Affine group Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
For a finite-dimensional vector space , the affine group consists of invertible affine maps , where belongs to the general linear group and . Its product is , making it the semidirect product of the translation vector space and its general linear group. On the real line the positive-dilation subgroup is the real affine group used in the adjacent article.
Base change action on quiver representations 2026-10-06
The group acts by . Inverse entries are regular on a general linear group, so this is an algebraic group action. Its stabilizer is the automorphism group of a quiver representation.
Determinant twist 2026-10-07
Tensoring a rational representation of the general linear group with a determinant power shifts every highest-weight coordinate by the same integer . Positive twists can clear determinant denominators; negative twists supply rational representations that do not extend to singular matrices. Twisting preserves irreducibility and dimension.
Existence of a logarithm for every invertible complex matrix Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
An invertible complex Jordan block , with , has logarithm , where . Applying this construction blockwise and conjugating back proves surjectivity of the matrix exponential on the complex general linear group. There is no globally single-valued continuous choice of logarithm.
For a positive integer , the negative matrix power is differentiable on the open general linear group. The Neumann series gives locally around any invertible matrix. Applying the product rule to the factors of this inverse gives the displayed Fréchet derivative. Each summand chooses one inverse factor to differentiate while keeping the others in order.
The factor order matters. Only when and commute does the sum simplify to . This is a useful example of why scalar differentiation rules for powers cannot be transferred to matrices without accounting for noncommutativity.
General linear Lie algebra Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
The endomorphisms of a vector space form a Lie algebra under the commutator . It is the Lie algebra of the general linear group; the Jacobi identity follows by expanding associative products.
Group representation Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A group representation is a group homomorphism from a group to the general linear group of a vector space. It realizes abstract group elements as invertible linear transformations.
The defining identities are and , so an inverse element is represented by a matrix inverse. A choice of basis gives a matrix representation, but the underlying action does not depend on that choice. The action need not distinguish every group element: the trivial representation sends all of them to .
Local exponential chart Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Since the differential of the Exponential map of a Lie group at zero is the identity, the inverse function theorem makes it a diffeomorphism on a sufficiently small neighborhood of zero. Its local inverse is a logarithm near the group identity. It need not extend to a global logarithm, even for the real general linear group.
Matrix exponential determinant identity Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
The determinant is a smooth Lie group homomorphism from the real general linear group to . Its derivative at the identity is the trace, and the flow-defined exponential on is the ordinary scalar exponential. Naturality of the Lie group exponential therefore proves the identity without diagonalizability assumptions. The series is the flow-defined matrix exponential because it solves , , and has inverse .
Matrix group Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
A matrix group is a group represented by invertible matrices, equivalently a subgroup of a general linear group.
Matrix Lie group 2026-10-03
A matrix Lie group is a subgroup of a general linear group that is also a Lie group for its matrix topology. Near the identity, the matrix exponential and matrix logarithm give inverse coordinate charts whenever they are restricted to sufficiently small neighborhoods in the group and its tangent space.
Orientation-preserving general linear group Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-25
The real invertible matrices with positive determinant form a subgroup of the general linear group. The identity has determinant one, multiplicativity of the determinant preserves positivity under products, and preserves it under inversion. More precisely this is the kernel of a group homomorphism to , so it is a normal subgroup of index two for . Its elements preserve an orientation of a vector space.
The identity is symplectic because . For two symplectic matrices ,Thus the set is closed under matrix multiplication. Every member is invertible by part (i). Multiplying on the left by and on the right by givesso it is also closed under inverses. Associativity is inherited from the general linear group. These facts prove that the symplectic group is a subgroup of .
Past exam of the groups and representations course of the University of Oxford 2019 1 a Solution 2026-10-25
A subgroup is a normal subgroup if for every . A group homomorphism satisfies for every . In particular and . A group representation on a vector space is a group homomorphism into the general linear group of invertible linear maps on .
For the kernel of a group homomorphism, put . It contains , and if then , so is a subgroup. For and ,Thus . Applying this inclusion with gives the reverse inclusion, proving that is a normal subgroup.
For a normal subgroup , define multiplication of left cosets byTo check independence of representatives, replace by , with . Thenbecause normality gives . Hence the operation is well-defined. Associativity follows from in ; the identity is ; and the inverse of is . These verify the group axioms, giving the quotient group . The map is a surjective group homomorphism with kernel of a group homomorphism equal to .
Past exam of the groups and representations course of the University of Oxford 2019 1 b Solution 2026-10-25
Nonzero scalar matrices form a subgroup of the general linear group, since products and inverses remain nonzero scalar matrices. Moreover, for every invertible ,Thus lies in the center of a group and is a normal subgroup. The quotient group is the complex projective linear group , whose elements identify invertible matrices differing by a nonzero scalar.
