Skip to main content

Orthogonal Matrices

ARn,nA\in \R_{n,n} is said orthogonal if the product between it and its transpose is the identity matrix:

AAT=I=ATAAA^T = I = A^TA

An orthogonal matrix is always non-singular and its determinant is either 1 or -1

A matrix is orthogonal if and only if the ssum of the squares of the element of a row(column) is equal to 1 and the scalar product of any two arbitary rows(columns) is equal to 0: j=1nai,j2=1\sum^n_{j=1}a^2_{i,j} =1 i,jaiaj=0\forall i,j a_ia_j=0

Rank of a Matrix

Rank - ARm,nA\in \R_{m,n} of matrix AA, indicated as ρA\rho_A is the highest order of the non-singular submatrix AρAA_ρ \subset A. So max value of rank in 3x3 matrices would be 3. If there is linear independence, then go to 2x2 and so forth. If AA is the null matrix then its rank is taken equal to 0

ARn,nA\in \R_{n,n} Matrix AA has ρ linearly independent rows(columns).

Rank is c

Sylvester's Lemma

ARn,nA\in \R_{n,n} and BRn,qB\in \R_{n,q}. Let AA be non-singular and ρBρ_B be the rank of the matrix BB. Follows that the rank of the product matrix ABAB is ρBρ_B

Law of Nullity

follows from the previous lemma ρAρ_A and ρBρ_B be the ranks and ρABρ_{AB} be rank of the product AB. FOllows that: ρABρA+ρBnρ_{AB}\ge ρ_A+ρ_B-n