PlanetMath (more info)
 Math for the people, by the people. Sponsor PlanetMath
Encyclopedia | Requests | Forums | Docs | Wiki | Random | RSS  
Login
create new user
name:
pass:
forget your password?
Main Menu
Viewing Version 9 of 'inner product'
[ view 'inner product' | back to history ]

Title of object: inner product
Canonical Name: InnerProduct
Type: Definition

Created on: 2002-01-24 02:24:23-05
Modified on: 2002-02-25 02:27:26-05

Creator: djao
Modifier: djao
Author: djao

Classification: msc:15A63, msc:11E39

Preamble:

% this is the default PlanetMath preamble. as your knowledge
% of TeX increases, you will probably want to edit this, but
% it should be fine as is for beginners.
% almost certainly you want these
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
% used for TeXing text within eps files
%\usepackage{psfrag}
% need this for including graphics (\includegraphics)
%\usepackage{graphicx}
% for neatly defining theorems and propositions
%\usepackage{amsthm}
% making logically defined graphics
%\usepackage{xypic}
% there are many more packages, add them here as you need them
% define commands here
\renewcommand{\v}{{{\bf v}}}
\newcommand{\w}{{{\bf w}}}
\newcommand{\0}{{{\bf 0}}}
Content:

An inner product on a vector space $V$ over a field $K$ (which must be either the field $\mathbb{R}$ of real numbers or the field $\mathbb{C}$ of complex numbers) is a function $(\ ,\ ): V \times V \longrightarrow K$ such that, for all $k_1,k_2 \in K$ and $\v_1, \v_2, \v, \w \in V$, the following properties hold:
\begin{enumerate}
\item $(k_1 \v_1 + k_2 \v_2, \w) = k_1 (\v_1, \w) + k_2 (\v_2, \w)$ (linearity\footnote{A small minority of authors impose linearity on the second coordinate instead of the first coordinate.})
\item $(\v, \w) = \overline{(\w, \v)}$, where $\overline{\ \ \ \ }$ denotes complex conjugation (conjugate symmetry)
\item $(\v, \v) \geq 0$, and $(\v, \v) = 0$ if and only if $\v = \0$ (positive definite)
\end{enumerate}
(Note: Rule 2 guarantees that $(\v,\v) \in \mathbb{R}$, so the inequality $(\v,\v) \geq 0$ in rule 3 makes sense even when $K=\mathbb{C}$.)
The standard example of an inner product is the dot product on $K^n$:
((x_1,\dots,x_n), (y_1,\dots,y_n)) := \sum_{i=1}^n x_i \overline{y_i}
Every inner product space is a normed vector space, with the norm being defined by $||\v|| := \sqrt{(\v,\v)}$.