[Math] The definition of $\oplus$

linear algebra

I would like to understand why the books give two different concepts to $\oplus$ between vector spaces:

See:

Concept 1: $W=V_1\oplus V_2=\{(v_1,v_2) \mid v_1\in V_1, v_2\in V_2\}$.

Concept 2: $W=V_1\oplus V_2=\{v_1+v_2 \mid v_1\in V_1, v_2\in V_2\}$, where $V_1\cap V_2=\{0\}$.

Are they equivalent?

I'm thinking to prove this is an isomorphism $(v_1,v_2)\mapsto v_1+v_2$.

Thanks

Best Answer

Take two subspaces $S,T$ of your vector space $V$. One can form the vector space $V'=S\times T$ that consists of pairs $(s,t)$ with coordinatewise addition and scalar multiplication. We can define a linear map $\eta:S\times T\to V$ that sends $(s,t)\to s+t$. This has image $S+T$ and kernel $\{(x,-x):x\in S\cap T\}\simeq S\cap T$ (prove this!) so it is an isomorphism of vector spaces if, and only if, $S+T=V$ and $S\cap T=0$. So, we have the two seemingly different concepts of "external" and "internal" direct sums, but essentially they are the same. We have a vector space $V$ and two subspaces $S,T$ such that $S\cap T=0$ and $S+T=V$. In the first case, $V=S\times T$, $S=\{(s,0):s\in S\}$ and $T=\{(0,t):t\in T\}$; in the second $V$ is an "arbitrary" vector space and $S,T$ satisfy the conditions mentioned above.

Essentially, this allows us to think of every vector of $V$ as decomposed into an $S$ component and a $T$ component, and uniquely so, and is very useful to understand vector spaces and their linear transformations. A great example is the Jordan canonical form or the Rational canonical forms, which are particular examples of a structure theorem for modules over PIDs. It allows, also, to inductively work our way out of a problem for a finite dimensional vector space by chopping out a one dimensional subspace for example, consider the proof that every orthogonal transformation is a composition of rotations and reflections, say.

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