Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / ib / Paper 2 / 1E (Linear Algebra)

The dual vector space is $V^{\ast }={\mathrm{Hom}}_{\mathbb{R}}(V,\mathbb{R})$, the vector space of all linear functionals on $V$. For a vector subspace $U\le V$, its annihilator of a vector subspace is

Given a basis $x_1,\dots ,x_n$, define $x_i^{\ast }$ by $x_i^{\ast }(x_j)={\delta }_{ij}$ and extend linearly. If ${\sum }_i{a}_i{x}_i^{\ast }=0$, evaluation at $x_j$ gives $a_j=0$, so the $x_i^{\ast }$ are linearly independent. Every $\varphi \in V^{\ast }$ satisfiesso they also span $V^{\ast }$ and therefore form its dual basis.

Write $\varphi =a{x}_1^{\ast }+b{x}_2^{\ast }+c{x}_3^{\ast }+d{x}_4^{\ast }$. The condition $\varphi \in U^0$ isGaussian elimination gives $b=-2c-3d$ and $a=c+2d$. Hence