The Euclidean norm is invariant under an orthogonal matrix, so the full singular value decomposition gives
The second term is independent of ; the first attains its unique minimum zero because is an invertible matrix. The linear least squares solution is therefore
Here is the Moore-Penrose inverse, and the fitted vector is the orthogonal projection onto the image of a linear map defined by .
With the singular value decomposition supplied, forming costs arithmetic operations, diagonal scaling costs , and multiplication by costs . Since ,
One need not form , or to calculate . Computing the needed thin singular value decomposition first has standard dense cost ; explicitly forming an entire orthogonal completion can require additional work when is much larger than .
All singular values are positive, so and are invertible matrices and has matrix rank . The image of a linear map is therefore
with those columns furnishing an orthonormal basis. Also implies and hence . Thus
Finally exactly when . The remaining columns of the full orthogonal matrix span this orthogonal complement:
If , this last null space also equals and has the empty basis.
An orthogonal projector sends to the foot of its perpendicular onto the image of a linear map . The residual is orthogonal to the entire range, not just to the single vector . Indeed, for any range vector ,
In particular . The orthogonal projection diagram illustrates the resulting right triangle.
Figure 1.
An orthogonal projector maps a vector to its perpendicular foot on the range; the residual is orthogonal to that range
. Details.
The linearized constraints may be inconsistent, for example when is not in the image of a linear map defined by . Even if feasible, the quadratic objective may have negative curvature along its feasible tangent space, making it unbounded below and leaving no local minimizer.
Fletcher's Sℓ1QP replaces the hard linearized constraints by an L1 exact penalty and bounds the step inside a trust region. One usual form is
The zero step is always admissible. The trust region is compact, so a minimum exists even when the model Hessian matrix is indefinite; the constraint penalty measures infeasibility rather than making the subproblem impossible to solve. Adjusting its weight promotes feasibility, while the radius keeps the local model within a controlled neighbourhood. Introducing nonnegative positive- and negative-part slack variables converts the absolute values to an equivalent smooth quadratic program with box constraints.[ref]
Take the linear map
Its kernel of a linear map consists of all , and its image of a linear map is the same line:
Their set intersection is nonzero and their sum is only one-dimensional. In particular, cannot be written as a sum of one vector from each of these vector subspaces. The nonzero set intersection also prevents an internal direct sum of vector spaces. Thus
The matrix is a nonzero nilpotent matrix; its failure of diagonalizability explains why the preceding result does not apply.
The image of a linear map and kernel of a linear map are
A linear map sends zero to zero, since . Thus both displayed sets contain zero. If and belong to the image of a linear map, then for any real scalars ,
If belong to the kernel of a linear map, then
so . Containing zero and being closed under linear combinations is the vector subspace criterion. Hence the image of a linear map is a vector subspace of , and the kernel of a linear map is a vector subspace of .
The rank-nullity theorem says that for a linear map with finite-dimensional domain of a function ,
Take a basis of the kernel of a linear map and use basis extension to obtain a basis of . We show that is a basis of the image of a linear map.
Every is a linear combination of the extended basis, and its terms vanish under . Therefore is a linear combination of the , proving the required linear span property. For linear independence, suppose . Then , so for some real scalars . The extended basis is linearly independent, forcing every and to be zero. Thus the image of a linear map has dimension , the kernel of a linear map has dimension , and proves the result.
Here , so the image of a linear map is the linear span of . These two vectors are linearly independent: if , the and coordinates give and , hence . Consequently the rank of a linear map is two. By the rank-nullity theorem, the nullity is :
More explicitly, the relation gives the kernel of a linear map
For an matrix with real entries, its row space is the linear span of its rows, a linear subspace of . Its column space is the linear span of its columns, a linear subspace of and the image of a linear map . Its null space is
a linear subspace of . Finally,
Thus the rank of a matrix counts the number of linearly independent columns, equivalently rows. The nullity is by the rank-nullity theorem.
Prove both inclusions. If belongs to the column space of , then for some and . Thus .
Conversely, if , then , which explicitly writes as an image of a linear map under . Hence . The two inclusions prove . No orthogonality assumption was used.
The image of a linear map of is exactly the one-dimensional span of : its formula always returns a multiple of , and . Hence .
The rank-nullity theorem gives . Since by (e)(i), . This includes the case , where the complementary projector is zero.
For a sum of mutually orthogonal projectors, orthonormality gives for and one for . Therefore equals zero for different indices and for equal indices. Expanding the finite sum yields
Thus every stated partial sum is a projector. Its image of a linear map is the span of the first orthonormal set of vectors; arbitrary sums of idempotent matrices would not have this conclusion.
Both and have linearly independent columns. The Gram matrix is invertible because
Consequently is a surjective linear map: for any , the choice satisfies . Hence
The latter image of a linear map has dimension , giving . If , and the conclusion is immediate. This argument explains why the product retains its full possible matrix rank; a general product of two matrices need not do so.
Powers of a rank-one operator Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-25
Let on a vector space, where is a linear functional. Its image of a linear map lies in the span of . Applying twice gives . Mathematical induction then proves the displayed power formula. If , , even when ; this is a nilpotent operator. If , then is an idempotent linear map. In a real inner product space, the special case gives .
Range of a bounded linear operator Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
The operator range is the image of a linear map . It need not be closed in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space; that failure makes the Moore–Penrose inverse of an operator unbounded on its domain.
Rank bounds for a sum of linear maps Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Let be linear maps of finite rank of a linear map. Their sum satisfies
The image of a linear map lies in , so the dimension formula for a sum of subspaces proves the upper bound. Apply that bound to and to to obtain the lower bound. Finite rank ensures that subtraction in the displayed inequality is defined.
Both extremes occur for square matrices. For prescribed ranks , take and to obtain matrix rank . For the largest possible matrix rank, use diagonal supports whose union has size and assign positive real diagonal entries, obtaining that matrix rank without cancellation.
Rank-nullity theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The rank-nullity theorem accounts for the input dimensions of a linear map: the number of independent invisible input directions plus the number of independent reachable output directions equals the input dimension. For over a field, with finite-dimensional domain of a function ,
Here is the nullity, and is the rank of a linear map. The kernel lives in the input vector space, while the image of a linear map lives in the output vector space. For an -by- matrix of matrix rank , the formula is : the number of columns counts input coordinates. [ref]
For a computed example over the real numbers, take
The kernel is and the image of a linear map is . Each has dimension one, so the two input dimensions split as . The vector can be written
The second summand is undetectable: . The picture uses the standard dot product to choose a visible direction perpendicular to the kernel; this is a convenient geometric choice, not an extra hypothesis of the rank-nullity theorem.
Figure 1.
Two input dimensions split into one visible direction and one kernel direction
. For , the input splits into and . Both and map to , while the kernel component maps to zero. The horizontal output line is the entire image of a linear map. Details.
This explains a practical tradeoff in a linear system. If , every other input with output is for . The nullity therefore counts independent freedom in an existing solution; the rank counts independent reachable output directions. In the example, has all solutions , while has none. The cokernel records this failure of reachability.
For an -by- matrix, injectivity requires matrix rank , and surjectivity requires matrix rank . When , these conditions differ. For example, with has rank one and nullity two, because . The input accounting is , although only one of two output directions is reached.
Proof outline: extend a basis of the kernel to a basis of . Every output is a linear combination of because the vanish under . If a linear combination of the is zero, the corresponding combination of the lies in the kernel; linear independence of the full basis forces all its coefficients to vanish. Thus the added basis vectors give a basis of the image of a linear map. Counting them proves the formula.