DOCSLIB.ORG

A Some Basic Rules of Tensor Calculus

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

A Some Basic Rules of Tensor Calculus The tensor calculus is a powerful tool for the description of the fundamentals in con- tinuum mechanics and the derivation of the governing equations for applied prob- lems. In general, there are two possibilities for the representation of the tensors and the tensorial equations: – the direct (symbolic) notation and – the index (component) notation The direct notation operates with scalars, vectors and tensors as physical objects defined in the three dimensional space. A vector (first rank tensor) a is considered as a directed line segment rather than a triple of numbers (coordinates). A second rank tensor A is any finite sum of ordered vector pairs A = a b + ... +c d. The scalars, vectors and tensors are handled as invariant (independent⊗ from the choice⊗ of the coordinate system) objects. This is the reason for the use of the direct notation in the modern literature of mechanics and rheology, e.g. [29, 32, 49, 123, 131, 199, 246, 313, 334] among others. The index notation deals with components or coordinates of vectors and tensors. For a selected basis, e.g. gi, i = 1, 2, 3 one can write a = aig , A = aibj + ... + cidj g g i i ⊗ j Here the Einstein’s summation convention is used: in one expression the twice re- peated indices are summed up from 1 to 3, e.g. 3 3 k k ik ik a gk ∑ a gk, A bk ∑ A bk ≡ k=1 ≡ k=1 In the above examples k is a so-called dummy index. Within the index notation the basic operations with tensors are defined with respect to their coordinates, e. g. the sum of two vectors is computed as a sum of their coordinates ci = ai + bi. The introduced basis remains in the background. It must be remembered that a change of the coordinate system leads to the change of the components of tensors. In this work we prefer the direct tensor notation over the index one. When solv- ing applied problems the tensor equations can be “translated” into the language of matrices for a specified coordinate system. The purpose of this Appendix is to 168 A SomeBasicRulesofTensorCalculus give a brief guide to notations and rules of the tensor calculus applied through- out this work. For more comprehensive overviews on tensor calculus we recom- mend [54, 96, 123, 191, 199, 311, 334]. The calculus of matrices is presented in [40, 111, 340], for example. Section A.1 provides a brief overview of basic alge- braic operations with vectors and second rank tensors. Several rules from tensor analysis are summarized in Sect. A.2. Basic sets of invariants for different groups of symmetry transformation are presented in Sect. A.3, where a novel approach to find the functional basis is discussed. A.1 Basic Operations of Tensor Algebra A.1.1 Polar and Axial Vectors A vector in the three-dimensional Euclidean space is defined as a directed line seg- ment with specified magnitude (scalar) and direction. The magnitude (the length) of a vector a is denoted by a . Two vectors a and b are equal if they have the same direction and the same magnitude.| | The zero vector 0 has a magnitude equal to zero. In mechanics two types of vectors can be introduced. The vectors of the first type are directed line segments. These vectors are associated with translations in the three- dimensional space. Examples for polar vectors include the force, the displacement, the velocity, the acceleration, the momentum, etc. The second type is used to char- acterize spinor motions and related quantities, i.e. the moment, the angular velocity, the angular momentum, etc. Figure A.1a shows the so-called spin vector a which represents a rotation about the given axis. The direction of rotation is specified∗ by the circular arrow and the “magnitude” of rotation is the corresponding length. For the given spin vector a the directed line segment a is introduced according to the following rules [334]: ∗ 1. the vector a is placed on the axis of the spin vector, 2. the magnitude of a is equal to the magnitude of a , ∗ a b c a a a a ∗ ∗ ∗ a Figure A.1 Axial vectors. a Spin vector, b axial vector in the right-screw oriented reference frame, c axial vector in the left-screw oriented reference frame A.1 Basic Operations of Tensor Algebra 169 3. the vector a is directed according to the right-handed screw, Fig A.1b, or the left-handed