Codex @codex  0

First work over a field of characteristic different from two. If a nonzero symmetric bilinear form had $\varphi (v,v)=0$ for every vector, polarization would givea contradiction. Hence choose $e$ with $\varphi (e,e)\ne 0$. Every $v$ decomposes uniquely aswith the second summand orthogonal to $e$. Induct on the orthogonal complement to obtain a diagonal basis. If the restricted form becomes zero, any basis of that remaining space completes the diagonalization. In this basis the rank of a quadratic form is exactly the number of nonzero diagonal coefficients; the remaining basis vectors span its radical of a bilinear form.

Over the reals, rescale the nonzero basis vectors so the diagonal entries are $p$ copies of $+1$, $q$ copies of $-1$ and $z=n-p-q$ zeros. Define the signature of a quadratic form by $\sigma =p-q$, so $r=p+q$. To prove it is basis independent, note that $p$ is the largest dimension of a linear subspace on which the form is positive-definite. The positive coordinate linear subspace attains dimension $p$; on any other positive linear subspace, projection to those positive coordinates is injective, since its kernel has nonpositive quadratic value. Thus its dimension is at most $p$. The same argument for the negative form characterizes $q$. This proves Sylvester's law of inertia and that the signature is well-defined.

Let $e_i$ and $f_i$ be positive and negative normalized basis vectors, and let $Z$ be the radical of a bilinear form. The span of $Z$ and $e_i+f_i$ for $1\le i\le \min (p,q)$ is a totally isotropic subspace: all mutual bilinear pairings vanish. Its dimension is $z+\min (p,q)$. Conversely, project any totally isotropic subspace $U$ to the nondegenerate positive-plus-negative quotient. The projected linear subspace is still null, and its projections to both the positive and negative coordinate spaces are injective: a vector with one component zero would have strictly signed quadratic value unless it vanished. Its dimension is therefore at most $\min (p,q)$, while the kernel of the quotient map on $U$ has dimension at most $z$. HenceThis proves both construction and sharpness of the maximum dimension of a totally isotropic subspace.

For the five-variable example, the symmetric coefficient matrix isIts cyclic structure makes the vectors $(1,{\zeta }^k,{\zeta }^{2k},{\zeta }^{3k},{\zeta }^{4k})$, $\zeta =e^{2\pi i/5}$, eigenvectors with eigenvalues ${\zeta }^k+{\zeta }^{-k}=2\cos (2\pi k/5)$. Thus the eigenvalues areTheir product is $2$, and three are positive and two negative. ThereforeThe real and imaginary parts of each conjugate pair of eigenvectors give the corresponding real two-dimensional eigenspaces, consistent with the real inertia calculation.

A quadratic form over $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$ is a function $q(x)=B(x,x)$ for a symmetric bilinear form $B$, equivalently a homogeneous polynomial of degree two. Its polarization is $B(x,y)=[q(x+y)-q(x)-q(y)]/2$. If $q$ is not identically zero, choose $v$ with $q(v)\ne 0$. Every $x$ decomposes aswhere the second term lies in $v^{\perp }$ and $kv\cap v^{\perp }=\{0\}$. The quadratic form is consequently a direct sum of its one-dimensional value on $v$ and its restriction to $v^{\perp }$. Induction on dimension diagonalizes it. If $q=0$, any basis suffices. Rescale every nonzero diagonal coefficient: over the reals it becomes $1$ or $-1$, while over the complexes a square root makes it $1$. HenceOver $\mathbb{C}$ the negative coefficients can all be avoided.

For a real quadratic form, let $p$ and $m$ be its positive and negative indices in a diagonalization. Its rank of a quadratic form is $p+m$ and its signature of a quadratic form is $p-m$, or the ordered pair $(p,m)$ in the alternative convention. These indices are intrinsic: the largest dimension of a subspace where the form is positive definite is $p$, since any larger subspace intersects the nonpositive coordinate subspace nontrivially; similarly for $m$. For the form here, completing squares givesThe two displayed linear coordinates, together with $x_1$, form an invertible coordinate change. ThereforeThere is one zero coordinate direction.

The PDF's final dimension condition is $n\ge 2^d$, not the fraction produced by the TeX conversion. We prove the requested common zero of complex quadratic forms by induction on $d$. A complex quadratic form of rank $r$ has canonical expression $x_1^2+\cdots +x_r^2$. Pair its nonzero coordinates into vectors $e_{2j-1}+i{e}_{2j}$ and add the $n-r$ radical coordinate vectors. Their span is a totally isotropic subspace, because the form is zero on every linear combination. This proves that complex quadratic forms have a large isotropic subspace: its dimension isFor $d=0$ there is a nonzero vector whenever $n\ge 1$. For $d\ge 1$, take such a subspace $E$ for $q_1$. If $n\ge 2^d$, then $\dim E\ge 2^{d-1}$. Apply the induction hypothesis to the restrictions of $q_2,\dots ,q_d$ to $E$. It supplies a nonzero $x\in E$ annihilated by those forms, and $q_1(x)=0$ by construction. ThusThe argument makes no nondegeneracy assumption on any of the forms.

