General linear groupIn mathematics, the general linear group of degree n is the set of n×n invertible matrices, together with the operation of ordinary matrix multiplication. This forms a group, because the product of two invertible matrices is again invertible, and the inverse of an invertible matrix is invertible, with identity matrix as the identity element of the group. The group is so named because the columns (and also the rows) of an invertible matrix are linearly independent, hence the vectors/points they define are in general linear position, and matrices in the general linear group take points in general linear position to points in general linear position.
Special linear groupIn mathematics, the special linear group SL(n, F) of degree n over a field F is the set of n × n matrices with determinant 1, with the group operations of ordinary matrix multiplication and matrix inversion. This is the normal subgroup of the general linear group given by the kernel of the determinant where F× is the multiplicative group of F (that is, F excluding 0). These elements are "special" in that they form an algebraic subvariety of the general linear group – they satisfy a polynomial equation (since the determinant is polynomial in the entries).
Bilinear formIn mathematics, a bilinear form is a bilinear map V × V → K on a vector space V (the elements of which are called vectors) over a field K (the elements of which are called scalars). In other words, a bilinear form is a function B : V × V → K that is linear in each argument separately: B(u + v, w) = B(u, w) + B(v, w) and B(λu, v) = λB(u, v) B(u, v + w) = B(u, v) + B(u, w) and B(u, λv) = λB(u, v) The dot product on is an example of a bilinear form.
Projective linear groupIn mathematics, especially in the group theoretic area of algebra, the projective linear group (also known as the projective general linear group or PGL) is the induced action of the general linear group of a vector space V on the associated projective space P(V). Explicitly, the projective linear group is the quotient group PGL(V) = GL(V)/Z(V) where GL(V) is the general linear group of V and Z(V) is the subgroup of all nonzero scalar transformations of V; these are quotiented out because they act trivially on the projective space and they form the kernel of the action, and the notation "Z" reflects that the scalar transformations form the center of the general linear group.
Bilinear mapIn mathematics, a bilinear map is a function combining elements of two vector spaces to yield an element of a third vector space, and is linear in each of its arguments. Matrix multiplication is an example. Let and be three vector spaces over the same base field . A bilinear map is a function such that for all , the map is a linear map from to and for all , the map is a linear map from to In other words, when we hold the first entry of the bilinear map fixed while letting the second entry vary, the result is a linear operator, and similarly for when we hold the second entry fixed.
Special linear Lie algebraIn mathematics, the special linear Lie algebra of order n (denoted or ) is the Lie algebra of matrices with trace zero and with the Lie bracket . This algebra is well studied and understood, and is often used as a model for the study of other Lie algebras. The Lie group that it generates is the special linear group. The Lie algebra is central to the study of special relativity, general relativity and supersymmetry: its fundamental representation is the so-called spinor representation, while its adjoint representation generates the Lorentz group SO(3,1) of special relativity.
Linear mapIn mathematics, and more specifically in linear algebra, a linear map (also called a linear mapping, linear transformation, vector space homomorphism, or in some contexts linear function) is a mapping between two vector spaces that preserves the operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication. The same names and the same definition are also used for the more general case of modules over a ring; see Module homomorphism. If a linear map is a bijection then it is called a .
Linear groupIn mathematics, a matrix group is a group G consisting of invertible matrices over a specified field K, with the operation of matrix multiplication. A linear group is a group that is isomorphic to a matrix group (that is, admitting a faithful, finite-dimensional representation over K). Any finite group is linear, because it can be realized by permutation matrices using Cayley's theorem. Among infinite groups, linear groups form an interesting and tractable class.
Sesquilinear formIn mathematics, a sesquilinear form is a generalization of a bilinear form that, in turn, is a generalization of the concept of the dot product of Euclidean space. A bilinear form is linear in each of its arguments, but a sesquilinear form allows one of the arguments to be "twisted" in a semilinear manner, thus the name; which originates from the Latin numerical prefix sesqui- meaning "one and a half".
