In: Advanced Math
True/False: If A is an invertible m x m matrix and B is an m x n matrix, then AB and B have the same null space.
(Hint: AB and B have the same null space means that ABX = 0 if and only if BX = 0, where X is in Rn.)
We are given that A is an invertible m x m matrix and B is an m x n matrix. We have to verify the veracity of the following statement:
If A is an invertible m x m matrix and B is an m x n matrix, then AB and B have the same null space.
We claim that this statement is true and we shall provide a proof for the above statement.
Proof : We are provided with the following hint.
AB and B have the same null space means that ABX = 0 if and only if BX = 0, where X is in
First we consider the case BX = 0 for . So if X is in the null space of B, we have
Now we consider the matrix-vector product ABX .
Thus we have if BX = 0 then obviously ABX = 0.
Now consider the other way around. Suppose we are given that ABX = 0 for some X in , that is X is in the null space of AB.
Since A is an invertible matrix we can multiply both sides of the equation by its inverse.
where I is the m x m identity matrix.
Finally we get
So we have shown that if ABX =0 then BX = 0.
Thus we have successfully proven that ABX = 0 if and only if BX = 0 which in turn means that the null space of AB and B are one and the same.