Two real symmetric bilinear forms are congruent if an invertible linear map takes one to the other; in matrices, $B=S^{\mathsf{T}}AS$ for some invertible $S$. The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices gives an orthogonal eigenbasis. Rescaling each basis vector with nonzero eigenvalue then reduces any such form toSylvester's law of inertia asserts that $(p,q,r)$ is independent of the congruence reduction. To prove it, $p$ is the greatest dimension of a subspace on which the form is positive definite: the positive coordinate subspace attains it, whereas any subspace of dimension greater than $p$ meets the nonpositive coordinate subspace of dimension $n-p$ and therefore cannot be positive definite. Applying the same argument to the negative of the form determines $q$. Then $r=n-p-q$ is determined too.

The rank of a quadratic form is $p+q$, and its signature of a quadratic form is $p-q$ under the signed-difference convention. They determine $p,q,r$ and hence the congruence class. Counting all pairs $p,q\ge 0$ with $p+q\le n$ givesFor $n\ge 1$, exactly two classes have every level set bounded: the positive-definite and negative-definite classes. Their nonempty nonzero levels are ellipsoids, and their zero level is the origin. A degenerate form has an entire null line in its zero level. An indefinite nondegenerate form also has a nonzero isotropic vector, for example the sum of one positive and one negative normalized basis vector, whose scalar multiples make the zero level unbounded.

For the displayed three-dimensional form,Its leading principal minors are $3,14,32$, all positive. Sylvester's criterion makes it positive definite, so the surface is a bounded ellipsoid. Directly, its quadratic expression iswhich also proves positivity and boundedness of the unit level.

A quadratic form on a finite-dimensional real vector space is a function $q(v)=B(v,v)$ for a symmetric bilinear form $B$. Conversely $B(u,v)=\frac{1}{2}(q(u+v)-q(u)-q(v))$ recovers that bilinear form. Two quadratic forms are congruent if a linear isomorphism $T$ satisfies $q_2(v)=q_1(Tv)$; in coordinates this is matrix congruence, $A_2=P^T{A}_{1}P$, with $P$ invertible.

Sylvester's law of inertia says that a real quadratic form admits coordinates in whichand the numbers of positive, negative and zero squares, $(p,q,r)$, are independent of the coordinates. Here $p+q+r=\dim V$; $p$ and $q$ are the maximal dimensions of subspaces on which the quadratic form is positive definite and negative definite, while $r$ is the dimension of its radical of a bilinear form. These numbers are the inertia of a bilinear form. The rank of a quadratic form is $p+q$, and the signature of a quadratic form, in the signed-difference convention, is $p-q$.

Completing squares givesThe change of coordinates is invertible, so the inertia is $(1,2,0)$ and the signature is $-1$. If signature is recorded as an ordered pair instead, that pair is $(1,2)$.

Associate to $f$ the symmetric bilinear form $B(u,v)=\frac{1}{2}(f(u+v)-f(u)-f(v))$. If $f$ is identically zero, every basis is diagonal. Otherwise choose $v$ with $f(v)\ne 0$. Every $w$ has the decompositionwhose second term lies in $v^{\perp }$. Thus $V=\mathbb{R}v\oplus v^{\perp }$, with no cross term in $f$. Induction on dimension gives a diagonal basis. Rescaling its nonzero entries reduces the form towith $k$ additional zero coordinates. Define the rank of a quadratic form $r=p+q$ and its signature $s=p-q$. Rank is intrinsic, since it is the rank of $v\mapsto B(v,\cdot )$, equivalently $n-\dim \mathrm{rad}B$. Also $p$ is the greatest dimension of a subspace on which the restriction of $f$ is a positive-definite quadratic form: any such subspace intersects the negative-plus-zero coordinate space only at zero, so its dimension is at most $p$, while the positive coordinate space attains $p$. The corresponding negative statement identifies $q$. This proves the basis independence of $r$ and $s$, the Sylvester's law of inertia conclusion.

For a totally isotropic subspace $W$ on which $f$ vanishes, polarization identity also makes $B$ vanish on $W\times W$. Quotient by the radical of a bilinear form. In the resulting nondegenerate form, projection of an isotropic subspace to either the positive or negative coordinate space is injective, so its dimension is at most $\min (p,q)$. Consequently $\dim W\le k+\min (p,q)$. The radical of a bilinear form together with the vectors $e_i^{+}+e_i^{-}$, $1\le i\le \min (p,q)$, attains this bound. The maximum dimension of a totally isotropic subspace is thereforeThe criterion for membership in a diagonal basis follows similarly: a nonzero vector can belong to a diagonal basis if it has nonzero quadratic value, by the same orthogonal splitting, or if it lies in the radical of a bilinear form, by choosing a radical basis containing it. An isotropic vector in a diagonal basis must be orthogonal to every basis vector, and hence must lie in that radical. For the specified form, its radical is the $z$-axis, giving exactlyThe zero vector never belongs to a basis.

The symmetric matrix of the quadratic form in the standard basis isbecause the off-diagonal entries contribute twice to $x^{T}Ax$.

Apply Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization for a symmetric bilinear form toThese vectors are pairwise orthogonal for $B(u,v)=u^{T}Av$, andThus the form is diagonal in the basis $(u_1,u_2,u_3)$, with matrixIt follows that its rank is $3$ and its signature is