Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ib / Paper 2 / 10G (Linear Algebra)

The integral is linear in its first argument and conjugate-linear in its second, and complex conjugation of the integrand shows $⟨g,f⟩=\overline{⟨f,g⟩}$. Thus it is a Hermitian form.

If $f(z)={\sum }_{j=0}^N{a}_j{z}^j$, Fourier orthogonality givesThis is nonnegative and vanishes only when every coefficient vanishes, that is, only for the zero polynomial. Hence the Hermitian form is positive definite.

For nonnegative integers $m,n$, Fourier orthogonality givesEvery polynomial is a finite linear combination of these monomials, and distinct monomials are linearly independent. ThereforeThis is an algebraic basis: no infinite linear combinations are needed in the polynomial vector space.

For $d$ variables, integrate over the product of $d$ unit circles:For multi-indices $\alpha ,\beta \in {\mathbb{Z}}_{\ge 0}^d$, applying one-variable Fourier orthogonality in each variable givesIf $f={\sum }_{\alpha }{a}_{\alpha }{z}^{\alpha }$, its squared norm is ${\sum }_{\alpha }|a_{\alpha }{|}^2$, a finite sum. The form is therefore a positive definite Hermitian form andThis is the monomial orthonormal basis on the unit torus.