Split a thin singular value decomposition at , writing and . Suppose has full row rank and the column space of contains that of . With , the identity and the Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse giveSince , submultiplicativity of the operator norm gives the displayed bound: proves . This statement is deterministic. A Gaussian error estimate needs a separate probability bound on the two random factors.
Full row rank Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-18
An matrix has full row rank when its matrix rank is , equivalently when its rows are linearly independent vectors. This requires . Its column space is all of , so the represented linear map is surjective and every linear system is solvable. If , its nullity is , so solutions are not unique.[ref]
One-to-one and Onto Transformations. Interactive Linear Algebra, §3.2.2, Onto matrix transformations theorem and Tall matrices do not have onto transformations
For example, the matrix transpose of the matrix in full column rank isIt has full row rank two. Every output has solutions , with . A square matrix of size has full row rank and full column rank together exactly when its matrix rank is ; then it is an invertible matrix. A nonsquare matrix cannot have both properties, and has no two-sided inverse: such an inverse would make its linear map a linear isomorphism between vector spaces of different dimensions.
Invertible matrix Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An -by- square matrix over a field is invertible when it has a two-sided matrix inverse. Equivalently, its linear map is a bijection: every output comes from exactly one input. For a square matrix, the following conditions are equivalent:Here matrix rank means both full column rank and full row rank. The square hypothesis matters: a rectangular matrix can have full column rank without reaching every output, or full row rank without determining every input.[ref]
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-06-linear-algebra-spring-2010/resources/lecture-3-multiplication-and-inverse-matrices/. Strang, MIT 18.06 Lecture 3: multiplication and inverse matrices
The equivalences explain why invertibility is a question about retaining information. A trivial kernel makes the linear map injective; the rank-nullity theorem then gives matrix rank , so its columns form a basis and the linear map is also surjective. Assigning to each output its unique input gives a linear map: the preimage of is . The determinant is nonzero precisely when the columns are linearly independent. Thus algebraic solvability and independent directions describe the same phenomenon; over the real numbers, nonzero oriented volume supplies its geometric interpretation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 31 3 Solution 2026-10-14
A reduction must encode primal solutions and infeasibility or unboundedness information; merely declaring a known optimum or subtracting an unknown optimum from the objective function is not a construction. The following homogeneous self-dual embedding of a linear program works without assuming the input problem has an optimum.
First remove linearly dependent equality rows by Gaussian elimination. If an eliminated row has an inconsistent right-hand side, the original problem is already certified infeasible. Return the one-variable special-form program with , , and retain that certificate; no original mathematical optimization remains. Otherwise the remaining matrix has full row rank; write it as again. Put andUse nonnegative variables and , with a temporary unrestricted multiplier . Impose the homogeneous linear systemAll coefficients are computable from the input. The temporary free multiplier can be eliminated without introducing cancelling positive/negative variables. DefineReplace the second equation by , and substitute in the other equations. Because has full row rank, is equivalent to these conditions. For no remaining equality rows, simply omit and its empty equations.
Let and . Collect these substituted equations into , impose , and let select the coordinate . The resulting Karmarkar standard form isThe next two parts prove its known positive starting point and zero optimal value. Notice that normalization is legitimate for any nonzero nonnegative embedding vector because all the equations are homogeneous; it does not require a prior bound on the original optimizer.
The Reverse-order law for the Moore--Penrose inverse is false in general. TakeThenA sufficient condition isso that has full column rank and has full row rank. Indeed and ; these identities make satisfy all four Penrose equations for .
The Hessian of is . Thus is strongly convex exactly when has full row rank. In that case one may useIn all cases, the gradient has Lipschitz constant bounded by
Past exam of the numerical linear algebra course of the University of Oxford 2025 2 b v Solution 2026-10-25
Write ; the requested expression requires the positive even integer . Split the thin singular value decomposition after columns:Here . Each column of a Gaussian random matrix is an orthogonally invariant random vector: its probability density function is proportional to , and an orthogonal matrix preserves both and volume. Thus , where , again has independent and identically distributed standard normal entries. In particular both displayed blocks have the Gaussian distributions needed below.
First prove a deterministic error bound for a randomized range finder. Put and suppose has full row rank. Its Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse is , so . The QR decomposition implies , henceMultiplication by expresses the missed leading columns in terms of the trailing columns. Substitution into gives the exact identityFor any matrix , the spectral norm of is , because its product with its transpose is . Using submultiplicativity of the operator norm, the orthonormality of , and the contraction property of the orthogonal projection, we obtainThis estimate is deterministic and also covers rank-deficient ; if , its right-hand side vanishes.
Now use the paper's permitted singular value estimates. Apply the lower estimate to the tall matrix of size , rather than to its wide transpose. It givesThe upper estimate for , transposing if necessary, givesThus, with ,Since , the deterministic estimate yieldsThis proves the requested conclusion under the explicitly authorized estimates.
The probabilistic qualification is necessary. A Gaussian random matrix does not always have all its singular values between the two endpoints printed in the hint. Already a example would require for every standard normal random variable , which fails with positive probability. The proof above holds on the event where the two block estimates hold. In a probabilistic formulation one supplies estimates for that event, usually allowing a positive margin in both endpoints; no failure probability is specified by the paper.
Nor can the requested inequality with one universal hold almost surely for every . For example, take , , with , and a sampling matrixAt , the sampled column space misses the first coordinate, so , whereas . Choose . Because has full column rank, its orthogonal projection depends continuously on near through . The strict violation persists in an open neighborhood of . The joint Gaussian probability density function is positive there, so that neighborhood has positive probability. This identifies the missing qualification without weakening the conditional calculation.
