Does neither Symmetric nor Alternating Tensors exist

differential-geometrytensors

I have been reading about tensors. The set of all covariant k-tensors on a vector space V is itself a vector space $ T^{k}(V^{*}) $.

The set of symmetric covariant k-tensors form a subspace of $ T^{k}(V^{*}) $ and denoted by $\Sigma ^ {k} (V^{*}) $.

The set of alternating covariant k-tensors form a subspace of $ T^{k}(V^{*}) $ and denoted by $\Lambda ^ {k} (V^{*}) $.

My question is whether every covariant k-tensor should belong to either of the two subspaces? In other words, are there covariant k-tensors that are neither symmetric nor alternating in $ T^{k}(V^{*}) $ ?

Best Answer

Take in $\Bbb R^2$, for instance, any tensor represented by a matrix which is not symmetric nor skew. Say, the matrix $$\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix}$$fits the bill and provides $T = e_1\otimes e_1 + e_1\otimes e_2 = e_1\otimes (e_1+e_2)$, where $\{e_1,e_2\}$ is the standard basis.