$A=(A_1,\ A_2)^T$ is a square matrix such that $N(A_1)=R(A_2^T)$, prove that A must be nonsingular.

103 Views Asked by At

As the title says.

I seem to be proving the opposite which I doubt is correct.

Proof:

Choose arbitrary $y\in N(A_1)$.

Then, by $N(A_1)=R(A_2^T)$, $y\in R(A_2^T)$ as well.

Thus, $$ Ay = (A_1y,\ A_2y)^T $$ $$ = (0,\ A_2y)^T $$ However, $y\in R(A_2^T)$ as well. If $y\neq 0$, then $N(A_1) \neq 0$ in which case $R(A_2^T) \not\ni \{0\}$ which is absurd.

Thus, it must be that $y=0$ which in turn implies $N(A_1)=0$.

However, this implies that $R(A_2^T)=0$, in which case $A_2=0$.

If $A_2=0$, $A$ must be singular.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

We have $$ A = \pmatrix{A_1\\A_2} $$ Note that for a vector $x$, we have $$ Ax = \pmatrix{A_1x\\A_2x} $$ We note that $A_1 x = 0$ iff $x \in N(A_1)$. Similarly, $A_2 x = 0$ iff $x \in N(A_2) = R(A_2^T)^\perp = N(A_1)^\perp$. It follows that $$ N(A) = N(A_1) \cap N(A_2) = N(A_1) \cap N(A_1)^\perp = \{0\} $$ Since $A$ is a square matrix with a trivial kernel, we conclude that it is non-singular.