Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ib/paper-1/9f/d/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 1 9F d Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Every commutator has zero trace, by the cyclic identity. Hence its linear span is contained in . For the reverse inclusion, the matrix units satisfyThe off-diagonal matrix units and the differences for span all traceless matrices: a traceless diagonal part is . Thus every element of the kernel is a linear combination of commutators, provingThis establishes that traceless matrices are spanned by commutators. For , both vector subspaces are zero. Notice that the argument needs a span of commutators; it does not assume that every such sum has already been written as a single commutator.
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