Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / ia / Paper 3 / 4C (Vector Calculus)

Let $R$ be an orthogonal matrix describing a Cartesian change of coordinates, with transformed vector components $v_i^{\prime }=R_{ia}{v}_a$ and $w_j^{\prime }=R_{jb}{w}_b$. Their outer product transforms aswhich is the transformation law of a second-order Cartesian tensor. Here “rank two” counts tensor indices, not the rank of a matrix; a nonzero outer product has matrix rank one.

For an isotropic second-rank tensor, invariance means $RT{R}^T=T$ for every proper rotation matrix. The half-turn matrices $\mathrm{diag}(1,-1,-1)$, $\mathrm{diag}(-1,1,-1)$ and $\mathrm{diag}(-1,-1,1)$ force all off-diagonal entries to vanish. Quarter-turns around coordinate axes then force the three diagonal entries to be equal. Conversely $RI{R}^T=I$, so the most general second-rank isotropic tensor isSince $v{w}^T$ has matrix rank at most one, it cannot equal a nonzero scalar multiple of the three-dimensional identity. Thus its isotropy forces $v{w}^T=0$. If $v\ne 0$, a nonzero component $v_i$ makes the entire $i$th row vanish only when $w=0$; the converse is immediate. The required choices are exactlyFor the Levi-Civita symbol, multilinearity and antisymmetry of the determinant givefor every $R\in SO(3)$. This proves the rotation invariance of the Levi-Civita symbol, hence its third-rank isotropy. The convention is invariance under proper rotations: under an orthogonal reflection $\det R=-1$, the sign reverses. Thus it is a pseudotensor if transformations of both orientations are included.