screw, Fig A.1c The selection of one of the two cases in 3. corresponds to the convention of ori- entation of the reference frame [334] (it should be not confused with the right- or left-handed triples of vectors or coordinate systems). The directed line segment is called a polar vector if it does not change by changing the orientation of the refer- ence frame. The vector is called to be axial if it changes the sign by changing the orientation of the reference frame. The above definitions are valid for scalars and tensors of any rank too. The axial vectors (and tensors) are widely used in the rigid body dynamics, e.g. [333], in the theories of rods, plates and shells, e.g. [25], in the asymmetric theory of elasticity, e.g. [231], as well as in dynamics of micro-polar media, e.g. [108]. By dealing with polar and axial vectors it should be remembered that they have different physical meanings. Therefore, a sum of a polar and an axial vector has no sense. A.1.2 Operations with Vectors Addition. For a given pair of vectors a and b of the same type the sum c = a + b is defined according to one of the rules in Fig. A.2. The sum has the following properties – a + b = b + a (commutativity), – (a + b)+ c = a +(b + c) (associativity), – a + 0 = a Multiplication by a Scalar. For any vector a and for any scalar α a vector b = αa is defined in such a way that – b = α a , – for| | α >| 0|| the| direction of b coincides with that of a, – for α < 0 the direction of b is opposite to that of a. For α = 0 the product yields the zero vector, i.e. 0 = 0a. It is easy to verify that α(a + b)= αa + αb, (α + β)a = αa + βa a b b c c b a a Figure A.2 Addition of two vectors. a Parallelogram rule, b triangle rule 170 A SomeBasicRulesofTensorCalculus a b b b ϕ ϕ a a 2π ϕ a − na = (b na )na a · Figure A.3 Scalar product of two vectors. a Angles| | between two vectors, b unit vector and projection Scalar (Dot) Product of two Vectors. For any pair of vectors a and b a scalar α is defined by α = a b = a b cos ϕ, · | || | where ϕ is the angle between the vectors a and b. As ϕ one can use any of the two angles between the vectors, Fig. A.3a. The properties of the scalar product are – a b = b a (commutativity), · · – a · (b + c·)= a b + a c (distributivity) · · · Two nonzero vectors are said to be orthogonal if their scalar product is zero. The unit vector directed along the vector a is defined by (see Fig. A.3b) a na = a a | | The projection of the vector b onto the vector a is the vector (b n )n , Fig. A.3b. · a a The length of the projection is b cos ϕ . · | || | Vector (Cross) Product of Two Vectors. For the ordered pair of vectors a and b the vector c = a b is defined in two following steps [334]: × – the spin vector c is defined in such a way that the axis is orthogonal∗ to the plane spanned on a and b, Fig. A.4a, • the circular arrow shows the direction of the “shortest” rotation from a to b, • Fig. A.4b, the length is a b sin ϕ, where ϕ is the angle of the “shortest” rotation from a • to b, | || | – from the resulting spin vector the directed line segment c is constructed according to one of the rules listed in Subsect. A.1.1. The properties of the vector product are a b = b a, a (b + c)= a b + a c × − × × × × The type of the vector c = a b can be established for the known types of the vectors a and b, [334]. If a and×b are polar vectors the result of the cross product A.1 Basic Operations of Tensor Algebra 171 a b c c c ∗ ϕ ϕ ϕ a b a b a b Figure A.4 Vector product of two vectors. a Plane spanned on two vectors, b spin vector, c axial vector in the right-screw oriented reference frame will be the axial vector. An example is the moment of momentum for a mass point m defined by r (mv˙ ), where r is the position of the mass point and v is the velocity of the mass point.× The next example is the formula for the distribution of velocities in a rigid body v = ω r. Here the cross product of the axial vector ω (angular velocity) with the polar× vector r (position vector) results in the polar vector v. The mixed product of three vectors a, b and c is defined by (a b) c. The result is a scalar. For the mixed product the following identities are valid× · a (b c)= b (c a)= c (a b) (A.1.1) · × · × · × If the cross product is applied twice, the first operation must be set in parentheses, e.g., a (b c).
Recommended publications
  • 21. Orthonormal Bases

