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Determinant Notes

The document defines and provides properties and examples of determinants of square matrices. Some key points: - The determinant of a square matrix can be calculated by expanding along any row or column using cofactors. - For triangular matrices, the determinant is the product of the diagonal entries. - Properties of determinants include that row operations change the determinant in predictable ways, and that a matrix is invertible if and only if its determinant is non-zero.

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Jamaica Pondara
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60 views

Determinant Notes

The document defines and provides properties and examples of determinants of square matrices. Some key points: - The determinant of a square matrix can be calculated by expanding along any row or column using cofactors. - For triangular matrices, the determinant is the product of the diagonal entries. - Properties of determinants include that row operations change the determinant in predictable ways, and that a matrix is invertible if and only if its determinant is non-zero.

Uploaded by

Jamaica Pondara
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Definition 4: Determinant of a Square Matrix

If 𝐴 is an 𝑛 × 𝑛 matrix, then 𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨) = 𝒂𝟏𝟏 𝑪𝟏𝟏 + 𝒂𝟏𝟐 𝑪𝟏𝟐 + ⋯ + 𝒂𝟏𝒏 𝑪𝟏𝒏 = ∑𝒏𝒌=𝟏 𝒂𝟏𝒌 𝑪𝟏𝒌 .

Similar to the situation for 3 × 3 matrices, the determinant of any square matrix can be found by expanding along any
row or column.

Theorem 5: Let 𝐴 be an 𝑛 × 𝑛 matrix. Then the determinant of 𝐴 equals the cofactor expansion along any row or any
column of the matrix. That is, for every 𝑖 = 1, … , 𝑛 and 𝑗 = 1, … , 𝑛 ,

𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨) = 𝒂𝒊𝟏 𝑪𝒊𝟏 + 𝒂𝒊𝟐 𝑪𝒊𝟐 + ⋯ + 𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝑪𝒊𝒏 = ∑𝒏𝒌=𝟏 𝒂𝒊𝒌 𝑪𝒊𝒌 and
𝒏

𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨) = 𝒂𝟏𝒋 𝑪𝟏𝒋 + 𝒂𝟐𝒋 𝑪𝟐𝒋 + ⋯ + 𝒂𝒏𝒋 𝑪𝒏𝒋 = ∑ 𝒂𝒌𝒋 𝑪𝒌𝒋


𝒌=𝟏

For certain square matrices the computation of the determinant is simplified. One such of a class of matrices is the
square triangular matrices.

Example 6: Find the determinant of a matrix in example number 2 using an expansion along row 1 and in the first
column. ⇒ |𝑨| = 𝟏𝟒∎

1 −2 3 0
Example 7: Find the determinant of 𝐴 = [ −1 1 0 2 ] using Thm. 5 above. ⇒ |𝑨| = 𝟑𝟗∎
0 2 0 3
3 4 0 −2

Definition 8: Triangular Matrices

An 𝑚 × 𝑛 matrix is upper triangular if 𝑎𝑖𝑗 = 0, for all 𝑖 > 𝑗, and is lower triangular if 𝑎𝑖𝑗 = 0, for all 𝑖 < 𝑗. A square
matrix is a diagonal matrix if 𝑎𝑖𝑗 = 0, for all 𝑖 ≠ 𝑗.

In other words, that a square matrix is upper triangular when it has all zero entries below its main diagonal, and lower
triangular when it has all zero entries above its main diagonal.

Some examples of upper triangular matrices are


2 −1 0 1 1 0 1
1 1
[ ] [ 0 0 3] and [0 0 0 1]
0 2
0 0 2 0 0 1 1
And some examples of lower triangular matrices are

2 0 0 1 0 0 0
1 0
[ ] [ 0 1 0] and [0 0 0 0]
1 1 1 3 1 0
1 0 2 0 1 2 1
Theorem 9: If 𝐴 is an 𝑛 × 𝑛 triangular matrix, then the determinant of 𝐴 is the product of the terms on the diagonal.
That is , 𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨) = 𝒂𝟏𝟏 ∙ 𝒂𝟐𝟐 … 𝒂𝒏𝒏

Example 10: The determinant of the lower triangular matrix

2 0 0 0
[ 4 −2 0 0] is ⇒ |𝑨| = (𝟐)(−𝟐)(𝟏)(𝟑) = −𝟏𝟐
−5 6 1 0
1 5 3 1
Exercises:

