Coordinates of skew symmetric tensors

linear algebratensors

Let $T$ be a tensor of type $(p,0)$, i.e. we consider multilinear map $T:V\times\dots\times V\to \mathbb{k}$ where we have $p$ copies of $V$.

Denote by $\Theta_p(V)$ the linear space of all tensors of a type
$(p,0)$.

Definition: Let $T\in \Theta_p(V)$ and we say that $T$ is skew-symmetric tensor if for any $\sigma \in \Sigma_p$ we have $$(\sigma T)(v_1,\dots,v_p):=T(v_{\sigma(1)},\dots,v_{\sigma(p)})=(-1)^{\sigma}T(v_1,\dots,v_p),$$
where by $\Sigma_p$ I mean the group of all permutation of $p$
elements.

Let $\{e_1,\dots,e_n\}$ be a basis of $V$ then numbers $T_{i_1,\dots,i_p}:=T(e_{i_1},\dots,e_{i_p})$ are called coordinates of tensor $T$.

In coordinates the definition of skew-symmetric tensors can be written
in this way:

$$(\sigma
T)_{i_1,\dots,i_p}=T_{{i_{\sigma(1)},\dots,i_{\sigma(p)}}}.$$

And this is not so clear to me. Actually I have gotten the following:

Indeed, $(\sigma T)_{i_1,\dots,i_p}=(\sigma T)(e_{i_1},\dots,e_{i_p})=T(e_{\sigma(i_1)},\dots,e_{\sigma(i_p)})=T_{\sigma(i_1),\dots, \sigma(i_p)}$

And you see that this is completely different from above.

Can anyone explain to me what I am doing wrong, please?

Would be thankful for the detailed answer!

Best Answer

Let's apply the definitions a bit more carefully. Define $v_1,\dots,v_p$ to be the vectors $e_{i_1},\dots,e_{i_p}$. In other words: for $1 \leq k \leq p$, $v_k = e_{i_k}$. We then have $$ \begin{align} (\sigma T)_{i_1,\dots,i_p}&=(\sigma T)(e_{i_1},\dots,e_{i_p}) = (\sigma T)(v_1,\dots,v_p) = T(v_{\sigma(1)},\dots,v_{\sigma(p)}) \\ & = T(e_{i_{\sigma(1)}},\dots,e_{i_{\sigma(p)}}) = T_{i_{\sigma(1)},\dots,i_{\sigma(p)}}. \end{align} $$

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