Kernel of a linear map Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The kernel of a linear map is the vector subspace of inputs sent to zero. Linearity makes it a vector subspace: if , then for all scalars . A vector in the kernel represents a change that the map cannot detect, since for every input .
For given by , the zero-output equations are and . Thus
Increasing the first input while decreasing the second by the same amount leaves the output unchanged. For the linear functional , the kernel is the straight line shown in its diagram. A linear map is injective exactly when its kernel is the zero vector subspace, because is equivalent to .
The kernel describes invisible changes, rather than all inputs that produce a specified nonzero output. If , the corresponding fiber of a function is the affine solution space of a linear equation . The difference of two inputs in that fiber belongs to the kernel; an input in that fiber need not. In particular, for the fiber cannot be a vector subspace, since it does not contain the zero vector.[ref]
For the linear functional , , the kernel is . Each fiber is the parallel straight line . The input vector space is two-dimensional, but the output is one scalar: a whole straight line of inputs collapses to one point of the output real line.
Figure 1.
Parallel input fibres of map to scalar outputs
. The blue input straight line is the kernel; the other colored input straight lines are its translations. The output panel is the one-dimensional real line, drawn vertically for alignment. All displayed geometry is exact illustrative mathematics. Details.
Ky Fan maximum principle 2026-10-05
For a real symmetric matrix and ,
Indeed is a rank- orthogonal projection matrix in the fantope, and projecting onto the eigenvectors of the largest eigenvalues attains the support function maximum. Equivalently, the largest matrix trace of a compression to a -dimensional vector subspace is the sum of the largest eigenvalues.
Left ideal Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A left ideal of an associative algebra is a vector subspace satisfying . Equivalently, it is a submodule of the left regular -module.
For a closed subgroup of a Lie group, this set is a real Lie subalgebra. Scalar closure is immediate; the Lie product formula in a Lie group and closedness of give addition. It is a closed vector subspace, also directly by continuity of the Exponential map of a Lie group. Conjugating its one-parameter subgroups by elements of preserves it. Differentiating the Adjoint representation of a Lie group along gives for . After the closed-subgroup theorem establishes smoothness, is exactly the tangent space .
Lie subalgebra Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Under injective linear modelling of a small sumset, every has a unique lift , because differences of two lifts lie in . For , the discrepancy lies in , so it is zero. Thus is a linear map and its image is a vector subspace of the same size as . This verifies the additive lifting step rather than assuming that a preimage chosen from a sumset is automatically a subspace.
Linear functional Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A linear functional is a linear map from a vector space to its scalar field :
Its output is one scalar, rather than an arbitrary vector in another space. In , gives , , and : adding the two inputs adds their measured values.
The level sets visualize what the measurement retains and discards. For this example they are parallel straight lines . Moving parallel to changes the input but leaves unchanged. The zero level set is its kernel of a linear map, while the other level sets are translates of that vector subspace.
Figure 1.
A linear functional groups vectors into parallel level sets with the same measured value
. Details.
Inputs need not be geometric arrows. On the vector space of polynomials of polynomial degree at most two, evaluating at zero is a linear functional, as is taking the definite integral from zero to one. For , they give and . Thus polynomial evaluation and integration are two different measurements of the same polynomial. Coordinate extraction is another measurement, developed under dual basis.
A linear functional is defined by linearity, not by continuity. In finite-dimensional real or complex normed vector spaces it is automatically continuous; in infinite dimension it need not be. The continuous dual space adds this requirement when small changes in the input should give small changes in the output.
Linear regression Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Linear regression models a response's conditional expectation as a linear combination of specified predictors. In matrix form,
where the design matrix describes the observations, contains the regression coefficients, and contains the errors. The fitted values estimate the response means. The model is linear in its regression coefficients; its columns may include powers, interactions, or other transformed predictors, so polynomial regression can fit curved relationships using the same machinery.
For a concrete example, take five constructed observations
An ordinary least squares fit with an intercept gives the line . Its regression residuals are and its residual sum of squares is . A one-unit increase in the predictor corresponds to a one-unit increase in the fitted response. This is a description of this fitted association; interpreting a change as a causal effect requires the assumptions of a causal inference problem.
Figure 1.
A five-point least-squares fit separates the fitted trend from residual deviations
. Details.
The geometric reason for the fit is simple. The possible mean vectors form the column space of . Ordinary least squares chooses the orthogonal projection of the data vector onto that vector subspace, so the remaining regression residual is orthogonal to every permitted fitted direction. The least-squares normal equations express this orthogonality as . The data's explained component and unexplained component are therefore separated by the same geometry used in a Hilbert space.
