Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013/p/2/c/solution

Take the invertible matrix , whose determinant is . Suppose it had an LU factorization with any lower triangular and upper triangular :
The entry gives , so . The entry gives , so . But then the entry would be , contradicting . Thus this nonsingular matrix has no unpermuted LU factorization, even without imposing a unit diagonal on . A row permutation resolves the zero pivot, explaining the role of partial pivoting.

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