    21. Orthonormal Bases

    21. Orthonormal Bases The canonical/standard basis 011 001 001 B C B C B C B0C B1C B0C e1 = B.C ; e2 = B.C ; : : : ; en = B.C B.C B.C B.C @.A @.A @.A 0 0 1 has many useful properties. • Each of the standard basis vectors has unit length: q p T jjeijj = ei ei = ei ei = 1: • The standard basis vectors are orthogonal (in other words, at right angles or perpendicular). T ei ej = ei ej = 0 when i 6= j This is summarized by ( 1 i = j eT e = δ = ; i j ij 0 i 6= j where δij is the Kronecker delta. Notice that the Kronecker delta gives the entries of the identity matrix. Given column vectors v and w, we have seen that the dot product v w is the same as the matrix multiplication vT w. This is the inner product on n T R . We can also form the outer product vw , which gives a square matrix. 1 The outer product on the standard basis vectors is interesting. Set T Π1 = e1e1 011 B C B0C = B.C 1 0 ::: 0 B.C @.A 0 01 0 ::: 01 B C B0 0 ::: 0C = B. .C B. .C @. .A 0 0 ::: 0 . T Πn = enen 001 B C B0C = B.C 0 0 ::: 1 B.C @.A 1 00 0 ::: 01 B C B0 0 ::: 0C = B. .C B. .C @. .A 0 0 ::: 1 In short, Πi is the diagonal square matrix with a 1 in the ith diagonal position and zeros everywhere else.
  • Estimations of the Trace of Powers of Positive Self-Adjoint Operators by Extrapolation of the Moments∗

    Estimations of the Trace of Powers of Positive Self-Adjoint Operators by Extrapolation of the Moments∗

    Electronic Transactions on Numerical Analysis. ETNA Volume 39, pp. 144-155, 2012. Kent State University Copyright 2012, Kent State University. http://etna.math.kent.edu ISSN 1068-9613. ESTIMATIONS OF THE TRACE OF POWERS OF POSITIVE SELF-ADJOINT OPERATORS BY EXTRAPOLATION OF THE MOMENTS∗ CLAUDE BREZINSKI†, PARASKEVI FIKA‡, AND MARILENA MITROULI‡ Abstract. Let A be a positive self-adjoint linear operator on a real separable Hilbert space H. Our aim is to build estimates of the trace of Aq, for q ∈ R. These estimates are obtained by extrapolation of the moments of A. Applications of the matrix case are discussed, and numerical results are given. Key words. Trace, positive self-adjoint linear operator, symmetric matrix, matrix powers, matrix moments, extrapolation. AMS subject classifications. 65F15, 65F30, 65B05, 65C05, 65J10, 15A18, 15A45. 1. Introduction. Let A be a positive self-adjoint linear operator from H to H, where H is a real separable Hilbert space with inner product denoted by (·, ·). Our aim is to build estimates of the trace of Aq, for q ∈ R. These estimates are obtained by extrapolation of the integer moments (z, Anz) of A, for n ∈ N. A similar procedure was first introduced in [3] for estimating the Euclidean norm of the error when solving a system of linear equations, which corresponds to q = −2. The case q = −1, which leads to estimates of the trace of the inverse of a matrix, was studied in [4]; on this problem, see [10]. Let us mention that, when only positive powers of A are used, the Hilbert space H could be infinite dimensional, while, for negative powers of A, it is always assumed to be a finite dimensional one, and, obviously, A is also assumed to be invertible.
  • Generic Properties of Symmetric Tensors

