Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2014 / Prelims / Mathematics I / 2 / b / i / Solution

Restrict $S$ to the vector subspace $W=\mathrm{im}T$. This restriction has kernel of a linear map $W\cap \ker S$ and image of a linear map $S(W)=\mathrm{im}(ST)$. The rank-nullity theorem on $W$ therefore givesApply the rank-nullity theorem to $T$ and $ST$ on $V$ to obtain the exact nullity of a composition identity:Since the intersection is a vector subspace of $\ker S$, its dimension is at most $n(S)$. Hence