Chapter 3 (Determinants): Introduction to determinants (行列式)

本文为《Linear algebra and its applications》的读书笔记

• Recall from Section 2.2 that a $2\times 2$ matrix is invertible if and only if its determinant is nonzero. To extend this useful fact to larger matrices, we need a definition for the determinant of an $n\times n$ matrix.

Determinant of a $3\times 3$ matrix

• We can discover the definition for the $3\times 3$ case by watching what happens when an invertible $3\times 3$ matrix $A$ is row reduced.
• Consider $A=[a_{ij}]$ with $a_{11}\ne 0$. If we multiply the second and third rows of $A$ by $a_{11}$ and then subtract appropriate multiples of the first row from the other two rows, we find that $A$ is row equivalent to the following two matrices:

• Since $A$ is invertible, either the $(2,2)$-entry or the $(3,2)$-entry on the right in (1) is nonzero. Let us suppose that the $(2,2)$-entry is nonzero. (Otherwise, we can make a row interchange before proceeding.) Multiply row 3 by $a_{11}{a}_{22}-a_{12}{a}_{21}$, and then to the new row 3 add $-(a_{11}{a}_{32}-a_{12}{a}_{31})$ times row 2. This will show that
  where
  $$\Delta =a_{11}{a}_{22}{a}_{33}+a_{12}{a}_{23}{a}_{31}+a_{13}{a}_{21}{a}_{32}-a_{11}{a}_{23}{a}_{32}-a_{12}{a}_{21}{a}_{33}-a_{13}{a}_{22}{a}_{31}(2)$$Since $A$ is invertible, $\Delta$ must be nonzero. The converse is true, too. We call $\Delta$ in (2) the determinant of the $3\times 3$ matrix $A$.

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• Recall that the determinant of a $2\times 2$ matrix, $A=[a_{ij}]$, is the number
  $$detA=a_{11}{a}_{22}-a_{12}{a}_{21}$$For a $1\times 1$ matrix—say, $A=[a_{11}]$—we define $detA=a_{11}$.
• To generalize the definition of the determinant to larger matrices, we’ll use $2\times 2$ determinants to rewrite the $3\times 3$ determinant $\Delta$ described above. Since the terms in $\Delta$ can be grouped as $(a_{11}{a}_{22}{a}_{33}-a_{11}{a}_{23}{a}_{32})-(a_{12}{a}_{21}{a}_{33}-a_{12}{a}_{23}{a}_{31})+(a_{13}{a}_{21}{a}_{32}-a_{13}{a}_{22}{a}_{31})$.
  For brevity, write
  where $A_{11}$, $A_{12}$, and $A_{13}$ are obtained from $A$ by deleting the first row and one of the three columns. For any square matrix $A$, let $A_{ij}$ denote the submatrix formed by deleting the $i$th row and $j$th column of $A$.

Recursive definition of a determinant

• Another common notation for the determinant of a matrix uses a pair of vertical lines in place of brackets.
  

Cofactor expansion

余因子展开式

• Given $A=[a_{ij}]$, the $(i,j)$-cofactor of $A$ is the number $C_{ij}$ given by
  Then
  
  • This formula is called a cofactor expansion across the first row of $A$.

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We omit the proof of the following fundamental theorem to avoid a lengthy digression.

• The factor $(-1{)}^{i+j}$ determines the following checkerboard pattern of signs:
  

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• 性质：行列式某一列的每个元素乘另一列对应元素的余因子之和等于 0，即
  $$a_{1i}{C}_{1j}+a_{2i}{C}_{2j}+...+a_{ni}{C}_{nj}=0$$
  • 证明：设 $n$ 阶方阵 $A$ 和 $B$ 的列分块矩阵分别为
    $$\begin{gathered} A=[{\mathbf{a}}_1,...,{\mathbf{a}}_i,...,{\mathbf{a}}_j,...,{\mathbf{a}}_n] \\ B=[{\mathbf{a}}_1,...,{\mathbf{a}}_i,...,{\mathbf{a}}_i,...,{\mathbf{a}}_n] \end{gathered}$$将 $B$ 按第 $j$ 列展开，得
    $$|B|=a_{1i}{C}_{1j}+a_{2i}{C}_{2j}+...+a_{ni}{C}_{nj}$$而 $B$ 有两列相同，因此 $|B|=0$，因此得证

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• Theorem 1 is helpful for computing the determinant of a matrix that contains many zeros.

EXAMPLE 3

Compute $detA$, where

$$A=\left[\begin{array}{rrrrr}3& -7& 8& 9& -6\\ 0& 2& -5& 7& 3\\ 0& 0& 1& 5& 0\\ 0& 0& 2& 4& -1\\ 0& 0& 0& -2& 0\end{array}\right]$$
SOLUTION

三角矩阵的行列式

• The matrix in Example 3 was nearly triangular. The method in that example is easily adapted to prove the following theorem.