    Generic Properties of Symmetric Tensors

    2006 – 1/48 – P.Comon Generic properties of Symmetric Tensors Pierre COMON I3S - CNRS other contributors: Bernard MOURRAIN INRIA institute Lek-Heng LIM, Stanford University I3S 2006 – 2/48 – P.Comon Tensors & Arrays Definitions Table T = {Tij..k} Order d of T def= # of its ways = # of its indices def Dimension n` = range of the `th index T is Square when all dimensions n` = n are equal T is Symmetric when it is square and when its entries do not change by any permutation of indices I3S 2006 – 3/48 – P.Comon Tensors & Arrays Properties Outer (tensor) product C = A ◦ B: Cij..` ab..c = Aij..` Bab..c Example 1 outer product between 2 vectors: u ◦ v = u vT Multilinearity. An order-3 tensor T is transformed by the multi-linear map {A, B, C} into a tensor T 0: 0 X Tijk = AiaBjbCkcTabc abc Similarly: at any order d. I3S 2006 – 4/48 – P.Comon Tensors & Arrays Example Example 2 Take 1 v = −1 Then 1 −1 −1 1 v◦3 = −1 1 1 −1 This is a “rank-1” symmetric tensor I3S 2006 – 5/48 – P.Comon Usefulness of symmetric arrays CanD/PARAFAC vs ICA .. .. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... CanD/PARAFAC: = + ... + . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I3S 2006 – 6/48 – P.Comon Usefulness of symmetric arrays CanD/PARAFAC vs ICA .. .. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... CanD/PARAFAC: = + ... + . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... PARAFAC cannot be used when: • Lack of diversity I3S 2006 – 7/48 – P.Comon Usefulness of symmetric arrays CanD/PARAFAC vs ICA .. .. .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... CanD/PARAFAC: = + ... + . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... PARAFAC cannot be used when: • Lack of diversity • Proportional slices I3S 2006 – 8/48 – P.Comon Usefulness of symmetric arrays CanD/PARAFAC vs ICA .
  • Multivector Differentiation and Linear Algebra 0.5Cm 17Th Santaló

    Multivector Differentiation and Linear Algebra 0.5Cm 17Th Santaló

    Multivector differentiation and Linear Algebra 17th Santalo´ Summer School 2016, Santander Joan Lasenby Signal Processing Group, Engineering Department, Cambridge, UK and Trinity College Cambridge [email protected], www-sigproc.eng.cam.ac.uk/ s jl 23 August 2016 1 / 78 Examples of differentiation wrt multivectors. Linear Algebra: matrices and tensors as linear functions mapping between elements of the algebra. Functional Differentiation: very briefly... Summary Overview The Multivector Derivative. 2 / 78 Linear Algebra: matrices and tensors as linear functions mapping between elements of the algebra. Functional Differentiation: very briefly... Summary Overview The Multivector Derivative. Examples of differentiation wrt multivectors. 3 / 78 Functional Differentiation: very briefly... Summary Overview The Multivector Derivative. Examples of differentiation wrt multivectors. Linear Algebra: matrices and tensors as linear functions mapping between elements of the algebra. 4 / 78 Summary Overview The Multivector Derivative. Examples of differentiation wrt multivectors. Linear Algebra: matrices and tensors as linear functions mapping between elements of the algebra. Functional Differentiation: very briefly... 5 / 78 Overview The Multivector Derivative. Examples of differentiation wrt multivectors. Linear Algebra: matrices and tensors as linear functions mapping between elements of the algebra. Functional Differentiation: very briefly... Summary 6 / 78 We now want to generalise this idea to enable us to find the derivative of F(X), in the A ‘direction’ – where X is a general mixed grade multivector (so F(X) is a general multivector valued function of X). Let us use ∗ to denote taking the scalar part, ie P ∗ Q ≡ hPQi. Then, provided A has same grades as X, it makes sense to define: F(X + tA) − F(X) A ∗ ¶XF(X) = lim t!0 t The Multivector Derivative Recall our definition of the directional derivative in the a direction F(x + ea) − F(x) a·r F(x) = lim e!0 e 7 / 78 Let us use ∗ to denote taking the scalar part, ie P ∗ Q ≡ hPQi.
  • Appendix a Spinors in Four Dimensions

