The system of linear equations is consistent precisely when belongs to the column space of . If is one solution, all solutions form the affine subspace
because subtracting two solutions produces a vector in the kernel, and adding any kernel vector preserves the equation. Therefore the necessary and sufficient cases are:
  • No solution: , equivalently is outside the column space.
  • Exactly one solution: , equivalently ; then for every .
  • Infinitely many solutions: . The rank-nullity theorem gives a nonzero kernel vector , and gives distinct solutions for all real .
For the matrix equation, each column of solves the same system of linear equations with the corresponding column of . Thus a unique exists if and only if is invertible, and then . Necessity does not depend on : if is singular and one exists, put any nonzero kernel vector in one column of a matrix and zeros in its other columns. Then and every is another solution.
For the specified data, . If denotes row of and row of , row elimination yields , , and . Hence
Multiplying gives the prescribed , which both checks the arithmetic and confirms the unique answer.
The external direct sum of vector spaces consists of pairs with componentwise operations. For subspaces of one ambient space, the sum of vector subspaces is . The addition map from the external direct sum onto this subspace is surjective, with kernel . This kernel is isomorphic to the intersection. The rank-nullity theorem, together with , proves the dimension formula for a sum of subspaces.
For the supplied bases, solving for annihilating linear forms gives
Each basis has rank three, so these hyperplanes are the whole subspaces. The two independent equations make the intersection two-dimensional. Imposing the requested zero components yields
Both satisfy the two equations and are independent, since their first components differ while . Hence they form the required basis.
For the Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials on , the cotangent form of the Euler sequence is
The last arrow is onto because at least one homogeneous coordinate is invertible on each standard affine chart. Locally its kernel is the rank-three module generated by the differentials of the three affine coordinates, yielding the displayed Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials. The cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives for every , while and its positive-degree groups vanish. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore gives the cotangent-sheaf cohomology of projective space in this dimension:
The isomorphism for is the connecting map from the constant global sections of . The Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is the alternating sum of dimensions, explaining the minus sign.
For the curve, put . It is a unique factorization domain, so irreducibility of makes a prime ideal. Also does not divide : otherwise irreducibility of would make them associates, contrary to their distinct degrees. Thus the image of is a nonzero element of the integral domain . It follows that is a regular sequence. Its Koszul complex is an exact sequence, and graded sheafification gives
where is the closed immersion. The signs make the composite . The shifts come respectively from , , and .
Let be the ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme. Split this Koszul resolution into
For all integers , . Also . The two long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology, together with sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion, consequently identify
By Serre duality, for . Counting degree- monomials in four variables gives . Thus the source has dimension , and the two target spaces have dimensions and . The rank-nullity theorem proves the requested bound:
In fact equality holds. Under the Serre duality pairings, the dual of this map is
If , primeness of and imply . But has degree one and has degree five, forcing , and then . The dual map is injective, so the original map is surjective and its kernel has dimension . Thus the lower bound is attained for every pair allowed in the question. No smoothness assumption is needed. The regular sequence cuts out a projective complete intersection of dimension one. Also , by the negative twists and the intermediate cohomology vanishing in the first short exact sequence, so the second gives . This is the genus of a complete-intersection space curve: the first cohomology has dimension , equal to its arithmetic genus.
Use . Positivity of the directed subspace angle cosine gives
so is injective. The two vector spaces have the same finite dimension, . By the rank-nullity theorem, is also surjective. There is no need to assume a second positive directed subspace angle cosine in this finite-dimensional case.
For any , find with . Then . If , then , and injectivity gives . Hence
The direct sum is again bounded: . If , then and , so closedness of gives and the conclusion directly; no angle of an empty unit sphere is needed. Equal finite dimensions are essential to the surjectivity argument, whereas mere injectivity between infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces is insufficient.
