Recall

Let is a linear map, with and being bases of and respectively. The matrix of in the given bases is the matrix whose columns are coordinate vectors of with respect to the basis .

Example 1.

Let be the derivative map where and . Let the bases be

Observe that:

We can now write the matrix of in the bases and denoted by as (note the implicit establishment of isomorphisms to ) :


Homomorphisms

Definition 2.

A homomorphism is a structure preserving map between two algebraic structures of the same type.

Contrast with isomorphism, which is a structure preserving map between two structures of the same type which can be reversed by an inverse mapping.

A linear map is a homomorphism of vector spaces.

.

Relation to Matrices

For two vector spaces and with dimensions and and , is a matrix, as we have seen. As every has a single matrix for a fixed set of bases, is a function. That is,

Exercise: Prove that is an isomorphism of vector spaces. Solution here
Thus, . Therefore .


Change of basis

(Ref. 2.4 Hoffman)

Let be a vector space of dimension . Now, let

Each permits representation as a linear combination of .

where the left “row vector of vectors” is called a hyper vector.
Using the rule for matrix multiplication, we have

Denote the hyper vector of the ‘s as and that of the ‘s as . The above will become . Fix an arbitrary vector . will have a coordinate vector in (call it ) and one in (call it ) such that .

Thus,

Example 3.

Let be a linear transformation. We aim to find given that .

Fix a vector and let be its “new” (given) coordinates. Now

Therefore,


Composition of linear maps in terms of the matrices

Theorem 4(Claim).

Proof
Let

Recall the representation of linear transformations as matrices.

Now,

As we want the coefficient of , we will only take the term from the second sum. That is


A “Good” basis for a linear map

Let be a linear map with and . We want to choose bases and such that is as simple as possible.

Let . Now, take a basis of , (Recall the rank nullity theorem).
Extend to get a basis of , .
We have shown that are a basis of (See here).
Extend this to a basis of . .
Now will be

More concisely,