    Appendix a Spinors in Four Dimensions

    Appendix A Spinors in Four Dimensions In this appendix we collect the conventions used for spinors in both Minkowski and Euclidean spaces. In Minkowski space the flat metric has the 0 1 2 3 form ηµν = diag(−1, 1, 1, 1), and the coordinates are labelled (x ,x , x , x ). The analytic continuation into Euclidean space is madethrough the replace- ment x0 = ix4 (and in momentum space, p0 = −ip4) the coordinates in this case being labelled (x1,x2, x3, x4). The Lorentz group in four dimensions, SO(3, 1), is not simply connected and therefore, strictly speaking, has no spinorial representations. To deal with these types of representations one must consider its double covering, the spin group Spin(3, 1), which is isomorphic to SL(2, C). The group SL(2, C) pos- sesses a natural complex two-dimensional representation. Let us denote this representation by S andlet us consider an element ψ ∈ S with components ψα =(ψ1,ψ2) relative to some basis. The action of an element M ∈ SL(2, C) is β (Mψ)α = Mα ψβ. (A.1) This is not the only action of SL(2, C) which one could choose. Instead of M we could have used its complex conjugate M, its inverse transpose (M T)−1,or its inverse adjoint (M †)−1. All of them satisfy the same group multiplication law. These choices would correspond to the complex conjugate representation S, the dual representation S,and the dual complex conjugate representation S. We will use the following conventions for elements of these representations: α α˙ ψα ∈ S, ψα˙ ∈ S, ψ ∈ S, ψ ∈ S.
  • 1.2 Topological Tensor Calculus

    1.2 Topological Tensor Calculus

    PH211 Physical Mathematics Fall 2019 1.2 Topological tensor calculus 1.2.1 Tensor fields Finite displacements in Euclidean space can be represented by arrows and have a natural vector space structure, but finite displacements in more general curved spaces, such as on the surface of a sphere, do not. However, an infinitesimal neighborhood of a point in a smooth curved space1 looks like an infinitesimal neighborhood of Euclidean space, and infinitesimal displacements dx~ retain the vector space structure of displacements in Euclidean space. An infinitesimal neighborhood of a point can be infinitely rescaled to generate a finite vector space, called the tangent space, at the point. A vector lives in the tangent space of a point. Note that vectors do not stretch from one point to vector tangent space at p p space Figure 1.2.1: A vector in the tangent space of a point. another, and vectors at different points live in different tangent spaces and so cannot be added. For example, rescaling the infinitesimal displacement dx~ by dividing it by the in- finitesimal scalar dt gives the velocity dx~ ~v = (1.2.1) dt which is a vector. Similarly, we can picture the covector rφ as the infinitesimal contours of φ in a neighborhood of a point, infinitely rescaled to generate a finite covector in the point's cotangent space. More generally, infinitely rescaling the neighborhood of a point generates the tensor space and its algebra at the point. The tensor space contains the tangent and cotangent spaces as a vector subspaces. A tensor field is something that takes tensor values at every point in a space.
  • Tensor Products

    Tensor Products

    Tensor products Joel Kamnitzer April 5, 2011 1 The definition Let V, W, X be three vector spaces. A bilinear map from V × W to X is a function H : V × W → X such that H(av1 + v2, w) = aH(v1, w) + H(v2, w) for v1,v2 ∈ V, w ∈ W, a ∈ F H(v, aw1 + w2) = aH(v, w1) + H(v, w2) for v ∈ V, w1, w2 ∈ W, a ∈ F Let V and W be vector spaces. A tensor product of V and W is a vector space V ⊗ W along with a bilinear map φ : V × W → V ⊗ W , such that for every vector space X and every bilinear map H : V × W → X, there exists a unique linear map T : V ⊗ W → X such that H = T ◦ φ. In other words, giving a linear map from V ⊗ W to X is the same thing as giving a bilinear map from V × W to X. If V ⊗ W is a tensor product, then we write v ⊗ w := φ(v ⊗ w). Note that there are two pieces of data in a tensor product: a vector space V ⊗ W and a bilinear map φ : V × W → V ⊗ W . Here are the main results about tensor products summarized in one theorem. Theorem 1.1. (i) Any two tensor products of V, W are isomorphic. (ii) V, W has a tensor product. (iii) If v1,...,vn is a basis for V and w1,...,wm is a basis for W , then {vi ⊗ wj }1≤i≤n,1≤j≤m is a basis for V ⊗ W .
  • Bornologically Isomorphic Representations of Tensor Distributions