Take real field coordinates ; for complex scalar fields, split them into real and imaginary parts. Assume a smooth scalar potential and positive, canonically normalized kinetic terms in a relativistic theory. At a classical vacuum, . The Taylor expansion is
Thus the scalar mass matrix is the Hessian matrix, and its eigenvalues give squared masses of the linearized scalar excitations.
Put . Infinitesimal invariance of the scalar potential gives the identity at every field value. Differentiate with respect to and evaluate at the classical vacuum:
Every nonzero infinitesimal symmetry direction therefore lies in the kernel of the scalar mass matrix. This is the classical Goldstone theorem expressed through Goldstone directions in the scalar mass matrix.
Let be the full stabilizer subgroup of . The linear map from the Lie algebra of to field space, , has kernel equal to the Lie algebra of . The rank-nullity theorem gives
There are consequently at least massless scalar directions, namely the tangent directions to the symmetry orbit through the classical vacuum. If the intended is , these are the symmetry-required Goldstone bosons. Exactly that many massless modes occur if the scalar mass matrix is positive definite on a complement of those tangent directions. A nonsingular positive field-space kinetic metric changes normalization, but not the number of zero masses.
Two qualifications are needed for the literal assumptions. A subgroup fixing the classical vacuum need not be the full stabilizer subgroup. For example, take acting on a real triplet and with . At , the scalar mass matrix is : there are two massless modes. Choosing satisfies the printed invariance condition but would incorrectly predict three. The full stabilizer subgroup is .
Even with the full stabilizer subgroup, symmetry does not exclude an accidental massless scalar. Take rotating , with an invariant singlet , and
At the full continuous stabilizer is trivial, but the scalar mass matrix is . One zero direction is the Goldstone boson; the other is an accidental massless scalar at quadratic order. The proof establishes the symmetry-required count, not unconditional equality with the total number of massless fields. The statement concerns global internal symmetry; gauging it changes the physical interpretation through the Higgs mechanism.
Set and , so that . The dimension of a bounded-total-degree polynomial space in variables over is . If were smaller than this dimension, evaluation at the points of would impose fewer homogeneous linear conditions than unknown coefficients. The rank-nullity theorem would give a nonzero multivariate polynomial of total degree at most , vanishing on .
For every , select one of the promised rich affine lines in a vector space through , and write it as with . The polynomial restriction to a line has degree at most , and at least distinct roots of a polynomial from . By the root bound for a polynomial, is identically zero, so . Since this works for every , vanishes at all points of .
The Schwartz-Zippel lemma says that a nonzero multivariate polynomial of total degree has at most zeros on this grid. Here , so that count is strictly less than , a contradiction. The distinction between a formal polynomial and its function on a finite field is crucial: our degree bound is what rules out a nonzero polynomial vanishing everywhere.
We have proved the stronger quantitative rich line covering bound over a finite field
Thus , as required. The implied constant may depend on the fixed dimension . The very large numerical lower bound on is more than this proof needs.
For a linear map with finite-dimensional, the rank-nullity theorem states
To prove it, choose a basis of the kernel of a linear map and use basis extension to obtain as a basis of . The vectors span the image of a linear map: applying to a basis expansion kills the first terms. They are also linearly independent. Indeed, if , then , so it is a combination of . Independence of the full basis forces every . Consequently , proving the theorem.
Here the image of a linear map has dimension , since it lies in . Thus
Every possibility occurs: for , map to . This map has rank and kernel dimension .
The algebraic dual space is , the vector space of all real linear functionals. For a finite basis , define the dual basis by , so . Every linear functional satisfies
This equality follows by evaluating both sides on each vector of the basis. It proves spanning directly. If , evaluation on gives , proving linear independence without assuming a theorem on dual dimensions.
For a vector subspace , its annihilator of a vector subspace is
Extend a basis of to a basis of . Then has basis , so .
The dual map of is , . In the corresponding dual bases its matrix is the transpose of the matrix for . A matrix and its transpose have the same rank, giving . Directly,
Thus . Also every vanishes on , so . Both spaces have dimension by the preceding annihilator of a vector subspace formula and rank-nullity theorem, proving
Alternatively, a linear functional vanishing on the kernel descends to the image of and can be extended to by extending a basis.