Affine transformationIn Euclidean geometry, an affine transformation or affinity (from the Latin, affinis, "connected with") is a geometric transformation that preserves lines and parallelism, but not necessarily Euclidean distances and angles. More generally, an affine transformation is an automorphism of an affine space (Euclidean spaces are specific affine spaces), that is, a function which maps an affine space onto itself while preserving both the dimension of any affine subspaces (meaning that it sends points to points, lines to lines, planes to planes, and so on) and the ratios of the lengths of parallel line segments.
Degenerate bilinear formIn mathematics, specifically linear algebra, a degenerate bilinear form f (x, y ) on a vector space V is a bilinear form such that the map from V to V∗ (the dual space of V ) given by v ↦ (x ↦ f (x, v )) is not an isomorphism. An equivalent definition when V is finite-dimensional is that it has a non-trivial kernel: there exist some non-zero x in V such that for all A nondegenerate or nonsingular form is a bilinear form that is not degenerate, meaning that is an isomorphism, or equivalently in finite dimensions, if and only if for all implies that .
Linear algebraic groupIn mathematics, a linear algebraic group is a subgroup of the group of invertible matrices (under matrix multiplication) that is defined by polynomial equations. An example is the orthogonal group, defined by the relation where is the transpose of . Many Lie groups can be viewed as linear algebraic groups over the field of real or complex numbers. (For example, every compact Lie group can be regarded as a linear algebraic group over R (necessarily R-anisotropic and reductive), as can many noncompact groups such as the simple Lie group SL(n,R).
Transformation matrixIn linear algebra, linear transformations can be represented by matrices. If is a linear transformation mapping to and is a column vector with entries, then for some matrix , called the transformation matrix of . Note that has rows and columns, whereas the transformation is from to . There are alternative expressions of transformation matrices involving row vectors that are preferred by some authors. Matrices allow arbitrary linear transformations to be displayed in a consistent format, suitable for computation.
Definite quadratic formIn mathematics, a definite quadratic form is a quadratic form over some real vector space V that has the same sign (always positive or always negative) for every non-zero vector of V. According to that sign, the quadratic form is called positive-definite or negative-definite. A semidefinite (or semi-definite) quadratic form is defined in much the same way, except that "always positive" and "always negative" are replaced by "never negative" and "never positive", respectively.
Symmetric bilinear formIn mathematics, a symmetric bilinear form on a vector space is a bilinear map from two copies of the vector space to the field of scalars such that the order of the two vectors does not affect the value of the map. In other words, it is a bilinear function that maps every pair of elements of the vector space to the underlying field such that for every and in . They are also referred to more briefly as just symmetric forms when "bilinear" is understood.
Linear fractional transformationIn mathematics, a linear fractional transformation is, roughly speaking, an invertible transformation of the form The precise definition depends on the nature of a, b, c, d, and z. In other words, a linear fractional transformation is a transformation that is represented by a fraction whose numerator and denominator are linear. In the most basic setting, a, b, c, d, and z are complex numbers (in which case the transformation is also called a Möbius transformation), or more generally elements of a field.
Affine groupIn mathematics, the affine group or general affine group of any affine space is the group of all invertible affine transformations from the space into itself. In the case of a Euclidean space (where the associated field of scalars is the real numbers), the affine group consists of those functions from the space to itself such that the image of every line is a line. Over any field, the affine group may be viewed as a matrix group in a natural way. If the associated field of scalars the real or complex field, then the affine group is a Lie group.
Multilinear formIn abstract algebra and multilinear algebra, a multilinear form on a vector space over a field is a map that is separately -linear in each of its arguments. More generally, one can define multilinear forms on a module over a commutative ring. The rest of this article, however, will only consider multilinear forms on finite-dimensional vector spaces. A multilinear -form on over is called a (covariant) -tensor, and the vector space of such forms is usually denoted or .
IsomorphismIn mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word isomorphism is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἴσος isos "equal", and μορφή morphe "form" or "shape". The interest in isomorphisms lies in the fact that two isomorphic objects have the same properties (excluding further information such as additional structure or names of objects).
Symplectic groupIn mathematics, the name symplectic group can refer to two different, but closely related, collections of mathematical groups, denoted Sp(2n, F) and Sp(n) for positive integer n and field F (usually C or R). The latter is called the compact symplectic group and is also denoted by . Many authors prefer slightly different notations, usually differing by factors of 2. The notation used here is consistent with the size of the most common matrices which represent the groups.