The canonical group homomorphism obeys . Composing it with the given group representation givesConsequentlyThis is the projective representation associated with : a nonzero scalar acts trivially on each line in the projective space of . Its kernel of a group homomorphism consists of those for which is scalar, which can be larger than the kernel of a group homomorphism of itself.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 12 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a smooth manifold of dimension , the tangent space can be defined as the space of derivations at : linear maps on germs of smooth real functions satisfying . Equivalently, is the velocity of a smooth curve through , with curves identified when their coordinate velocities agree. A chart supplies the basis , so .
The tangent bundle is the disjoint union , with projection . Its smooth structure is defined by the local local trivializationsOn overlapping charts, the change of trivialization isThese are smooth changes of coordinates on a -dimensional smooth manifold, linear and invertible in each fibre. Thus is a rank- vector bundle, and its projection is a submersion. Fibrewise addition, scalar multiplication and the zero section are smooth. A smooth section of a vector bundle , satisfying , is exactly a vector field; locally , with components transforming by the displayed Jacobian matrix. Its action on functions is a derivation, and the commutator of two such derivations is their Lie bracket.
The dual bundle of is the cotangent bundle . Its smooth sections of a vector bundle are differential 1-forms, locally . The coefficient transformation is the inverse transpose of that for tangent vectors, ensuring that is a well-defined smooth function. Tensoring these two bundles gives the tensor bundlesTheir sections of a vector bundle are tensor fields; their transition functions of a vector bundle are the corresponding tensor products of the tangent and cotangent transformations. For example, the bundle contains fields of linear endomorphisms, while contains symmetric bilinear fields. Taking alternating covariant tensors gives , whose sections are differential forms. The wedge product, exterior derivative and pullback of a differential form make these bundles central to integration, Generalized Stokes theorem and de Rham cohomology.
A nowhere-vanishing section of chooses an orientation of a smooth manifold; such a section exists exactly when is orientable. Without an orientation of a smooth manifold, one can still integrate sections of the density bundle , whose coordinate changes use the absolute Jacobian determinant. A Riemannian metric is a positive-definite section of . It identifies with by the musical isomorphisms and gives the Riemannian volume densityOn an oriented smooth manifold, this density corresponds to a volume form.
Another organizing construction is the frame bundle . A frame over is a linear isomorphism , and the right action makes a principal bundle with general linear group as its structure group. Given a group representation , the associated bundle is obtained from pairs by the relation . The standard representation reconstructs ; dual, tensor and exterior representations reconstruct the associated bundles described above. A Riemannian metric reduces the frame bundle to the orthonormal frame bundle, with orthogonal group as structure group; an orientation of a smooth manifold reduces it further to the special orthogonal group . A global section of is a global frame, so it exists exactly when is a parallelizable manifold. Local triviality does not imply a global trivialization: the Hairy ball theorem prevents even one nowhere-zero vector field on .
A connection on a vector bundle differentiates its sections in tangent directions and defines parallel transport. For , the Levi-Civita connection is distinguished by compatibility with a Riemannian metric and vanishing torsion tensor. Its coefficients are not tensor components, because a coordinate change introduces second derivatives; the difference of two connections is a section of . The Riemann curvature tensor is a genuine tensor measuring the failure of covariant derivatives to commute.
Finally, a smooth map gives the pullback tangent bundle . Its sections are vector fields along a map, including the velocity of a curve and Jacobi fields along a geodesic. For an embedded submanifold , the derivative identifies with a subbundle of , and the quotient is the normal bundle. With an ambient Riemannian metric, the normal bundle is identified with the orthogonal complement of in ; the second fundamental form records the normal component of the ambient derivative of tangent fields. These constructions connect the bundle description to both intrinsic and extrinsic differential geometry.
The tangent bundle is a rank- smooth vector bundle over an -manifold; its dual, tensor, exterior, frame and pullback constructions encode the principal geometric fields and their natural operations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 3 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write with , and let be the splitting field. The root set of is an -dimensional vector space over , by the argument of part (a) with replaced by .
The constants really occur inside , rather than only in the ambient algebraic closure. Choose a nonzero root . For every , is also a root, so both elements lie in andLet . Since is Galois of degree two,This index statement does not require proving that has no still larger constant field.
As an extension of , is the splitting field of the same polynomial. Applying part (b) with base constant size and dimension givesThe special linear group is the kernel of determinant in the general linear group, so every element of normalizes it. Therefore is the required normal index-two subgroup normalizing .
In fact the full group is semilinear over : an element outside acts on constants as and satisfies . Field automorphisms preserve determinant one, so this also explains the normalizer behavior geometrically. This is the quadratic constant extension of a q-squared linearized splitting field, not the polynomial of part (b) with its term unchanged.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 14 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let and be overlapping local coordinates at . A tangent vector has components obeying the chain ruleThe Jacobian matrix is evaluated at the same point, and is invertible. For a smooth curve with , define . Applying the chain rule to gives exactly this transformation law. Thus these components determine a well-defined velocity vector , independent of the chart. Equivalently it is the derivation on smooth functions. The two curve symbols used in the printed first paragraph refer to this same curve.
