Problem Sheet 2 (Matrix Algebras–MA20107)

(1) Reduce the following quadratic forms into canonical form and find the rank, index,
signature of the quadratic forms:
(a) x1 x2 + x2 x3 + x3 x1
(b) (x1 + x2 + x3 )x2
(c) 4x21 + x22 + 8x1 x2 + 2x1 x3 + 2x2 x3 
h i x 3 −1 0
(d) x y z A y , where A = −1 3 0
   
z 0 0 4
   
h i x 0 −1 1
(e) x y z A y , where A = −1 1 −1
   
z 1 −1 2
   
h i x 2 3 1
(f) x y z A y , where A = 3 9 −1
   
z 1 −1 2
2
(g) x1 x2 − x3 .
(2) Check the definiteness of all the quadratic forms inprobem  (3).
a 1 2
(3) Determine the value of a for which the matirx A = 1 a 3 is negative definite.
 
2 3 a
(4) Show that a real symmetric matrix A is positive definite if and only if Ap is positive
definite, for p > 0 interger.
(5) Show that a real symmetric matrix A of rank r is positive semi-definite if and only
if there exists a matrix P of rank r such that A = P T P .
(6) Test whether the quadratic forms P = x21 − 2x1 x2 + 3x22 , Q = x1 x2 − x22 are
equivalent or not over R.
(7) Using Lagrange’s reduction transform the following quadratic forms into diagonal
form and also find the transformation.
(a) 4x21 + x22 + 9x23 − 4x1 x2 + 12x1 x3
(b) x1 x2 + x2 x3 + x3 x1
(c) x1 x2 − x3 x2 .
(8) Let V be the vector space of all n × n matrices over C and A ∈ V . Show that
the map f : V × V → C, defined by f (X, Y ) = trace(X T AY ), for X, Y ∈ V , is
bilinear.
(9) Find the matrix of the following bilinear forms b(x, y).
(a) −2x1 y1 − x1 y2 + 2x2 y1 − x3 y1 + 3x3 y2
1
2

(b) 3x1 y1 + x1 y2 + x2 y1 − 2x2 y2 − 4x2 y3 − 4x3 y2 + 3x3 y3

(c) 8x1 y1 + 12x1 y3 − 2x2 y2 + 12x3 y1 − 2x3 y3 .
(10) Find the matrix representation of the bilinear forms in the Problem (9) with
respect to the ordered bases
B1 = {(1, 0, 1), (0, 1, 1), (1, 1, 0)}, B2 = {(−1, 2, 1), (0, 2, 1), (0, 0, −1)}.