[Math] Link between the projection onto a subspace and projection onto hyperplane

linear algebra

The projection onto a hyperplane $H=\{x\in \mathbb{R}^n|\langle a,x\rangle=b\}$ is defined to be $P_{H}(x)=x-\frac{\langle a,x\rangle-b}{||a||^2}a,$ and characterized by $\langle c-p,x-p\rangle\leq0.$ Also the projection onto a subspace $S\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ is defined by $P_{S}(x)=x-\frac{\langle a,x\rangle}{||a||^2}a$ and it is characterized by $\langle x-p,c\rangle=0$ for all $c\in S$ and $p$ is the projection of $x$ onto $S.$ I have also read that $P_{S+y}(x)=P_{S}(x-y)+y$ (the hyperplane H is the translation of the subspace
S by the vector y. My question is, can any one show me how can the formula of projection onto a hyperplane be derived from the one of subspace or vice versa. I am trying to understand the link between the projection onto a hyperplane and the projection onto a subspace so any help will be really appreciated. Thanks to everyone who contributes making answer.

Best Answer

Pick any point $x_{0}$ on the hyperplane $H=\{ x : \langle x, a \rangle = b \}$. Then $$ H-x_{0} = \{ x-x_{0} : x \in H \} $$ is a subspace because $\langle (x-x_{0}),a \rangle = 0$. So your hyperplane is a translation of a subspace in a particular vector direction. If you want to project $y$ onto $H$, that's the same as projecting $y-x_{0}$ onto the subspace $H-x_{0}$, and then adding $x_{0}$ back because the final answer to this modified projection problem is on $H-x_{0}$. Translation by a fixed vector is an isometric operation (i.e., it keeps relative distances the same.) That guarantees that the one projection problem is equivalent to the other. In other words $\|x-y\|=\|(x-x_{0})-(y-x_{0})\|$.

So, suppose you have found such an $x_{0}$ for which $\langle x_{0}, a\rangle = b$, and you now want to project $y$ onto $H$. Projecting $y-x_{0}$ onto $H-x_{0}$ gives $$ (y-x_{0}) - \frac{\langle y-x_{0},a\rangle}{\|a\|^{2}}a =y-x_{0}+\frac{\langle y,a\rangle - b}{\|a\|^{2}}a $$ The $b$ appeared because $x_{0}$ was chosen so that $\langle x_{0},a\rangle =b$. Then to put everything back into the original coordinates, you add $x_{0}$ back to your final answer because the above is a point on $H-x_{0}$. So the original projection, in the original coordinates, is found to be $$ y - \frac{\langle y,a\rangle-b}{\|a\|^{2}}a. $$

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