If is , then is . The equation makes every standard basis vector of a linear combination of the columns of : take the corresponding column of as coefficients. Hence the column space is all of , giving . In particular, and has full row rank.
Choose independent columns of that form a basis of its column space, and put them in . For each column of , let be its coordinate vector in that basis; put these coordinate vectors in . The column equations give .
By construction has full column rank . The columns of corresponding to the selected basis columns are the standard vectors of , so has full row rank . This proves the requested rank factorization. When , and the corresponding empty-column and empty-row factors have the required shapes and rank zero.
Rank factorization 2026-10-25
For a matrix of matrix rank , choose an ordered basis of its column space as the columns of . Express every column of in that basis and put its coordinates in . Then , has full column rank and has full row rank. Choosing independent original columns makes the corresponding columns of the standard basis vectors, directly proving its rank.
Reverse-order law for the Moore--Penrose inverse Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
For arbitrary real or complex matrices, the Moore-Penrose inverse need not reverse products:For example, and give , while and . Thus but .
A useful sufficient condition is that have full column rank and have full row rank, with their shared inner dimension . Then and . Put and . Direct multiplication givesThe last two products are Hermitian orthogonal projection matrices. All four Penrose equations therefore hold, proving . These rank conditions are sufficient, rather than necessary; checking the Penrose equations explains why the rule works in a particular case.
Singular matrix Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-18
An square matrix over a field, with , is singular when it has no matrix inverse. Geometrically, its linear map loses at least one input direction: some nonzero vector satisfies , so . Over the real numbers, the following family makes that loss visible:
Compression by becomes collapse only at
. The square retains two-dimensional extent for and , but maps to a segment at . The orange points come from three inputs with the same first coordinate and different second coordinates. They coincide only at . This is exact illustrative geometry, not measured data. Details.For this diagonal matrix, . Whenever , the input can be recovered as and the kernel is . At , the kernel becomes : the entire second coordinate is forgotten. Consequently has no solution if , and has the solution straight line , , if . A singular matrix therefore need not make a particular linear system inconsistent; it prevents unique recovery when that linear system is consistent.
For an square matrix, all these tests describe the same failure:Here is the field of scalars. Equivalently, the columns are linearly dependent, the linear map is neither injective nor surjective, and some outputs cannot be reached. See the invertible matrix equivalences and Strang's MIT 18.06SC lecture summary, Multiplication and inverse matrices, p. 2. Over an infinite field, every consistent linear system for a singular matrix has infinitely many solutions; over a finite field with elements and nullity , it has exactly solutions. This follows by adding each kernel vector to one solution.
The square hypothesis is essential. For an matrix, injectivity means matrix rank (full column rank), whereas surjectivity means matrix rank (full row rank). A rectangular matrix can satisfy one condition without the other; its kernel and image of a linear map give the useful tests without calling it a singular matrix.
Exact singularity also differs from sensitivity. For , is an invertible matrix, but its smallest singular value is and its condition number in Euclidean norm is . A change changes the recovered input by : with and , an output change of causes an input change of . These are exact toy values, not measurements. The condition number quantifies this sensitivity before a direction is lost; see Steve Marschner, Condition numbers, §2. A small determinant alone is not a reliable sensitivity test: has determinant yet condition number one for every nonzero real , since both singular values shrink equally.
Trivial kernel Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-11-05
A linear map has a trivial kernel when : the zero vector is the only input producing the zero output. The kernel is a singleton set, not the empty set, because every linear map sends zero to zero. Equivalently, its nullity is zero and is injective. No finite-dimensional hypothesis is required.[ref]
Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler (4th edition). §3B: a linear map is injective exactly when its null space is zero
The reason this zero-output test controls all outputs is linearity:With a trivial kernel, equal outputs force equal inputs. Therefore every equation has at most one solution. Existence is a separate question: must belong to the image of a linear map. In the fiber description under nullity, is just the single point .
For example, the linear map , , has trivial kernel and full column rank:The output comes from exactly , while is unreachable. Conversely, , , is surjective and has full row rank, but its kernel is : every output comes from the solution straight line .
For an matrix, a trivial kernel is equivalent to matrix rank and linear independence of its columns. It can therefore occur only if . If , the rank-nullity theorem also forces surjectivity, giving an invertible matrix; if , the example shows why unique recovery of reachable inputs does not imply that every output is reachable. Finally, a trivial kernel guarantees exact uniqueness without guaranteeing numerical stability: the singular matrix example has trivial kernel for every , even as its condition number grows without bound when approaches zero.
Underdetermined minimum-norm example 2026-10-14
Now take one equation for two unknowns:The linear system has an entire affine line of exact solutions. Since has full row rank, its Moore-Penrose inverse isThe kernel is , and all exact solutions areBecause is orthogonal to ,The Euclidean norm is therefore smallest exactly at . The zero residual alone cannot select a solution; the minimum-norm rule supplies the additional criterion.
The minimum-norm solution is the closest point of the solution line to the origin
. The affine line is perpendicular to . Moving along the line changes only a kernel component and increases by . Details.This selection depends on the specified inner product. Rescaling one unknown changes what counts as a small Euclidean norm, so units and weighting matter in an application. A minimum-norm answer is mathematically canonical for the chosen geometry, rather than an automatic guarantee of physical plausibility.