The optimization definition makes sense for any observed data. Quantifying the uncertainty of the regression coefficients needs additional assumptions about the sampling and errors. With fixed of full column rank and mean-zero errors with covariance matrix , ordinary least squares is unbiased and has covariance ; the Gauss-Markov theorem compares it with other linear unbiased estimators. A normal linear model additionally makes Student t-distribution intervals and tests exact in finite samples. Model adequacy and predictive assessment remain relevant even when these calculations are available.
Two historical settings help explain the subject's appeal. Adrien-Marie Legendre's Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes (1805) includes an appendix on the method of least squares: observations give more equations than unknowns, and squared errors provide a criterion for reconciling them. Its astronomical setting shows the motivation for combining imperfect measurements. [ref] Francis Galton's Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature (1886) examines the association between parental and offspring heights and the tendency of group averages toward the population average. This is a historical use of the regression name; the modern linear model is a general statistical formulation. [ref]
Linear span Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The linear span of a subset of a vector space is the set of all finite linear combinations of elements of . It is the smallest vector subspace containing : every vector subspace containing the original vectors must contain their sums and scalar multiples.
In , the linear span of is a line, the linear span of is the plane , and adding gives all of . Adding to the first set changes none of its attainable vectors, because it is already a scalar multiple of . Thus a spanning set can contain redundant generators; linear independence identifies when this redundancy is absent. In an infinite-dimensional space, an algebraic linear span still uses finite sums; a closed linear span can also include limits in a specified norm.
Choose a vector subspace complementary to the Lie algebra of a closed subgroup . The differential of at is , so the inverse function theorem makes a local diffeomorphism. Sufficiently small nonzero cannot satisfy : otherwise limit directions of a closed subgroup give a nonzero element of . Consequently is locally exactly the coordinate slice , proving that it is an embedded submanifold.
For any field and vector subspace , some has at least nonzero coordinates. Choose with largest support of a vector . Restriction from to is injective: a nonzero vector in its kernel of a linear map vanishes on , so adding it to would enlarge . Thus . The argument works over finite fields, where assuming a generic vector avoids finitely many hyperplanes would be invalid.
Norming subspace of a dual space Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
A vector subspace is norming if some satisfies the displayed inequality. It retains enough continuous linear functionals to control the norm of every vector. Every such vector subspace is dense for the weak-star topology: otherwise a nonzero evaluation linear functional would annihilate its weak-star closure, contradicting the inequality. In the real case its symmetric unit ball makes the absolute-value and signed supremum versions equivalent.
A null direction of a linear map is represented by a nonzero vector in its kernel. Every scalar multiple is an undetectable displacement: . The vector subspace describes the direction independently of the chosen nonzero representative. More generally, a basis of the kernel supplies all independent null directions of a linear map; their number is the nullity. The zero vector belongs to the kernel but supplies no direction.
A real linear functional on a vector subspace, dominated by a sublinear function , can be extended across one new vector by setting . The displayed lower and upper bounds are compatible because . A value between them preserves domination for both signs of . Chain unions and Zorn's lemma then yield the full Hahn-Banach theorem.
To find the kernel of a linear map, perform the row operations and , followed by . The equivalent homogeneous equations are
The resulting determinant is . If all coordinates vanish. At only remains; at the equations give , . Therefore kernel bases are
The empty family is the basis of the zero vector subspace.
For the change of basis, let be the matrices whose columns are the two ordered bases in standard coordinates. Then , so with . If and represent the same linear map in the two bases, and also . Therefore , and
For the concrete bases, their vectors satisfy , , . These coordinate columns give
At , every row of is , so every row of is . Multiplying on the left by the displayed inverse gives
The original PDF asks for this full product; its final factor is missing from the converted TeX.
The line through the origin is , containing zero and closed under addition and scalar multiplication, so it is a vector subspace. If , then and for some real . Conversely that equality gives the same set after shifting the line parameter. Thus
Changing representatives to , changes their sum by and a scalar multiple by . The line classes therefore do not change, proving both operations well-defined. Associativity follows from . The zero vector of this quotient vector space is the entire line , because .
For a basis of , every vector is , so . If this combination equals , then ; independence of the three original basis vectors forces . Hence is a basis of the space of parallel lines as a quotient vector space.
For the specified direction, add to to obtain the representative . Thus its coordinates in the two standard line classes are . The two supplied image classes have coordinates and , while their input coordinates are and . If are the matrix columns, then and . Solving gives