Vector Spaces – Basis for Tensor Product of Infinite Dimensional Spaces

multilinear-algebratensor-productsvector-spaces

If V and W are vector spaces over a common field with bases $V_B = ${$v_i : i \in I$} and $W_B = ${$w_j : j \in J$}, then is {$v_i \otimes w_j: i \in I, j \in J$} a basis for $V \otimes W$ ?

I have several references for the finite dimensional case but they seem to involve either a dimensional argument or reference to dual spaces, neither of which would seem to be appropriate in the infinite dimensional case.

The references that I can find for infinite dimensional spaces focus on "orthonormal bases" (usually in the context of Hilbert Spaces).

So, I'd appreciate any help answering

  1. is this actually true if {$v_i : i \in I$} and {$w_j : j \in J$} are the Hamel (algebraic) bases of infinite dimensional spaces and what is the proof ?
  2. Does it make any difference if only one space is infinite dimensional ?
  3. Is there any difference between countable and larger infinities ?

Addendum 15 March 2015:

Why not simply define the tensor product as $F(V_B \times W_B)$, i.e. the free vector space generated by the set of ordered pairs of basis vectors ? There seems to be a bilinear mapping from $V \times W$ and it appears to satisfy the universal property.

Have I missed something here ?

Best Answer

Yes it is true independent of the cardinality of the bases of the vector spaces. Use the universal property: Let $T$ be any vector space over the given field.

A bilinear map $V \times W \to T$ is uniquely determined by the images of the pairs $(v_i,w_j)_{i \in I,j \in J}$, so we get

$$Bil(V \times W, T) = Abb(\{(v_i,w_j), i \in I, j \in J\},T)= Abb(\{v_i \otimes w_j, i \in I, j \in J\},T)$$

By the universal property $V \otimes W$ is the vector-space with the property

$$Hom(V \otimes W,T) = Bil(V \times W, T)$$

, so we obtain

$$Hom(V \otimes W,T) = Abb(\{v_i \otimes w_j, i \in I, j \in J\},T)$$

, which precisely states that $\{v_i \otimes w_j, i \in I, j \in J\}$ is a basis of $V \otimes W$.

Let us precise this:

Given a map in $f \in Abb(\{v_i \otimes w_j, i \in I, j \in J\},T)$, which means that we are given $f(v_i \otimes w_j)$ for all $i \in I, j \in J$, we have to show that this extends uniquely to a map $F:V \otimes W \to T$.

We define the bilinear map $\hat f: V \times W \to T$ by $\hat f(v_i,w_j) := f(v_i \otimes w_j)$. By the universal property, this gives us a unique map $F:V \otimes W \to T, F(v \otimes w)=\hat f(v_i,w_j)=f(v_i \otimes w_j)$. Hence this is the desired unique map.

The uniqueness of $F$ is trivial anyway, because $\{v_i \otimes w_j, i \in I, j \in J\}$ is clearly a set of generators. We only need to show the existence of $F$ here (And this corresponds to the linear independence).

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