Total Pages—5 C/21/BSC/4th Sem/MTMH–C10T

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VIDYASAGAR UNIVERSITY
B.Sc. Honours Examination 2021
(CBCS)

4th Semester

MATHEMATICS
PAPER—C10T

RING THEORY & LINEAR ALGEBRA – I

Full Marks : 60

Time : 3 Hours

The figures in the right-hand margin indicate full marks.

Candidates are required to give their answers in their

own words as far as practicable.

Answer any four questions. 4u15

1. (a) Let S be the set of all twice differentiable real-valued functions on

\ having second derivative zero at x = 0. Does (S, +, .) form a ring,
where (f+g)(x) = f(x) + g(x) and (f .g)(x) = f(x)g(x) for all x  \ and f,g  S ?

(b) Give an example (with reason) of a left ideal of a ring which is not
a right ideal.

(c) Find all homomorphisms from the ring ] onto itself. Prove that
( ] , +, .) is not isomorphic with (2 ] , +, .) as rings.
 2

(d) Let S be the set of all 2u2 real skew-symmetric matrices over \ . Prove
that S forms a vector space over R and hence find a basis of S.

( e ) Find a linear mapping T : \ 3 o \ 3 so that ker T ^ x , y, z  \3 x  y  z `

0 .

2+2+(2+2)+(2+2)+3

2. (a) Let R be a ring, x  R and x denote the smallest ideal of R containing

x. Prove that
m
x { rx  xs  ¦si xti  nx |r , s, si , ti  R ; m  , n  ' }
i 1

(b) Let I and J be two ideals of a ring R. Show that R / I ˆ J is isomorphic

to a subring of R/I u R/J.

(c) Consider the set of vectors B ^E1, E2, E3 ,}., Ek ` in a vector space V over
the field F. Prove that B is linearly dependent if and only if at least
one of the vectors of the set B can be expressed as a linear combination
of the remaining vectors of B.

(d) Let T :  3 o  3 be a linear operator that maps the basis vectors D, E,

J to D + E, E + J, J, respectively. Show that T is an isomorphism.
5+3+4+3

3. (a) In a commutative ring with identity, prove that every maximal ideal
is prime. If the ring lacks the identity, then show that the above result
may not be true.

(b) Define characteristic of a ring. Give an example of a finite ring whose

characteristic is 4.

C/21/BSC/4th Sem/MTMH–C10T
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(c) Let V be the vector space of all 2u2 matrices over the field F. Let W1

§x x ·
be the subspace of all matrices of the form ¨ y z ¹
¸ and W 2 be the
©

§a b·
subspace of all matrices of the form ¨ a c ¸ . Find the dimensions of
© ¹
W1, W2, W1 + W2 and W1 ˆ W2.

(d) Let T :  3 o  3 be a linear operator defined by

T ( a, b, c ) = ( 3a, a – b, 2a + b + c).

Show that T is invertible. For any x , y , z   3 , T 1 x , y , z ?

(3+1)+(1+2)+4+(2+2)

4. (a) Does there exist an integral domain with 15 elements ? Give

justification in support of your answer.

(b) Find all ring homomorphism from '12 , , ˜ to '30 , , ˜ .

(c) Let us consider the vector space

§ a11 a12 ·
V {A ¨ ¸|a11, a12 , a21, a22  , a11  a22 0}
© a21 a22 ¹

over the field of real numbers with the usual operations of matrix
addition and multiplication of a matrix by a scalar. Find a basis for
V and find dim V.

(d) Let V be the vector space of all polynomials over \ with degree three
or less. Consider the differentiation operator D on V. Then compute
the following :
(i) First find the matrix representation of D with respect to the ordered
basis B = {1, x, x2, x3} of V.
(ii) Then consider another basis B1 = {g1, g 2, g3, g4} of V where
gi (x) = (x+t)i–1 for all i=1, 2, 3, 4 and for some t  \ . Find the change
of basis matrix with respect to B and B1.

C/21/BSC/4th Sem/MTMH–C10T
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(iii) Hence find the matrix representation of D with respect to the

ordered basis B1 using the change of basis matrix and the matrix
representation of D with respect to the ordered basis B.
3+3+3+(2+2+2)

5. (a) Give example of (i) a ring R and a subring S of R such that 1R, 1S
both exist but 1R z 1S; (ii) a ring R and a subring S of R such that
1S exists but R does not contain the multiplicative identity.

(b) Let R and S be two rings and f : R o S be an epimorphism. Show that

if I is an ideal of R then f(I) is an ideal of S. Give an example to show
that the result is not true if f is a homomorphism which is not
surjective.

(c) Find four vectors D, E, J, G  4 such that ^D, E, J, G` is a linearly dependent

subset but any three of them are linearly independent.

(d) Let V be an n dimensional vector space over the field F and W be an

m dimensional vector space over the field F. Then prove that the
dimension of the vector space L(V,W) = {T:V o W|T is a linear
transformation} is mn by constructing a basis of L(V,W).
(2+2)+(2+2)+3+4

6. (a) Let R be a commutative ring with identity 1R z 0. Prove that an ideal

M of R is maximal if and only if the quotient ring R/M becomes a field.

(b) Suppose R is an integral domain and there is a ring homomorphism

from ] onto the integral domain R. Then show that either R # ' or
R # ' p for some prime p.

(c) Extend the setA = {(1, 1, 1, 1), (1, –1, 1, –1)} to a basis of the vector
space \ 4 over \ .

(d) Prove that any n dimensional vector space over the field F is isomorphic
with the space Fn over F. 4+3+4+4

C/21/BSC/4th Sem/MTMH–C10T
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7. (a) Find the field of quotients of the integral domain ] [i].

(b) For a commutative ring R with identity, do R and R[x] always have
the same characteristic ? Justify your answer.

(c) Let V be a vector space over the field F and W be a subspace of V.

Show that
dim(V/W) = dimV – dimW.

(d) Give examples of two linear operators U, T on the vector space \ 2 over
\ such that TU = 0 but UT z 0 where 0 denotes the zero operator.
4+3+5+3

8. (a) Let R be an integral domain with finite number of ideals. Show that
R is a field. Hence conclude that finite integral domain is a field.

(b) Consider a ring homomorphism f:R o S where R, S both are commutative

rings with identity. If J is a prime ideal of S then is f –1(J) a prime ideal
in R ? Justify your answer.

(c) Let V be the vector space \ 4 over the \ and W be the subspace of
V generated by {(1, 0, 0, 0), (1, 1, 0, 0)}. Find a basis of the quotient
space V/W.

(d) Prove that for any two linear operators T: \ 3 o \ 2, S: \ 2 o \ 3, STis

neither one-one nor onto.

( e ) Let U, V, W be three finite dimensional vector spaces over a field F.

Let T:V o W be a linear transformation and S:W o U be an isomorphism.
Prove that
dim ker(T) = dim ker(ST). (3+2)+3+3+2+2

C/21/BSC/4th Sem/MTMH–C10T