrix A T whose k-th
column is T ( e k ) for k = 1, 2, . . . , n . It is a basic fact that the vector space Hom ( R n , R m ) of all
linear transformations from R n to R m is naturally isomorphic to the space M m,n ( R ) of m × n
matrices over R . Thus the matrix

AT = [T (e1 ), T (e2 ), ... , T (ek ), ... , T (en )]

represent the linear transformation T : R n 7→ R m .

Change of Basis in a Vector Space. Let V be finite dimensional vector space. Given the bases
B 1 = { u 1 , u 2 , . . . , u n } and B 2 = { v 1 , v 2 , . . . , v n } , the transition matrix from basis B 1 to B 2 ,
denoted by M 1,2 is the matrix which changes the vector w , expressed as a linear combination of
vectors in B 1 to a linear combination of vectors in B 2 . That is
n
X n
X
w= αk uK changes to w = βk vK .
k=1 k=1

Instead of finding the transition matrix M 1,2 directly, it is easier to follow the following steps :
Step 1. Find the transition matrix M 1,0 from B 1 to B 0 and the transition matrix M 2,0 from B 2
to B 0 .
Step 2. Find the the transition matrix M 0,2 from B 0 to B 2 , by finding the inverse of the matrix
M 2,0 .
Step 3. Use the following diagram :

M 1,2
B1 B2

M 1,0 M 0,2 = M −1
2,0

B0

Step 4. w = ( β 1 , β 2 , . . . , β n ) t = M −1 t
2,0 M 1,0 ( α 1 , α 2 , . . . , α n ) .
Linear Algebra Change of Basis 2

Example 1. Consider the bases

       
     

 1 1 1   2

 1 3 
B 1 = u1 = 1, u2 = −1 , u3 =  1  and B 2 = v1 = 1, v2 =  1 , v3 = 2 .
           
   
 1 1 −1   0 0 1 

Then the transition matrices from B 1 to B 0 and B 0 to B 2 are :

   −1  
1 1 1 2 1 3 1 −1 −1
M 1,0 =  1 −1 1  and M 0,2 =  1 1 2  = −1 2 −1  .
     
1 1 −1 0 0 1 0 0 1

The transition matrix from B 1 to B 2 is :

    
1 −1 −1 1 1 1 −1 1 1
M 1,2 = M −1
2,0 M 1,0 = −1 2 −1   1 −1 1  =  0 − 4 2 .
    
0 0 1 1 1 −1 1 1 −1
 
2
Let w ( B 1 ) =  1 be the fixed vector w expressed as a linear combination of vectors in B 1 , then
 
3
the vector w expressed as a linear combination of vectors in B 2 is :
    
−1 1 1 2 2
w ( B 2 ) = M 1,2 w ( B 1 ) =  0 − 4 2   1 =  2 .
    
1 1 −1 3 0

Change of Basis of Linear Transformations. Let T : V 1 7→ V 2 be a linear transformation

and let B 1 and B 2 basis of V 1 and V 2 respectively.
To find the matrix A 1,2 representing T , which takes a vector in the first vector space, expressed
as a linear combination of vectors in B 1 and transforms it into a vector in the second vector space
expressed as a linear combination of vectors in B 2 ; we use the following steps :
Step 1. Find the matrix

A 0,0 = [ T ( e 1 ) , T ( e 2 ) , . . . , T ( e k ) , . . . , T ( e n ) ]

Step 2. Find the transition matrix M 1,0 from B 1 to B 0 and the transition matrix M 2,0 from B 2
to B 0 .
Step 3. Find the the transition matrix M 0,2 from B 0 to B 2 , by finding the inverse of the matrix
M 2,0 .
Step 4. Use the following diagram :
A 1,2
B 1 (V 1 ) B 2 (V 2 )

A 1,0 A 0,2
M 1,0 M 0,2 = M −1
2,0

A 0,0
B 0 (V 1 ) B 0 (V 2 )
Linear Algebra Change of Basis 3

Step 5. A 1,2 = M −1
2,0 A 0,0 M 1,0 .
Notice that the diagram also shows how to find

A 1,0 = A 0,0 M 1,0 and A 0,2 = M −1

2,0 A 0,0 .

Example 2. Given the linear transformation T : R 3 7→ R 3 , defined by

   
x 3x + 2y + z
T  y  =  4 x + 3 y + 4 z .
   
z 2x − 2y − 3z

Let B 1 and B 2 be the bases defined in example 1; then find the matrix representation of T from
B 1 to B 2 ; from B 0 to B 2 ; and from B 1 to B 0 .
Solution: We have  
3 2 1
A 0,0 = [ T (e1 ), T (e2 ), T (e3 ) ] = 4 3 4 .
 
1 −2 −3
From Step 5, we have
     
1 −1 −1 3 2 1 1 1 1 −1 −3 −1
A 1,2 = M 0,2 A 0,0 M 1,0 = −1 2 −1   4 3 4   1 −1 1  =  2 0 8 0 .
     
0 0 1 1 −2 −3 1 1 −1 −4 0 2
    
1 −1 −1 3 2 1 −2 1 0
A 0,2 = M 0,2 A 0,0 = −1 2 −1   4 3 4  =  4 6 1 0 .
    
0 0 1 1 −2 −3 1 −2 −3
    
3 2 1 1 1 1 6 2 4
A 1,0 = A 0,0 M 1,0 =  4 3 4   1 −1 1   1 1
= 5 3 .
    
1 −2 −3 1 1 −1 −4 0 2

Matrix Similarity. Similar matrices represent the same linear transformation after a change of
basis.
Suppose V 1 = V 2 = V and also the basis B 1 = B 2 = B . Then the matrix representation A 0,0 of a
linear transformation T : V 7→ V is similar to A 1,2 . We write P −1 A P = B . The matrix P is the
transition matrix from B 1 to B 0 and the matrix P −1 is the transition matrix from B 0 to B 2 .
Both matrices A and B have the same set of eigenvalues and algebraic multiplicities and geometric
multiplicities of eigenvalues but not necessary the same eigenvectors. They also have the same rank,
characteristic polynomial, minimal polynomial, determinant, and trace.
In the definition of similarity, if the matrix P can be chosen to be a permutation matrix then A
and B are permutation-similar; if P can be chosen to be a unitary matrix then A and B are
unitarily equivalent. The spectral theorem says that every normal matrix is unitarily equivalent to
some diagonal matrix.
To diagonalize a matrix, we must find a basis B from its set of linearly independent eigenvectors and
make a change of basis. The Jordan canonical form of a matrix A is obtain from changing the basis,
where P comprises of linearly independent eigenvectors and generalized eigenvectors of A .
Linear Algebra Change of Basis 4

        
 1
 1 1  5 0 −1
Example 3. Consider the basis B = 1 , −1 ,  1  and let A =  1 4 −1 be the
       
 
 1 1 −1  −1 0 5
matrix representing a linear transformation T with respect to the standard basis. Find the matrix
B , representing T with respect to the basis B .
   
1 1 1 0 1 1
1
Solution : Let P =  1 −1 1  . Then by finding P −1 =  1 −1 0  , we may now find a
  
2
1 1 −1 1 0 −1
similar matrix to A as follows :
     
0 1 1 5 0 −1 1 1 1 4 0 0
1
B = P −1 A P =  1 −1 0   1 4 −1  1 −1 1  =  0 4 0 
    
2
1 0 −1 −1 0 5 1 1 −1 0 0 6

Notice that by changing the basis, we diagonalized the matrix A .