[Math] Dual Vector Spaces with Orthonormal Basis

linear algebraorthonormalvector-spaces

I'm really stuck on the following quesiton.

Let $U$ and $V$ be finite dimensional vector spaces over the complex numbers with bases $e_1,..,e_n$ of $U$ and $f_1,…,f_m$ of $V$. They also have dual spaces $U^*$ and $V^*$ with bases $e^i$ and $f^i$ respectively.

Then assume that both spaces are Hermitian.

Let $T_U:U\to U^*$ be defined by $T_U(w)(u) = \langle w,u\rangle \forall w,u\in U$.

Prove that if the basis $e_i$ is orthonormal then $T_U(e_i) = e^i$.

I have tried showing that

$T_U(e_i)(u) = \langle e_i, u\rangle $
$ = \langle e_i,x_1e_1+…+x_ne_n\rangle $
$ = \langle e_i, x_1e_1\rangle + \langle e_i, x_2e_2\rangle +\cdots +\langle e_i, x_ne_n\rangle$
$ =x_1\langle e_i,e_1\rangle + x_2\langle e_i,e_2\rangle +\cdots +x_n\langle e_i,e_n\rangle$

So we are left with, $x_i\langle e_i,e_i \rangle $ since the others are mutually orthogonal.

I'm having trouble understanding why this implies the desired result.

Best Answer

The property of the dual basis is that $e^{i}(e_{j}) = \delta_{i,j}$. So, why don't you consider how $T_{U}(e_{i})$ and $e^{i}$ act on the basis of $U$?

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