Lecture 8

Determinant II

Definition 8.1 Cofactor

Let A be a square matrix of order n. The cofactor of (i, j)th element of matrix A is

Cij = (−1)i+j |Mij |

where Mij is the matrix obtained from matrix A by removing its ith row and j th column.

For example,
 
1 2 5 2
 
 −2 0 −4 
 
3
Example 8.1 Cofactor of (3, 2)th element of matrix A =   is
 1 −1
 
0 2 
 
0 1 4 2
 
 1 5 2 
 
 
3+2 
(−1)  −2 0 −4  = 12.

 
 
 0 4 2 
Note that the cofactor of aij is a scalar which depends on i and j but not on the value
of aij .

Definition 8.2 Determinant Using Cofactor Expansion

Let A be a square matrix of order n and k be any integer between 1 to n, then
n
X
|A| = akj Ckj (8.1)
j=1

1
 The expression (8.1) is called the expansion of |A| by the k th row. One can similarly
expand |A| by the k th column.

Example 8.2 Obtain determinant of a square matrix of order 4 using cofactor expansion.

Usually, determinant is obtained by using cofactor expansion of row or column which has
maximum zeros.
Let A be a square matrix of order n. Define sets I and J of k intergers between 1 to n
as I = {i1 , i2 , · · · , ik } and J = {j1 , j2 , · · · , jk } such that 1 ≤ i1 ≤ i2 ≤ · · · ≤ ik ≤ n and
1 ≤ j1 ≤ j2 ≤ · · · ≤ jk ≤ n. The cofactor of A(I | J) in A is
  
i1 +i2 +···+ik +j1 +j2 +···+jk 0 0 
AIJ = (−1) A I | J  (8.2)


0 0
where I and J are the complements of I and J respectively in {1, 2, · · · , n}. The elements
0 0 0 0
0 0

of I and J being written in increasing order while forming A I | J . Note that A I | J
is the submatrix of A obtained by deleting the rows from set I and the columns from the
set J. If k = 1 then equation (8.2) reduced to equation (8.1).

Example 8.3 Obtain the cofactor of A (1, 3 | 2, 3) in matrix

 
1 2 5 2
 
 −2 3 0 −4 
 
A=  
 1 −1 0

2 
 
0 1 4 2

Definition 8.3 Laplace Expansion of Determinant

Let A be a square matrix of order n and let I be a fixed non-empty subset of integers
{1, 2, · · · , n} of size k, then
X
|A| = |A (I | J)|AIJ
J

where J runs over all subsets of integers {1, 2, · · · , n} of size k.

The Laplace expansion of a determinant of a square matrix A of order n can be obtained

as follows,

1. Consider a set I = {i1 , i2 , · · · , im } of m rows of matrix A.

©: These Lecture notes are copyright of Alok D. Dabade 2

 2. List all sets Jr = {j1 , j
2 , · · · ,
jm } of n columns of A taking m columns at a time, where
n
r = 1, 2, · · · , N ; N =  .
m

3. Obtain |A (I | Jr )| and cofactor AIJr , r = 1, 2, · · · , N .

4. Find the product |A (I | Jr )| AIJr , r = 1, 2, · · · , N .

5. Sum of all these products is determinant of A.

Example 8.4 Obtain determinant of following matrix using Laplace expansion;

 
1 2 3 0 0
 
 −1 2 −1 0 0 
 
 
A= 2 0
 
1 4 5 
 
 
 1 0 4 2 3 
 
0 2 1 2 3

8.1 Some Important Properties of Determinant

Result 8.1

1. Determinant of a matrix A is zero if A has either a null row or null column.

2. Determinant of Identity matrix is one.

3. Determinant of diagonal matrix is product of diagonal elements.

4. The determinant of a triangular matrix is the product of diagonal elements.

Theorem 8.1 The determinant of a matrix and its transpose are same.

Theorem 8.2 If two rows or two columns of A are equal then |A| is zero.

0 0
Theorem 8.3 For fixed k, let the k th row of A be the sum of two row vectors x and y , then
0
|A| = |B| + |C| where B and C are the matrices obtained from A by replacing k th row by x
0
and y respectively.

©: These Lecture notes are copyright of Alok D. Dabade 3

Theorem 8.4 The sum of products of elements of a row with cofactors of some other row
is zero i.e.
n
X
aij Cjk = 0 j 6= k
j=1

©: These Lecture notes are copyright of Alok D. Dabade 4