Vector Space Theory

A vector space V is a set which consists of objects known as vectors. Alongside this, several rules/conditions
apply within a vector space, we list them down here:

1. There exists a binary operation denoted with the symbol “+” is defined such that V + V → V
(often, this is known as “addition”). In other words, addition of vectors is closed under the V .
2. There exists a binary operation denoted with the symbol “×” is defined such that F × V → V
where F is an arbitrarily chosen field (often, this is known as multiplication). Elements of the field
are called scalars, hence, we say that multiplication of vectors by a scalar is closed under V .
3. There must exist some vector 0V ∈ V such that 0v + v = v for all v ∈ V .
4. For every vector v ∈ V , there must exist a vector w ∈ V such that v + w = 0V . We call such a w
the additive inverse of v.

5. The multiplicative identity in F, which we denote by 1F should satisfy 1F × v = v for all v ∈ V .

6. The additive operator satisfies associativity:

(u + v) + w = u + (v + w) for all u, v, w ∈ V

7. The additive operator satisfies commutativity:

w + v = v + w for all v, w ∈ V

8. The multiplicative operator satisfies:

(αβ) × v = α(β × v) for all v ∈ V and α, β ∈ F

9. The additive and multiplicative operators are connected by the following distributive property:

α × (u + v) = αu + αv for all v, u ∈ V and α ∈ F

(α + β) × (v) = αv + βv for all v ∈ V and α, β ∈ F

Note that the addition between α and β in property 9 utilizes the additive operator from the field of
scalars, also we will frequently omit the × symbol for multiplication between scalar and vector and just
place them together directly, when we do this, the multiplication is implied but not shown explicitly.
Definition. A real vector space is any vector space with F chosen to be the field of real numbers, a
complex vector space is defined analogously.
Definition. Let {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } be a set of vectors, its span with respect to F, denoted by span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }
is defined by as follows:

span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } = {α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn | αi ∈ F for 1 ≤ i ≤ n}

The end goal of this section is to prove the following theorem

Theorem 1. Assume we have additive and multiplicative operators that satisfy the necessary conditions,
for any set of vectors {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }, its span with respect to F creates a vector space which contains
those vectors and uses F as its field of scalars.

To reach these goals we introduce a few lemmas.

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Lemma 2. The additive inverse of a vector is unique.
Proof. Let V be a vector space and let u, w ∈ V be two distinct additive inverses for the vector v ∈ V .
Then
v + u = 0V
w + v + u = w + 0V
(w + v) + u = w
0V + u = w
u=w
but this is a contradiction.
Lemma 3. The zero vector is unique
Proof. Let V be a vector space and let 0V , 0V1 ∈ V be two distinct zero vectors. Let v be an arbitrary
vector in V , then by definition
v + 0V = v + 0V1 = v
by property 4, the existence of a vector w ∈ V such that w + v = 0V is guaranteed. We can add this
vector on both sides
w + v + 0V = w + v + 0V1
0V + 0V = 0V + 0V1
0V = 0V1
but this is a contradiction.
Lemma 4. Let V be a vector space on the field F. For any vector v ∈ V
0 × v = 0V where 0 is the additive identity in F.
Proof. Let w ∈ V be the additive inverse of v. Then
0 × v = 0v + 0V
= 0v + (v + w)
= (0v + v) + w
= (0v + 1v) + w
= (0 + 1)v + w
= (1)v + w
= 0V
Lemma 5. Let V be a vector space on the field F. For any vector v ∈ V , its additive inverse is equivalent
to (−1)v where −1 is the additive inverse of the multiplicative identity in F.
Proof. Consider the equation below
(1 + (−1))v = 1v + (−1)v
= v + (−1)v
alternatively,
(1 + (−1))v = (0)v
= 0V (lemma 4)
therefore,
v + (−1v) = 0V
Let w be the additive inverse of v, then
w + v + (−1)v = w + 0V
(−1)v = w

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Remark. We shall not keep using 0V to denote the zero vector, from now on it shall be denoted with
the symbol 0, although this is the same symbol used to denote the additive identity from the field of
scalars, we hope that you will be able to differentiate between the two based on the context.

Claim 6. Let V be a vector space on the field F, if it contains the vector v then it contains αv for all
α ∈ F.

