Properties

Existence: the range and rank of a matrix
Unicity: the nullspace of a matrix
Fundamental theorem of linear algebra
Matrix inverses

Existence: range and rank of a matrix

Range

The range (or, image) of a m times n

matrix

is defined as the following subset of $mathbf{R}^m$ :

The range describes the vectors y=Ax

that can be attained in the output space by an arbitrary choice of a vector

in the input space. The range is simply the span of the columns of

The matlab function orth accepts a matrix

as input, and returns a matrix, the columns of which span the range of the matrix

, and are mutually orthogonal. Hence, U^TU = I_r

, where

is the dimension of the range.

Matlab syntax

>> U = orth(A); % columns of U span the range of A, and U'*U = identity

Rank

The dimension of the range is called the rank of the matrix. As we will see later, the rank cannot exceed any one of the dimensions of the matrix

. A matrix is said to be full rank if r = min(m,n)

Matlab syntax

r = rank(A); % r is the rank of A

Note that the rank is a very ‘‘brittle’’ notion, in that small changes in the entries of the matrix can dramatically change its rank. Random matrices, such as ones generated using the Matlab command rand, are full rank. We will develop here a better, more numerically reliable notion.

Full row rank matrices

The matrix

is said to be full row rank (or, onto) if the range is the whole output space, $mathbf{R}^m$ . The name ‘‘full row rank’’ comes from the fact that the rank equals the row dimension of

An equivalent condition for

to be full row rank is that the square, m times m

matrix

is invertible, meaning that it has full rank,

. Proof.

Unicity: nullspace of a matrix

Nullspace

The nullspace (or, kernel) of a m times n

matrix

is the following subspace of $mathbf{R}^n$ :

The nullspace describes the ambiguity in

given

: any

will be such that A(x+z) = y

, so

cannot be determined by the sole knowledge of

if the nullspace is not reduced to the singleton {0}

The matlab function null accepts a matrix

as input, and returns a matrix, the columns of which span the nullspace of the matrix

, and are mutually orthogonal. Hence, U^TU = I_r

, where

is the dimension of the range.

Matlab syntax

U = null(A); % columns of A span the nullspace of A, and U'*U = I

Full column rank matrices

The matrix

is said to be full column rank (or, one-to-one) if its nullspace is the singleton {0}

. In this case, if we denote by a_i

the

columns of

, the equation

has

as the unique solution. Hence,

is one-to-one if and only if its columns are independent.

The term ‘‘one-to-one’’ comes from the fact that for such matrices, the condition y = Ax

uniquely determines

, since

and

implies

, so that the solution is unique: x_1 = x_2

. The name ‘‘full column rank’’ comes from the fact that the rank equals the column dimension of

An equivalent condition for

to be full column rank is that the square, n times n

matrix

is invertible, meaning that it has full rank,

. (Proof)

Fundamental theorem of linear algebra

A basic result of linear algebra is that the nullspace of a m times n

matrix and the range of the transpose matrix are orthogonal sets, in the sense that any two vectors, each chosen in one of the sets, are orthogonal. Further, their dimensions sum up to

. That is, the two sets form an orthogonal decomposition of the whole space.

Fundamental theorem of linear algebra

Let $A in mathbf{R}^{m times n}$ . The sets mathbf{N} (A) and $mathbf{R} (A^T)$ form an orthogonal decomposition of $mathbf{R}^n$ , in the sense that any vector $x in mathbf{R}^n$ can be written as

$x = y + z, ;; y in mathbf{N} (A), ;; z in mathbf{R} (A^T), ;; y^Tz = 0.$

We will see later that the rank of a matrix is equal to that of its transpose. Thus, a consequence of the theorem is that

The interpretation of the above is that

is the number of degrees of freedom in input

;

gives the number of degrees of freedom that remain in the output, while mbox{bf dim} mathbf{N}(A)

counts the number of dimensions of

that are ‘‘crushed’’ to zero by the mapping x rightarrow Ax

Matrix inverses

Left and right inverses

It can be shown that a m times n

matrix

is full row rank if and only if it has a right inverse, that is, there exist a matrix

such that

, where

is the

identity matrix.

It can be shown that a m times n

matrix

is full column rank if and only if it has a left inverse, that is, there exist a matrix

such that

, where

is the

identity matrix. Hence, for a one-to-one matrix, the equation y = Ax

has always a unique solution, x = By

Invertible matrices

If square

matrix is full row rank if and only if it is full row rank, and vice-versa. In this case, we simply say that the matrix is invertible. Then, there exist a unique left- and right inverse, and both are equal to a matrix called the inverse, and denoted $A^{-1}$ . The inverse satisfies $A cdot A^{-1} = A^{-1} cdot A = I_n$ .

For an invertible n times n

matrix, the nullspace is a the zero subspace {0}

, and the range is the whole space, $mathbf{R}^n$ . In addition, the equation y = Ax

then always has a unique solution for every

There is a closed-form expression of the inverse, based on the notion of determinant. This expression is useful for theoretical reasons but never used in practice. Later we will see how to compute the matrix inverse in a numerically more efficient way.

A useful property is the expression of the inverse of a product of two square, invertible matrices A,B

: $(AB)^{-1} = B^{-1}A^{-1}$ .