Subsection 3.2.2 Gram-Schmidt and the QR factorization
ΒΆThe discussion in the last unit motivates the following theorem:
Theorem 3.2.2.1. QR Decomposition Theorem.
Let \(A \in \Cmxn \) have linearly independent columns. Then there exists an orthonormal matrix \(Q \) and upper triangular matrix \(R \) such that \(A = Q R \text{,}\) its QR decomposition. If the diagonal elements of \(R \) are taken to be real and positive, then the decomposition is unique.
In order to prove this theorem elegantly, we will first present the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization algorithm using FLAME notation, in the next unit.
Ponder This 3.2.2.1.
What happens in the Gram-Schmidt algorithm if the columns of \(A \) are NOT linearly independent? How might one fix this? How can the Gram-Schmidt algorithm be used to identify which columns of \(A \) are linearly independent?
If \(a_j \) is the first column such that \(\{ a_0, \ldots, a_{j} \}\) are linearly dependent, then \(a_j^\perp \) will equal the zero vector and the process breaks down.
When a vector with \(a_j^\perp \) equal to the zero vector is encountered, the columns can be rearranged (permuted) so that that column (or those columns) come last.
Again, if \(a_j^\perp = 0 \) for some \(j \text{,}\) then the columns are linearly dependent since then \(a_j \) can be written as a linear combination of the previous columns.