For real scalars , considerFor sufficiently small positive and negative , both factors belong to , so is a curve in with . The standard matrix exponential properties used here are , , and . The product rule gives . Every such linear combination is therefore a velocity at the identity.
More generally, the inclusion is an embedding, so its tangent map at is injective and linear. The general linear group is open in the vector space of all matrices; its tangent space at is consequently . We identifyEvery tangent vector is the velocity of a curve in a manifold chart, so this subspace is precisely the set of the corresponding matrix velocities. The product construction is consistent with its vector-space operations.
Now use the stated logarithm-chart assumption. Near zero and , the matrix exponential and matrix logarithm are inverse smooth maps, with . Hence for any , belongs to for small : lies in the neighborhood which is the image of the logarithm. For , form the group commutatorMultiplying the exponential expansions givesThe convergent local series therefore gives . For small nonzero , the matrix belongs to the linear subspace . A finite-dimensional linear subspace is closed, so taking its limit provesThis is the matrix commutator from a logarithm chart argument. It identifies as the Lie algebra of a matrix Lie group, with the matrix commutator as its Lie bracket. In particular, no potentially nonsmooth square-root change of parameter is needed to turn the second-order commutator into a velocity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 15 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We work over an algebraically closed field , so the assertion concerns a geometric projective line. Let and let be the vector space of homogeneous cubic forms on . It has dimension , so the parameter space of cubic equations up to nonzero scalar is . The Grassmannian parametrizes lines in . Its standard graph charts are four-dimensional affine spaces, so its dimension is four. The Plücker embedding realizes it as a closed quadric in , proving projectivity. The general linear group acts transitively on two-planes and is an irreducible open subset of the affine space of matrices; its orbit map proves that is irreducible.
Consider the incidence varietyRestriction of a cubic to a fixed line is surjective onto the four-dimensional space of binary cubic forms: after choosing coordinates with that line given by , extend any binary cubic using alone. Thus its kernel has dimension sixteen. On each Grassmannian chart these restriction maps depend algebraically on the line parameters and have constant rank four. Their kernels form a rank-sixteen vector bundle, and is its projective bundle, with fibre . In particular, is irreducible of dimension . It is closed in the product, since restriction vanishes precisely when four polynomial coefficients vanish.
The projection is a projective morphism, hence its image is closed. It remains to prove that this image has dimension nineteen. Equal dimensions alone would not suffice: we must control a fibre locally.
TakeIn the open Grassmannian chart around , every line is uniquely a graphRestriction of to that line isThe four monomials are linearly independent over every field. Hence the only line in this chart lying on has . The fibre therefore has local dimension zero at . We do not need to define a smooth surface, nor do we claim its entire fibre is finite.
The fiber dimension theorem, in its local dimension inequality, givesThus the closed image has dimension at least nineteen. A proper closed subset of the irreducible has smaller dimension, so . Every cubic equation consequently has a line in its zero set. In particular, every nonsingular cubic surface contains a line. The proof in fact establishes existence for arbitrary cubic surfaces over an algebraically closed field; it does not assert a rational line over an arbitrary nonclosed ground field.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 19 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A smooth vector field on a smooth manifold is a smooth section of its tangent bundle. It acts on smooth functions by . In a manifold chart, . The Lie bracket of vector fields is the commutator of their actions on functions:Expanding in coordinates makes all second derivatives cancel and givesThus the commutator is again a smooth vector field, not a second-order operator. The coordinate expression represents the intrinsic derivation on functions, so agrees on overlaps.
For a diffeomorphism , its pushforward of a vector field isFor every smooth function on , the chain rule gives . Applying this twice yieldsSmooth functions determine a tangent vector, and is surjective, so
On a Lie group, a left-invariant vector field satisfies for every left translation . Given , setThis field is smooth by smoothness of multiplication. The equality proves left invariance. Conversely, left invariance forces , so is the unique left-invariant field with value at . This is a linear isomorphism between and the space of left-invariant vector fields.
The pushforward identity applied to shows that is again left invariant. Consequentlydefines a Lie bracket on . Bilinearity and antisymmetry follow from the operator commutator. Its Jacobi identity follows by expanding the three nested commutators: the six triple compositions cancel in pairs. These properties transfer through the linear isomorphism, making the Lie algebra of .
For the general linear group , use matrix-entry coordinates . It is an open subset of , so every tangent space is naturally . Since , its differential sends to , and henceFor ,and reversing gives . Thus ; evaluating at the identity gives the matrix commutator