Levi civita to express determinant

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I cannot wrap my head around this identity for a 3 by 3 Matrix:

$\sum_{l,m,n = 1}^{3} \varepsilon^{lmn} a_{li}a_{mj}a_{nk} = \varepsilon^{ijk}$det$M$

I have tried proving this using the Leibniz formula $\varepsilon^{ijk}\det(A)=\varepsilon^{ijk}\sum_{\sigma\in\mathcal S_n}\text{sign}(σ)a_{1σ(1)}a_{2σ(2)}a_{3σ(3)} = \sum_{\sigma\in\mathcal S_n}\varepsilon^{ijk}\varepsilon^{\sigma(1)\sigma(2)\sigma(3)}a_{1σ(1)}a_{2σ(2)}a_{3σ(3)} = \sum_{l,m,n = 1}^{3} \varepsilon^{ijk}\varepsilon^{lmn} a_{1l}a_{2m}a_{3n}$

where in the last step I tried to make use of the fact that $\varepsilon^{lmn}$ is $0$ whenever indices coincide. I am not sure where to go from here, or if this is even the right path to tackle this identity. Any help is greatly appreciated!

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Recall that the determinant can also be written as

$$ \det M = \sum_{\sigma} \epsilon^\sigma \prod_s a_{\sigma(s)s}.$$

Then $$ \delta^{ijk} := \sum_{l,m,n = 1}^3 \epsilon^{lmn}a_{li}a_{mj}a_{nk}.$$ is simply the determinant of a matrix whose

  • first column is the $i$-th column of $M$
  • second column is the $j$-th column of $M$
  • third column is the $k$-th column of $M$

It follows that $\delta^{ijk} = \epsilon^{ijk} \det M.$


Another way to see it is that $$ \epsilon^{ijk} = \det(M_{ijk})$$ where $M_{ijk} = (e_i',e_j',e_k')$ is the matrix with the canonical basis vectors as columns. With this notation the equation your trying to prove is just

$$ \det(MM_{ijk}) = \det(M)\det(M_{ijk})$$