For the infinite-dimensional polynomial ring, the coefficient functionals are linearly independent: evaluate a finite relation on each monomial. However, they do not span the algebraic dual space. The linear functional takes value one on every monomial, while any finite combination of the vanishes on every sufficiently high-degree monomial. Thus the do not form a basis of . An infinite formal sum of coefficient functionals is not a finite linear combination.
(A) Use the dimension of a bounded-total-degree polynomial space. The monomials with are a basis, and stars and bars gives
For a finite point set, the polynomial evaluation map on a finite point set is
Its kernel is and its rank is at most , even when some conditions are dependent. The rank-nullity theorem therefore gives
The original PDF specifies here. With twelve points,
No general-position assumption is required.
(B) Let . We seek a polynomial vanishing on a finite set of spatial lines. For each line , choose an affine parametrization with . The polynomial restriction to a line of a degree-at-most- polynomial has form
Each coefficient is a linear functional of . Setting all coefficients to zero is precisely the condition that vanish identically on .
All lines together therefore impose at most homogeneous linear conditions on the -dimensional coefficient space. A nonzero solution exists whenever
Take . Then , so this strict inequality holds. Moreover
Thus the polynomial method in combinatorics gives
Equivalently, one could impose vanishing at distinct points on each line and use the univariate root bound to force the entire restriction to vanish. For an empty line family, the constant polynomial one supplies vacuous vanishing; the strict degree comparison is understood for nonempty families.
Write a vector in the domain as . The first and third equations defining the kernel of a linear map imply . Substitution into the second equation then gives
For , this forces , and . Hence
The kernel of a linear map has dimension one, so the rank-nullity theorem gives rank three and proves the assertion about the image of a linear map. Alternatively, the minor formed from columns has determinant , including a nonzero value at .
For , the parameters are free and , . Thus
The third row is the first row minus the second. The image of a linear map is therefore contained in . The first and third columns, and , are linearly independent, so the matrix rank is two and this containment is equality:
This is the sole kernel jump in a parameter-dependent linear map; there is no further exceptional case at .
Adding the three equations for gives the necessary solvability condition . Conversely, subtraction of the first two and use of the third force
If , these values also satisfy the first two equations: for example,
The analogous calculation gives . Thus existence and uniqueness hold exactly under the stated compatibility condition:
For the three-variable system the matrix and data vector are
Perform Gaussian elimination on the augmented matrix. The operations and give
Each operation is an invertible row scaling followed by a row addition, so the solution set is preserved. Next gives
Back substitution now yields
and then
All three pivots are nonzero. Thus the solution exists uniquely for every , the matrix rank is , and the kernel of a linear map represented by is . The general rank-nullity theorem for a matrix with columns is
here .
Finally, reverse the viewpoint and regard as prescribed. The necessary and sufficient condition already proved applies with , , . Their sum is . Consequently can be recovered exactly when
When this holds, their unique values are and . The allowable triples form an affine plane, not all of .
A complex square matrix is a unitary matrix when , equivalently . Here denotes the adjoint matrix, the conjugate transpose. Such a matrix preserves the standard complex inner product and its Euclidean norm.
A real symmetric matrix is a Hermitian matrix, so . For arbitrary complex ,
The imaginary cross terms cancel because is Hermitian. Reversing the signs gives the same identity:
In particular, implies , so has zero kernel of a linear map. It is a square matrix, and the rank-nullity theorem therefore makes it invertible. The same argument proves invertibility of .
The proposed matrix
is consequently well-defined. For any , put . The two norm identities show directly that
To verify the unitary matrix identity explicitly, take adjoints:
The two shifts commute, because both are polynomials in . Hence
Thus
The imaginary shifts are invertible, and their equal norm changes cancel in the quotient. This is the Cayley transform of a Hermitian matrix in the convention.