Complex bilinear dimension bound ($\dim \mathrm{im}\varphi \ge \dim U+\dim V-1$)

For nonzero finite-dimensional complex vector spaces $U,V$, suppose a bilinear map never vanishes on a pair of nonzero vectors. Equivalently, each map obtained by fixing one nonzero argument is injective. If its associated map on $U\otimes V$ has image dimension $r$, projectivization gives a map to ${\mathbb{CP}}^{r-1}$ whose positive degree-two class pulls back to $x+y$. The nonzero top power $(x+y{)}^{\dim U+\dim V-2}$ in the product cohomology ring of complex projective space proves the bound. Multiplication of polynomials of bounded degree attains equality. Nonzero hypotheses matter: with a zero factor, slice conditions can be vacuous.