Find an expression of the generalised kronecker delta in terms of the determinant of a square matrix.

determinantkronecker-deltalinear algebrasolution-verification

Definition

The determinant $\det A$ of a square matrix $A$ with coefficients in a field $\Bbb K$ is the scalar
$$
\det A:=\sum_{\sigma\in\mathfrak S_n}\text{sgn}(\sigma)a_{1,\sigma(1)}\cdots a_{n,\sigma(n)}
$$

where the summation is extended to all permutation of $n$ elements.

So if $\delta^{i_1,…,i_k}_{j_1,…,j_k}$ is the generalised kroneker delta (see here for details about its definition) I ask to prove that
$$\delta^{i_1,…,i_k}_{j_1,…,j_k}=\text{det}\begin{pmatrix}\delta^{i_1}_{j_1}&\cdots&\delta^{i_1}_{j_k}\\
\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\
\delta^{i_k}_{j_k}&\cdots&\delta^{i_k}_{j_k}\end{pmatrix}
$$

for each choice of indices. So could someone help me, please?

Best Answer

First of all we put $$ \Delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}:=\text{det}\begin{pmatrix}\delta^{i_1}_{j_1}&\cdots&\delta^{i_1}_{j_k}\\ \vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ \delta^{i_k}_{j_k}&\cdots&\delta^{i_k}_{j_k}\end{pmatrix} $$ for each choice of indices so that we have to prove that $$ \delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}=\Delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k} $$ for each choice of indices.

So if $\delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}$ is zero then either one between the $k$-tuples $(i_1,...,i_k)$ and $(j_1,...,j_k)$ has duplicate indices or the indices of such $k$-tuples are not equal so that in the first case the matrix $\Delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}$ has two rows duplicate and in the second case the same matrix has at least one column zero and thus the equality tritivally holds by notable properties of the determinant. Conversely if $\delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}$ is not zero then the indices of the $k$-tuples are distinct and the indices of the first $k$-tuple are the same of the second so that the first $k$-tuple is a permutation of the second and vice versa. So we know that $$ \Delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}=\sum_{\sigma\in\mathfrak S_k}\text{sgn}(\sigma)\delta^{i_1}_{j_{\sigma(1)}}\delta^{i_2}_{j_{\sigma(2)}}...\delta^{i_k}_{j_{\sigma(k)}} $$ and so we analyse which and how many terms of the previous sum are not zero. So by the zero-product property we know that $\text{sgn}(\tau)\delta^{i_1}_{j_{\tau(1)}}\delta^{i_2}_{j_{\tau(2)}}...\delta^{i_k}_{j_{\tau(k)}}\neq0$ for some $\tau\in\mathfrak S_k$ if and only if the quantity $\delta^{i_h}_{j_{\tau(h)}}$ is not zero and this happens if and only if $i_h=j_{\tau(h)}$ for each $h=1,...,k$ so that the only term not zero in the previous summ is that related to the perutation $\tau$ and thus $$ \Delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k}=\sum_{\sigma\in\mathfrak S_k}\text{sgn}(\sigma)\delta^{i_1}_{j_{\sigma(1)}}\delta^{i_2}_{j_{\sigma(2)}}...\delta^{i_k}_{j_{\sigma(k)}}=\\\text{sgn}(\tau)\delta^{i_1}_{j_{\tau(1)}}\delta^{i_2}_{j_{\tau(2)}}...\delta^{i_k}_{j_{\tau(k)}}=\text{sgn}{\tau}=\delta^{i_1,...,i_k}_{j_1,...,j_k} $$ as we desired.

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