    Bornologically Isomorphic Representations of Tensor Distributions

    Bornologically isomorphic representations of distributions on manifolds E. Nigsch Thursday 15th November, 2018 Abstract Distributional tensor fields can be regarded as multilinear mappings with distributional values or as (classical) tensor fields with distribu- tional coefficients. We show that the corresponding isomorphisms hold also in the bornological setting. 1 Introduction ′ ′ ′r s ′ Let D (M) := Γc(M, Vol(M)) and Ds (M) := Γc(M, Tr(M) ⊗ Vol(M)) be the strong duals of the space of compactly supported sections of the volume s bundle Vol(M) and of its tensor product with the tensor bundle Tr(M) over a manifold; these are the spaces of scalar and tensor distributions on M as defined in [?, ?]. A property of the space of tensor distributions which is fundamental in distributional geometry is given by the C∞(M)-module isomorphisms ′r ∼ s ′ ∼ r ′ Ds (M) = LC∞(M)(Tr (M), D (M)) = Ts (M) ⊗C∞(M) D (M) (1) (cf. [?, Theorem 3.1.12 and Corollary 3.1.15]) where C∞(M) is the space of smooth functions on M. In[?] a space of Colombeau-type nonlinear generalized tensor fields was constructed. This involved handling smooth functions (in the sense of convenient calculus as developed in [?]) in par- arXiv:1105.1642v1 [math.FA] 9 May 2011 ∞ r ′ ticular on the C (M)-module tensor products Ts (M) ⊗C∞(M) D (M) and Γ(E) ⊗C∞(M) Γ(F ), where Γ(E) denotes the space of smooth sections of a vector bundle E over M. In[?], however, only minor attention was paid to questions of topology on these tensor products.
  • On Manifolds of Tensors of Fixed Tt-Rank

    On Manifolds of Tensors of Fixed Tt-Rank

    ON MANIFOLDS OF TENSORS OF FIXED TT-RANK SEBASTIAN HOLTZ, THORSTEN ROHWEDDER, AND REINHOLD SCHNEIDER Abstract. Recently, the format of TT tensors [19, 38, 34, 39] has turned out to be a promising new format for the approximation of solutions of high dimensional problems. In this paper, we prove some new results for the TT representation of a tensor U ∈ Rn1×...×nd and for the manifold of tensors of TT-rank r. As a first result, we prove that the TT (or compression) ranks ri of a tensor U are unique and equal to the respective seperation ranks of U if the components of the TT decomposition are required to fulfil a certain maximal rank condition. We then show that d the set T of TT tensors of fixed rank r forms an embedded manifold in Rn , therefore preserving the essential theoretical properties of the Tucker format, but often showing an improved scaling behaviour. Extending a similar approach for matrices [7], we introduce certain gauge conditions to obtain a unique representation of the tangent space TU T of T and deduce a local parametrization of the TT manifold. The parametrisation of TU T is often crucial for an algorithmic treatment of high-dimensional time-dependent PDEs and minimisation problems [33]. We conclude with remarks on those applications and present some numerical examples. 1. Introduction The treatment of high-dimensional problems, typically of problems involving quantities from Rd for larger dimensions d, is still a challenging task for numerical approxima- tion. This is owed to the principal problem that classical approaches for their treatment normally scale exponentially in the dimension d in both needed storage and computa- tional time and thus quickly become computationally infeasable for sensible discretiza- tions of problems of interest.
  • Parallel Spinors and Connections with Skew-Symmetric Torsion in String Theory*