A. Find the determinant of the matrix.


2 1 2 −2 −7 6 1/3 5 𝑥−2 0
1. [ ] 2. [ ] 3. [ ] 4. [ ] 5. [ ]
3 4 4 3 1/2 3 4 −9 4 𝑥−4
B. Find all (a)minors and (b) cofactors of the matrix
−3 2 1 −3 4 2
1 2 −1 0
6. [ ] 7. [ ] 8. [ 4 5 6] 9. [ 6 3 1]
3 4 2 1
2 −3 1 4 −7 8
10. Find the determinant of the matrix in #7 using the method of expansion by cofactors. Use (a) the third row and
(b) the first column.
11. Find the determinant of the matrix in #8 using the method of expansion by cofactors. Use (a) the 2nd row and
(b) the 2nd column.
C. Use expansion by cofactors to find the determinant of the matrix.
1 4 −2 −0.4 0.4 0.3 2 −1 3 𝑥 𝑦 1 5 3 0 6
12. [ 3 2 0 ] 13. [ 0.2 0.2 0.2] 14. [1 4 4] 15. [2 3 1] 16. [ 4 6 4 12]
−1 4 3 0.3 0.2 0.2 1 0 2 0 −1 1 0 2 −3 4
0 1 −2 2
D. Find the determinant of the triangular matrix.
5 8 −4 2 4 0 0 0
−2 0 0 5 0 0 1
−1 0 0]
17. [ 4 6 0] 18. [0 6 0 ] 19. [ 0 0 6 0 ] 20. [ 2
−3 7 2 0 0 −3 0 0 2 2 3 5 3 0
0 0 0 −1 8 7 0 −2

PROPERTIES OF DETERMINANTS:

Theorem 11. Let A be the square matrix.

1. If two rows of 𝐴 are interchanged to produce a matrix 𝐵, then det(𝐵) = −det(𝐴).


2. If a multiple of one row of A is added to another row to produce a matrix 𝐵, then det(𝐵) = det(𝐴).
3. If a row of A is multiplied by areal number 𝛼 to produce a matrix B, then det(𝐵) = α det(𝐴).
We note that in Theorem 11 the same results hold for the similar column operations. To highlight the usefulness of this
theorem, recall that by Theorem 9, the determinant of a triangular matrix is the product of the diagonal entries. So, an
alternative approach to finding the determinant of a matrix A is to row-reduce A to triangular form and apply Theorem 11
to record the effect on the determinant. This method is illustrated below in example 12.
0 1 3 −1
Example 12. Find the determinant of the matrix 𝐴 = [ 2 4 −6 1]
0 3 9 2
−2 −4 1 −3

Additional useful properties of the determinant.

Theorem 13. Let 𝐴 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵 𝑏𝑒 𝑛 × 𝑛 matrices and α a real number.

1. The determinant computation is multiplicative. That is, det(𝐴𝐵) = det(𝐴) det(𝐵)


2. det(α𝐴) = α𝑛 det(𝐴)
3. det(𝐴𝑇 ) = det(𝐴)
4. If 𝐴 has a row (or column) of all zeroes, then det(𝐴) = 0.
5. If 𝐴 has two equal rows (or columns), then det(𝐴) = 0.
6. If 𝐴 has a row (or column) that is a multiple of another row (or column), then det(𝐴) = 0.
1 2 1 −1
Example 14. Let 𝐴 = [ ] and 𝐵 = [ ]. Verify Thm. 13(1) ⇒ |𝑨| = 𝟒𝟎∎
3 −2 1 4

Matrices and Zero Determinants


Theorem 15. Conditions that Yield a Zero Determinant
If A is a square matrix and any one of the following conditions is true, then det(𝐴) = 0.
1. An entire row (or entire column) consist of zeros.
2. Two rows (or columns) are equal.
3. One row (or column) is a multiple of another row (or column).
0 0 0 1 −2 4 1 2 −3
[2 4 −5] [0 1 2] [ 2 −1 −6]
3 −5 2 1 −2 4 −2 0 6
Theorem 16 A square matrix A is invertible if and only if det(𝐴) ≠ 0.
𝟏
Corollary 17. Let A be an invertible matrix. Then 𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨−𝟏 ) = 𝐝𝐞𝐭(𝑨).

𝐶11 𝐶12 𝐶1𝑛


Definition 18. If A is any 𝑛 × 𝑛 matrices and 𝐶𝑖𝑗 is the cofactor of 𝑎𝑖𝑗 , then the matrix [ 𝐶21.. 𝐶22
..
𝐶2𝑛
.. ]
. . .
𝐶𝑛1 𝐶𝑛2 𝐶𝑛𝑛

Is called the matrix of cofactors from A. The transpose of this matrix is called the adjoint of A and is denoted by 𝐚𝐝𝐣(𝑨).
3 2 −1
Example 19. Let [1 6 3 ]. The cofactors of A are 𝐶11 = 12, 𝐶12 = 6, 𝐶13 = −16, 𝐶21 = 4, 𝐶22 = 2, 𝐶23 = 16,
2 −4 0
1 2 −3
𝐶31 = 12, 𝐶32 = −10, 𝐶33 = 16 so the matrix of co factors is [ 2 −1 −6].
−2 0 6
Theorem 20. Let A be a square matrix. Then the following statements are equivalent.

1. The matrix A is invertible.


2. The linear system 𝐀𝐱 = 𝐛 has a unique solution for every vector 𝐛.
3. The homogeneous linear system 𝐀𝐱 = 𝟎 has only the trivial solution.
4. The matrix A is row equivalent to the identity matrix.
5. The determinant of the matrix A is nonzero.

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