I'm getting that orthogonal matrices don't (necessarily) have orthogonal rows/columns

36 Views Asked by At

As the title says, here's my "proof":

Let U be some orthogonal matrix:

Uᵀ = U⁻¹

∴ U Uᵀ = Uᵀ U = I

Considering the ijth element:

(U Uᵀ)ᵢⱼ = (Uᵀ U)ᵢⱼ = δᵢⱼ

∑UᵢₖUᵀₖⱼ = ∑UᵀᵢₖUₖⱼ = δᵢⱼ

∑UᵢₖUⱼₖ = ∑UₖᵢUₖⱼ = δᵢⱼ

The scalar product between two vectors is given by ⟨a,b⟩ = ∑aᵢ*bᵢ

We want to get ⟨Uⱼ,Uᵢ⟩ = ⟨Uⁱ,Uʲ⟩ = δᵢⱼ for orthonormality to be satisfied in the rows and columns of U.

But this isn't what I have, I'm only able to get the complex conjugate for when U is real (unitary) but not for the general case of orthogonal maps.