    Parallel Spinors and Connections with Skew-Symmetric Torsion in String Theory*

    ASIAN J. MATH. © 2002 International Press Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 303-336, June 2002 005 PARALLEL SPINORS AND CONNECTIONS WITH SKEW-SYMMETRIC TORSION IN STRING THEORY* THOMAS FRIEDRICHt AND STEFAN IVANOV* Abstract. We describe all almost contact metric, almost hermitian and G2-structures admitting a connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion tensor, and prove that there exists at most one such connection. We investigate its torsion form, its Ricci tensor, the Dirac operator and the V- parallel spinors. In particular, we obtain partial solutions of the type // string equations in dimension n = 5, 6 and 7. 1. Introduction. Linear connections preserving a Riemannian metric with totally skew-symmetric torsion recently became a subject of interest in theoretical and mathematical physics. For example, the target space of supersymmetric sigma models with Wess-Zumino term carries a geometry of a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion [23, 34, 35] (see also [42] and references therein). In supergravity theories, the geometry of the moduli space of a class of black holes is carried out by a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion [27]. The geometry of NS-5 brane solutions of type II supergravity theories is generated by a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion [44, 45, 43]. The existence of parallel spinors with respect to a metric connection with skew-symmetric torsion on a Riemannian spin manifold is of importance in string theory, since they are associated with some string solitons (BPS solitons) [43]. Supergravity solutions that preserve some of the supersymmetry of the underlying theory have found many applications in the exploration of perturbative and non-perturbative properties of string theory.
  • Solution: the First Element of the Dual Basis Is the Linear Function Α

    Solution: the First Element of the Dual Basis Is the Linear Function Α

    Homework assignment 7 pp. 105 3 Exercise 2. Let B = f®1; ®2; ®3g be the basis for C defined by ®1 = (1; 0; ¡1) ®2 = (1; 1; 1) ®3 = (2; 2; 0): Find the dual basis of B. Solution: ¤ The first element of the dual basis is the linear function ®1 such ¤ ¤ ¤ that ®1(®1) = 1; ®1(®2) = 0 and ®1(®3) = 0. To describe such a function more explicitly we need to find its values on the standard basis vectors e1, e2 and e3. To do this express e1; e2; e3 through ®1; ®2; ®3 (refer to the solution of Exercise 1 pp. 54-55 from Homework 6). For each i = 1; 2; 3 you will find the numbers ai; bi; ci such that e1 = ai®1 + bi®2 + ci®3 (i.e. the coordinates of ei relative to the ¤ ¤ ¤ basis ®1; ®2; ®3). Then by linearity of ®1 we get that ®1(ei) = ai. Then ®2(ei) = bi, ¤ and ®3(ei) = ci. This is the answer. It can also be reformulated as follows. If P is the transition matrix from the standard basis e1; e2; e3 to ®1; ®2; ®3, i.e. ¡1 t (®1; ®2; ®3) = (e1; e2; e3)P , then (P ) is the transition matrix from the dual basis ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¡1 t e1; e2; e3 to the dual basis ®1; ®2; a3, i.e. (®1; ®2; a3) = (e1; e2; e3)(P ) . Note that this problem is basically the change of coordinates problem: e.g. ¤ 3 the value of ®1 on the vector v 2 C is the first coordinate of v relative to the basis ®1; ®2; ®3.
  • Vectors and Dual Vectors

    Vectors and Dual Vectors

    Vectors By now you have a pretty good experience with \vectors". Usually, a vector is defined as a quantity that has a direction and a magnitude, such as a position vector, velocity vector, acceleration vector, etc. However, the notion of a vector has a considerably wider realm of applicability than these examples might suggest. The set of all real numbers forms a vector space, as does the set of all complex numbers. The set of functions on a set (e.g., functions of one variable, f(x)) form a vector space. Solutions of linear homogeneous equations form a vector space. We begin by giving the abstract rules for forming a space of vectors, also known as a vector space. A vector space V is a set equipped with an operation of \addition" and an additive identity. The elements of the set are called vectors, which we shall denote as ~u, ~v, ~w, etc. For now, you can think of them as position vectors in order to keep yourself sane. Addition, is an operation in which two vectors, say ~u and ~v, can be combined to make another vector, say, ~w. We denote this operation by the symbol \+": ~u + ~v = ~w: (1) Do not be fooled by this simple notation. The \addition" of vectors may be quite a different operation than ordinary arithmetic addition. For example, if we view position vectors in the x-y plane as \arrows" drawn from the origin, the addition of vectors is defined by the parallelogram rule. Clearly this rule is quite different than ordinary \addition".