What's the definition of dual number at perspect of exterior algebra?

35 Views Asked by At

In Dual Number it said that "It may also be defined as the exterior algebra of a one-dimensional vector space with $\varepsilon$ as its basis element." But I can't find the detailed rigorous expresion anywhere. I learned in Grassmann Number that :

"Formally, let $V$ be an $n$-dimensional complex vector space with basis $\theta_i,i=1,\ldots,n$ The Grassmann algebra whose Grassmann variables are $\theta_i,i=1,\ldots,n$ is defined to be the exterior algebra of $V$, namely $\Lambda(V)=\mathbb{C}\oplus V\oplus(V\wedge V)\oplus(V\wedge V\wedge V)\oplus\cdots\oplus(V\wedge V\wedge\cdots\wedge V) \equiv \mathbb{C} \oplus \Lambda^1V \oplus \Lambda^2V \oplus \cdots \oplus \Lambda^nV$

"

If we apply the definition of Grassmann number to a one-dimension vector space $V$ with a basis of $\{\varepsilon\}$, we can immediately obtain $\mathbb{C}\oplus V$, my question is how can we obtain $\varepsilon^2=0$ from this definition ? Certainly it can be obtained from anticommunity that $\varepsilon\wedge\varepsilon=-\varepsilon\wedge\varepsilon$, but $\mathbb{C}\oplus V$ does not consist of $V\wedge V$ since the number of directsum terms depends on the dimension of the vector space $V$.

Or maybe I misunderstood the sentence "It may also be defined as the exterior algebra of a one-dimensional vector space with $\varepsilon$ as its basis element." in wikipedia of dual number. So what's rigorous definition of dual number described in exterior algebra ?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Short answer.

Prosaically, the algebra of dual numbers $(\Bbb{D},+,\cdot)$ may be reinterpreted as the exterior algebra $\Lambda(V)$ of a one-dimensional real vector space $V$, in the sense that the "usual" multiplication is replaced by the exterior product, which is anticommutative for 1-vectors, as you recalled, in such a way that (pure) dual numbers vanish when squared.


Long answer.

As you stated, the exterior algebra of a $n$-dimensional vector space $V$ is given by $\Lambda(V) = \bigoplus_{k=0}^n \Lambda^nV$, whose direct sum stops after $n$. Actually, the spaces $\Lambda^kV$ with $k > n$ exist formally, but they are trivial, i.e. $\Lambda^kV = 0 \;\forall k > n$, that is why they are usually omitted in the definition of the exterior algebra $\Lambda(V)$. Why so?

Let's recall that the (canonical) basis of the space $\Lambda^kV$ is given by $\{e_{i_1} \wedge \ldots \wedge e_{i_k}\}_{1 \le i_1 < \ldots < i_k \le n}$, where $\{e_1,\ldots,e_n\}$ represents the basis of $V$. Thus, one basis vector $e_i$ can appear no more than once, otherwise the resulting wedge product will vanish, since the exterior product is alternating and a fortiori anticommutative for 1-vectors. In consequence, one understands that it is impossible to construct a non-zero $k$-vector when $k > n$.

In conclusion, when coming back to the case of dual numbers $\Lambda(V) = \Bbb{R} \oplus V$, with $\varepsilon \in V$ being the basis of the one-dimensional vector space $V$, one has $\varepsilon^2 := \varepsilon \wedge \varepsilon \in \Lambda^2V = \{0\}$, hence $\varepsilon^2 = 0$.