Existence of Inverse Elementary Row Operation/Scalar Product of Row
Theorem
Let $\map \MM {m, n}$ be a metric space of order $m \times n$ over a field $K$.
Let $\mathbf A \in \map \MM {m, n}$ be a matrix.
Let $\map e {\mathbf A}$ be the elementary row operation which transforms $\mathbf A$ to a new matrix $\mathbf A' \in \map \MM {m, n}$.
\((\text {ERO} 1)\) | $:$ | \(\ds r_i \to \lambda r_i \) | For some $\lambda \in K_{\ne 0}$, multiply row $i$ by $\lambda$ |
Let $\map {e'} {\mathbf A'}$ be the inverse of $e$.
Then $e'$ is the elementary row operation:
- $e' := r_i \to \dfrac 1 \lambda r_i$
Proof
In the below, let:
- $r_k$ denote row $k$ of $\mathbf A$
- $r'_k$ denote row $k$ of $\mathbf A'$
- $r_k$ denote row $k$ of $\mathbf A$
for arbitrary $k$ such that $1 \le k \le m$.
By definition of elementary row operation:
- only the row or rows directly operated on by $e$ is or are different between $\mathbf A$ and $\mathbf A'$
and similarly:
- only the row or rows directly operated on by $e'$ is or are different between $\mathbf A'$ and $\mathbf A$.
Hence it is understood that in the following, only those rows directly affected will be under consideration when showing that $\mathbf A = \mathbf A$.
Let $\map e {\mathbf A}$ be the elementary row operation:
- $e := r_k \to \lambda r_k$
where $\lambda \ne 0$.
Then $r'_k$ is such that:
- $\forall a'_{k i} \in r'_k: a'_{k i} = \lambda a_{k i}$
Now let $\map {e'} {\mathbf A'}$ be the elementary row operation which transforms $\mathbf A'$ to $\mathbf A$:
- $e' := r_k \to \dfrac 1 \lambda r_k$
Because it is stipulated in the definition of an elementary row operation that $\lambda \ne 0$, it follows by definition of a field that $\dfrac 1 \lambda$ exists.
Hence $e'$ is defined.
So applying $e'$ to $\mathbf A'$ we get:
\(\ds \forall a_{k i} \in r_k: \, \) | \(\ds a_{k i}\) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac 1 \lambda a'_{k i}\) | |||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds \dfrac 1 \lambda \paren {\lambda a_{k i} }\) | ||||||||||||
\(\ds \) | \(=\) | \(\ds a_{k i}\) | ||||||||||||
\(\ds \leadsto \ \ \) | \(\ds \forall a_{k i} \in r_k: \, \) | \(\ds a_{k i}\) | \(=\) | \(\ds a_{k i}\) | ||||||||||
\(\ds \leadsto \ \ \) | \(\ds r_k\) | \(=\) | \(\ds r_k\) | |||||||||||
\(\ds \leadsto \ \ \) | \(\ds \mathbf A\) | \(=\) | \(\ds \mathbf A\) |
It is noted that for $e'$ to be an elementary row operation, the only possibility is for it to be as defined.
$\blacksquare$