Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-linear-algebra-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/2/b/i/solution

The annihilator of a vector subspace is
Choose a basis of and extend it to a basis of . In the dual basis, precisely span . Therefore
The canonical restriction linear transformation
has kernel of a linear map . It is surjective: extend any linear functional on by assigning arbitrary values, for instance zero, to the additional basis vectors. The First isomorphism theorem for vector spaces gives the explicit linear isomorphism
It is natural because the displayed map itself makes no basis choice; a basis was used only to prove surjectivity. In particular, is canonically a quotient vector space of , rather than canonically a subspace of .

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