Prove $\operatorname{rank}A^TA=\operatorname{rank}A$ for any $A\in M_{m \times n}$

Question

How can I prove $\operatorname{rank}A^TA=\operatorname{rank}A$ for any $A\in M_{m \times n}$?

This is an exercise in my textbook associated with orthogonal projections and Gram-Schmidt process, but I am unsure how they are relevant.

Answer 1

Let $\mathbf{x} \in N(A)$ where $N(A)$ is the null space of $A$.

So, $$\begin{align} A\mathbf{x} &=\mathbf{0} \\\implies A^TA\mathbf{x} &=\mathbf{0} \\\implies \mathbf{x} &\in N(A^TA) \end{align}$$ Hence $N(A) \subseteq N(A^TA)$.

Again let $\mathbf{x} \in N(A^TA)$

So, $$\begin{align} A^TA\mathbf{x} &=\mathbf{0} \\\implies \mathbf{x}^TA^TA\mathbf{x} &=\mathbf{0} \\\implies (A\mathbf{x})^T(A\mathbf{x})&=\mathbf{0} \\\implies A\mathbf{x}&=\mathbf{0}\\\implies \mathbf{x} &\in N(A) \end{align}$$ Hence $N(A^TA) \subseteq N(A)$.

Therefore $$\begin{align} N(A^TA) &= N(A)\\ \implies \dim(N(A^TA)) &= \dim(N(A))\\ \implies \text{rank}(A^TA) &= \text{rank}(A)\end{align}$$

Answer 2

Let $r$ be the rank of $A \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n}$. We then have the SVD of $A$ as $$A_{m \times n} = U_{m \times r} \Sigma_{r \times r} V^T_{r \times n}$$ This gives $A^TA$ as $$A^TA = V_{n \times r} \Sigma_{r \times r}^2 V^T_{r \times n}$$ which is nothing but the SVD of $A^TA$. From this it is clear that $A^TA$ also has rank $r$. In fact the singular values of $A^TA$ are nothing but the square of the singular values of $A$.