Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-linear-algebra-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/a/solution

Put . Each belongs to the dual space , so it is a linear functional. For real numbers and vectors , this gives
The linearity of gives linearity in the second argument as well:
Thus is a bilinear form.
Its right radical of a bilinear form is exactly , because
If is a nondegenerate bilinear form, this kernel is zero. Since is a finite-dimensional vector space and , the rank-nullity theorem makes surjective.
Conversely, if is surjective, the same dimension equality makes it injective, so the right radical is zero. If lies in the left radical, then for every , because every is some . A nonzero can be included in a basis and detected by its coordinate functional, so this forces . Both radicals vanish, proving

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