This is a direct consequence of the second property of a vector space. Instead of one, let’s say that there
exists two vectors v, w in V . By claim 5, this means that αv and βw are also in V for all α, β ∈ F. Notice
that by the first property of a vector space, αv + βw should also be in V . We can extend this concept
to the general case, if v1 , v2 , . . . , vn are in V , then α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn is also in V for all scalars
αi ∈ F. Notice that this is exactly how we defined the span of a set of vectors to be.

Definition. Let {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } be a set of vectors. A linear combination of this set is a sum of the
form
Xn
α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn = αk vk where ai ∈ F
k=1

Remark. With this definition we can say: The elements of the span of {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } are all the
possible linear combinations of {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }. This is a useful way of describing the span of a set.

Furthermore, we can more elegantly express our claim:

Claim 7. Let v1 , v2 , . . . , vn be vectors in V , then any linear combination of this set is also in V .

I hope that this has discussion provided some intuition. I feel we are now ready to prove theorem 1.

Proof of theorem 1. First, notice that by assumption our additive and multiplicative operators satisfy
the necessary conditions, so we don’t have to check properties 5-9. Once we prove that the span satisfies
properties 1-4, the theorem is proven. Any two vectors v, w in span{v1 , v2 , . . . , vn } can be represented
as
v = α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn
w = β 1 v1 + β2 v2 + · · · + βn vn
for some scalars αi , βi ∈ F. We can add v with w and simplify with the distributive property (remember,
we have assumed that our additive operator satisfies all necessary properties)

v + w = α1 v1 + α2 v2 + · · · + αn vn + β1 v1 + β2 v2 + · · · + βn vn
= (α1 + β1 )v1 + (α2 + β2 )v2 + · · · + (αn + βn )vn

This shows that v + w is in the span as required. Hence, property 1 is satisfied. To show that property
2 is satisfied we use property 9 and 8. Let β be an arbitrary scalar in F , then

βv = βα1 v1 + βα2 v2 + · · · + βαn vn

= (βα1 )v1 + (βα2 )v2 + · · · + (βαn )vn

This shows that the multiplication between scalar and vector, βv, is in the span as required. Hence,
property 2 is satisfied. To show that properties 3 and 4 are satisfied, we can use lemma 4 and 5
respectively. By lemma 4, the zero vector is the scalar 0 times any vector, but we have just shown that
a scalar times a vector is in the span, hence, the zero vector is in the span, so property 3 is satisfied. We
can use a similar argument to show that property 4 is satisfied. Thus, we are done.

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We will end this with a couple of examples of vector spaces.
Example. The complex numbers C is a real vector space. To see this, notice that C is equivalent to the
span of {1, i} with respect to the field of real numbers, indeed any complex number can be represented
as a(1) + bi with a, b ∈ R. As long as we make sure that our operators satisfy the necessary properties,
by theorem 1, this means that C is a vector space which includes 1 and i as its vectors. Notice that if
we don’t include i as a vector, our vector space reduces to the real numbers.
Example. Consider the polynomials of maximum degree 2, it can be a real or complex vector space de-
pending on the field chosen. To see this, the polynomials of maximum degree 2 can simply be represented
as the span of {1, x, x2 } with respect to either R or C, hence it is a vector space.
 a   
 a12  
Example. We denote the set of all size n columns as Fn =  ..   ai ∈ F for i = 1, 2, . . . , n where
 .  
an
F is an arbitrary field.

Let addition and multiplication in Fn be defined as follows:

   0 
a1 + a01

a1 a1
 a2   a02   a2 + a02 
 ..  +  ..  = 
     
.. 
. .  . 
0 0
an an an + an

   
a1 α × a1
 a2   α × a2 
α ×  .  =  .  ∀α ∈ F
   
 ..   .. 
an α × an

We remind you that the additive and multiplicative operator on the left side of the equations refer to
the binary operations from the definition of a vector space whereas on the right side, the additive and
multiplicative operators are from the field of scalars. Indeed, this is a vector space, notice that Fn is the
span of {e1 , e2 , . . . , en } with respect to F where, if a1 , a2 , . . . , an ∈ F make up the entries of the columns
(as in the above), then ei is the column with all aj = 0 for j ∈ {1, 2, . . . , n} \ {i} and ai = 1.