Practice Final
(1) Recall that for a group G its center Z(G) is defined to be the set of all elements
h ∈ G such that hg = gh for any g ∈ G.
(a) Prove that Z(G) is a normal subgroup of G.
(b) Show that Z(Sn ) is trivial for any n > 2.
(c) Find the center of GL(n, R).
(2) Let V be the space of quadratic polynomials with real coefficients with the inner
product given by
Z 1
hf, gi = f (t)g(t)dt
0
Find an orthogonal basis of V .
(3) Give definitions of the following notions:
a) A normal linear map;
b) A self-adjoint matrix;
c) An inner product on a vector space over C.
(4) Which of the following define an inner product?
a) hA, Bi = tr(A + B) on M2×2 (R);
R 1/2
b) hf, gi = 0 f (t)ḡ(t)dt on C[0, 1];
R1 R1
c) hf, gi = 0 f (t)ḡ(t)w1 (t)dt + 0 f 0 (t)ḡ 0 (t)w2 (t)dt on C ∞ [0, 1] (the space functions
on [0, 1] having derivatives of all orders) where w1 (t) > 0, w2 (t) > 0 are continuous
positive functions on [0, 1].
(5) Mark true or false. If true, give an argument why, if false, give a counterexample.
Let V be a finite dimensional vector space.
a) If T : V → V satisfies |T v| = |v| for any v ∈ V then T is normal.
b) The adjoint of a normal operator is normal.
c) If T : V → V is a self-adjoint linear operator satisfying hT x, xi > 0 for any x 6= 0
then hx, yi2 = hT x, yi is an inner product on V .
d) Every orthonormal set of vectors is linearly independent;
e) If T : V → V satisfies |λ| = 1 for any eigenvalue λ of T then T is unitary.
(6) Let T : V → V be a normal operator satisfying T 2 = I. Show that there exists a
subspace W ⊂ V such that T (x) = x for any x ∈ W and T (x) = −x for any x ∈ W ⊥ .
(7) Let A be a real n × n matrix all of whose eigenvalues are real. Show that A is normal
if and only if it is
symmetric.
2 i
(8) Let A = . Write A as QDQ? where D is diagonal and Q is unitary.
−i 2
(9) Let H ≤ G be a subgroup of index [G : H] = 2.
Prove that H is a normal subgroup of G.
(10) Let σ ∈ Sn be a permutation. Define an n×n matrix Pσ by the formula (Pσ )ij = δiσ(j) .
Prove that σ 7→ Pσ is a homomorphism and det Pσ = sign(σ).
(11) Let G be a group. For any a, b ∈ G the commutator of a and b is defined as [a, b] =
aba−1 b−1 . Further, denote by [G, G] the subgroup of G generated by the commutators
[a, b] where a, b ∈ G are arbitrary.
Prove that [G, G] G is a normal subgroup of G.
1
(12) Let T : V → V be a skew-adjoint linear operator. Prove that all the eigenvalues of
T are purely imaginary (i.e every eigenvalue λ has the form λ = ia where a is real).
(13) Let f : Mn×n (C) → C be a function satisfying the following conditions
(a) f (Id) = 1
(b) f (A0 ) = −f (A) if A is obtained by interchanging two rows of A.
(c) f (A0 ) = f (A) if A0 is obtained from A by adding a multiple of a row to another
row.
Is it true that f (A) = det A? If true give a proof, if false, give a counterexample.