Vectors and Vector Spaces

Table of Contents

• Vector
• Field
• Vector Space
  • Subspaces
• Linear Combinations
  • Affine Combination
• Linear Dependence
• Span, Basis, and Dimension
  • Span
  • Basis
    • Uniqueness of Representation Theorem
  • Dimension

Vector

What is a vector?

• The Physics definition - A vector is a quantity with both magnitude and direction.
• The Computer Science definition - A vector is an ordered tuple of $n$ components where each component is a scalar value corresponding to certain parameters.
• The Mathematics definition - A vector is an element of a vector space over a field closed under addition and scalar multiplication.

We are interested in the Mathematical definition of a vector when studying Linear Algebra. So we need to under what fields and vector spaces are.

Field

A field $\mathbb{F}$ is a non-empty collection of elements with operators $(+,\cdot )$ where,

• $+$ is Field Addition
• $\cdot$ is Field Multiplication such that -
• $(\mathbb{F},+)$ is an Abelian Group.
• $(\mathbb{F}/\{0\},\cdot )$ is an Abelian Group.

Additive structure $(\mathbb{F},+)$ is an abelian group:

1. Closure: $a+b\in \mathbb{F}$
2. Associativity: $(a+b)+c=a+(b+c)$
3. Identity: $a+0=0+a=a$
4. Inverse: $a+(-a)=0$
5. Commutativity: $a+b=b+a$ Multiplicative structure $(\mathbb{F}\setminus \{0\},\cdot )$ is an abelian group:
6. Closure: $a\cdot b\in \mathbb{F}\setminus \{0\}$
7. Associativity: $(a\cdot b)\cdot c=a\cdot (b\cdot c)$
8. Identity: $a\cdot 1=a$
9. Inverse: $a\cdot a^{-1}=1$
10. Commutativity: $a\cdot b=b\cdot a$ Link between them:
11. Distributivity: $a\cdot (b+c)=a\cdot b+a\cdot c$

Vector Space

A vector space $V$ over a field $\mathbb{F}$ is a collection of elements closed over -

• Vector Addition $(+)$
• Scalar Multiplication $(\cdot )$

$V$ is not a field but “over a field $\mathbb{F}$“. This means that the scalars for scalar multiplication come from $\mathbb{F}$, not the components for the vectors in $V$. $V$ is an Abelian Group under vector addition and closed under scalar multiplication by a field $\mathbb{F}$.

Example - ${\mathbb{R}}^2$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ is a vector space where the two components of the vectors come from $\mathbb{R}$ while the scalars for multiplication come from $\mathbb{Q}$.

Vector Addition for $u,v,w\in V$ and $a,b\in \mathbb{F}$:

1. Closure: $u+v\in V$
2. Associativity: $(u+v)+w=u+(v+w)$
3. Identity: $v+0=v$
4. Inverse: $v+(-v)=0$
5. Commutativity: $v+w=w+v$ Scalar Multiplication:
6. Closure: $av\in V$
7. Associativity: $a\cdot (b\cdot v)=(a\cdot b)\cdot v$
8. Identity: $1.v=v$
9. Inverse: Because Associativity works, with $b=a^{-1}$ we can satisfy inversion Link between them:
10. Distributivity: $a\cdot (u+v)=au+av$ and $v\cdot (a+b)=av+bv$

Subspaces

Any subset of the vector space $V$ which by itself satisfies the conditions of a vector space is a subspace of $V$.

• $V$ is a trivial subspace of $V$.
• The zero vector is also a trivial subspace of $V$.
• Any subset of $V$ forming a linear geometric structure that passes through the origin is a subspace of $V$.

Linear Combinations

Suppose we have $k$ vectors $u_1,\dots ,u_k$ and $k$ scalars ${\alpha }_1,\dots ,{\alpha }_k$, each corresponding to a vector. A resultant vector $v$ is a linear combination of vectors $u_1,\dots ,u_k$ when -

$$v={\alpha }_1{u}_1+\cdots +{\alpha }_k{u}_k$$

When,

• ${\alpha }_i=1,\forall i\in [0,k]$ $v$ is the sum of all vectors.
• ${\alpha }_i=\frac{1}{n},\forall i\in [0,k]$ $v$ is the average of all vectors.
• ${\sum }_{i=1}^k{\alpha }_i=1$, $v$ is an affine combination of vectors.

Affine Combination

When sum of all coefficients/scalars in a linear combination add up to 1, we call such a linear combination an affine combination.

If, in addition, all coefficients are non-negative, we call this combination as a Convex Combination/Weighted Average.

Linear Dependence

If some linear combination of vectors results in $0$ such that not all coefficients were 0, we say the vectors are linearly dependent.

• If any set of vectors contains the zero vector, then this set is a linearly dependent set.

If the only way to get the zero vector by performing a linear combination on the vectors is by setting all coefficients as 0, we say the vectors are linearly independent.

• A linearly independent set cannot contain the zero vector.
• A single vector is always linearly independent, unless it is the zero vector.
• Any subset of a linearly independent set is always linearly independent.
• Any superset of a linearly independent set is always linearly dependent.
• Two vectors are linearly independent if one is not a multiple of the other.

Span, Basis, and Dimension

Span

A span of vectors is a set of all possible linear combinations of the vectors.

• A span of vectors is a vector space.
• Let $S=\{u_1,\dots ,u_n\}$ be a set of $n$ linearly independent $n$-component vectors. The smallest subspace containing $S$ is $\mathrm{span}(S)$.

Basis

The basis of a vector space is a set of linearly independent vectors whose span is the entire vector space.

• In the example under span, $S$ is the basis of $\mathrm{span}(S)$.
• Basis of a vector space need not be unique. ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ has infinitely many basis.

Uniqueness of Representation Theorem

This theorem states – Any vector in a vector space, would always have a unique representation in terms of the basis.

$\underline{\text{Proof}}-$ Let $S=u_1,\dots ,u_k$ be a set of linearly independent vectors. Let,

$$\begin{gathered} x={\alpha }_1{u}_1+\cdots +{\alpha }_k{u}_k \\ \text{\hspace{1em}(1)} \end{gathered}$$

Let $x$ be represented using a different set of coefficients,

$$\begin{gathered} x={\beta }_1{u}_1+\cdots +{\beta }_k{u}_k \\ \text{\hspace{1em}(2)} \end{gathered}$$

Doing $(1)-(2)$, we get

$$0=({\alpha }_1-{\beta }_1)u_1+\cdots +({\alpha }_k-{\beta }_k)u_k$$

As $S$ is a set of linearly independent vectors, their linear combination can only be $0$ when the coefficients are $0$. Thus ${\alpha }_i={\beta }_i\forall i\in [1,k]$. So, any vector $x$ when expressed as a linear combination of a linearly independent set of vectors $S$ has a unique set of scalars corresponding to each vector in $S$.

Thus we can say that any vector in a vector space has a unique representation in terms of the basis vectors.

Dimension

The number of elements/vectors in the basis of a vector space is called the dimension of the vector space.

• The basis for a vector space need not be unique, but the dimension of a vector space is always unique.