Tensor product

Tensor product
In mathematics, the tensor product, denoted by

, may be applied in different contexts to vectors, matrices,

tensors, vector spaces, algebras, topological vector spaces, and modules, among many other structures or objects. In
each case the significance of the symbol is the same: the most general bilinear operation. In some contexts, this
product is also referred to as outer product. The term "tensor product" is also used in relation to monoidal
categories. The variant of
is used in control theory.

Tensor product of vector spaces

The tensor product of two vector spaces V and W over a field K is another vector space over K. It is denoted V
W, or V

W when the underlying field K is understood.

Prerequisite: the free vector space

The definition of

requires the notion of the free vector space F(S) on some set S. The elements of the vector

space F(S) are formal sums of elements of S with coefficients in a given field K. A formal sum is an expression
written in the form of a sum in which no actual arithmetic operations can be carried out. For example
is a
formal sum, and

is a formal sum with no restrictions on values of x (versus the usual case where |x| must be

<1 for a geometric series to converge), since no "plugging in" will actually be performed. For the set of all formal
sums of elements of S with coefficients in K to be a vector space, we need to define addition and scalar
multiplication. The terms of a formal sum can be written in any order and the addition of formal sums is associative.
Addition of formal sums is defined as follows: if
then
Scalar

multiplication

of

formal

sums

is

cannot be simplified. If
defined

as

follows:

If

is

in

the

field

,
K,

then

The dimension of the vector space equals the number of elements in S.

Definition
Given two vector spaces V and W, the Cartesian product V W is the set consisting of pairs (v, w) with v in V and w
in W. The tensor product is defined as a certain quotient vector space of F(V W), the free K-vector space on the
Cartesian product.
The free vector space is called "free" because different elements of the set V W are not at all related in F(V W).
For example, given two different elements
, in the free vector space F(V W), the expression
is not equal to
direct sum of vector spaces. Similarly

, though these two expressions would be equal in the

is not equal to

, again unlike the case of the direct

sum. In other words, the direct sum and the tensor product give rise to different vector spaces. The dimension of the
direct sum is the sum of the dimension of V and the dimension of W. The dimension of the free vector space on V
W is much larger, it is the product of the number of elements in V and the number of elements in W.
The dimension of the tensor product is equal to the product of the dimension of V and the dimension of W[1] and has
a different addition and scalar multiplication.
To form the tensor product, we begin with the subspace R of F(V W) generated by the following sets of elements:

Tensor product

where v, v1 and v2 are arbitrary elements of V, while w, w1, and w2 are vectors from W, and c is from the underlying
field K.
The tensor product is defined as the vector space

The tensor product of two vectors v and w is the equivalence class ((v,w) + R) of (v,w) in V W. It is denoted v
w. The effect of forming the quotient group modulo R in the free vector space is that the following equations hold in
V
W:

Notation and examples

Given bases {vi} and {wi} for V and W respectively, the tensors {vi

wj} form a basis for V

W. The dimension

of the tensor product therefore is the product of dimensions of the original spaces; for instance R

Rn will have

dimension mn.
Elements of V
[2]

well.

W are sometimes referred to as tensors, although this term refers to many other related concepts as

An element of V

W of the form v

w is called a pure or simple tensor. In general, an element of the

tensor product space is not a pure tensor, but rather a finite linear combination of pure tensors. That is to say, if v1
and v2 are linearly independent, and w1 and w2 are also linearly independent, then v1
w1 + v2
w2 cannot be
written as a pure tensor. The number of simple tensors required to express an element of a tensor product is called
the tensor rank (not to be confused with tensor order, which is the number of spaces one has taken the product of, in
this case 2; in notation, the number of indices), and for linear operators or matrices, thought of as (1,1) tensors
(elements of the space V
V), it agrees with matrix rank.

Tensor product of linear maps

The tensor product also operates on linear maps between vector spaces. Specifically, given two linear maps S : V
X and T : W Y between vector spaces, the tensor product of the two linear maps S and T is a linear map

defined by

In this way, the tensor product becomes a bifunctor from the category of vector spaces to itself, covariant in both
arguments.
If S and T are both injective, surjective, or continuous then

is, respectively, injective, surjective, continuous.

By choosing bases of all vector spaces involved, the linear maps S and T can be represented by matrices. Then, the
matrix describing the tensor product
is the Kronecker product of the two matrices. For example, if V, X, W,
and Y above are all two-dimensional and bases have been fixed for all of them, and S and T are given by the matrices
and

, respectively, then the tensor product of these two matrices is

Tensor product

The resultant rank is at most 4, and the resultant dimension 16. Here rank denotes the tensor rank (number of
requisite indices), while the matrix rank counts the number of degrees of freedom in the resulting array.
A dyadic product is the special case of the tensor product between two vectors of the same dimension.

Universal property
The tensor product as defined above is a universal property. In this context, this means that the tensor product is
uniquely defined, up to isomorphism: there is only one tensor product. In the context of linear algebra and vector
spaces, the maps in question are required to be linear maps. The tensor product of vector spaces, as defined above,
satisfies the following universal property: there is a bilinear map (i.e., linear in each variable v and w)
such that given any other vector space Z together with a bilinear map
, there is a unique linear map
bilinear map that can be built from

satisfying

. In this sense,

is the most general

. In particular, this implies that any spaces with such a (uniquely

defined) tensor product are examples of symmetric monoidal categories, as this is the defining characteristic of the
category. Uniqueness of the tensor product means that for any other bilinear map
with
the above property there is an isomorphism
such that
holds.
This characterization can simplify proving statements about the tensor product. For example, the tensor product is
symmetric: that is, there is a canonical isomorphism:

To construct, say, a map from left to right, it suffices, by the universal property, to give a bilinear map
This is done by mapping (v, w) to
. Constructing a map in the opposite direction is
done similarly, as is checking that the two linear maps

and

are

inverse to one another.

Similar reasoning can be used to show that the tensor product is associative, that is, there are natural isomorphisms

Therefore, it is customary to omit the parentheses and write

Tensor powers and braiding

Let n be a non-negative integer. The nth tensor power of the vector space V is the n-fold tensor product of V with
itself. That is

A permutation of the set {1, 2, ..., n} determines a mapping of the nth Cartesian power of V

defined by

Let

be the natural multilinear embedding of the Cartesian power of V into the tensor power of V. Then, by the universal
property, there is a unique isomorphism

Tensor product

such that

The isomorphism is called the braiding map associated to the permutation .

Product of tensors
See also: Classical treatment of tensors
For non-negative integers r and s a (r,s)-tensor on a vector space V is an element of

Here

is the dual vector space (which consists of all linear maps f from V to the ground field K).

There is a product map, called the (tensor) product of tensors

It is defined by grouping all occurring "factors" V together: writing

for an element of V and

for elements of

the dual space,

Picking a basis of V and the corresponding dual basis of

is endowed with a natural basis (this basis is

described in the article on Kronecker products). In terms of these bases, the components of a (tensor) product of two
(or more) tensors can be computed. For example, if F and G are two covariant tensors of rank m and n (respectively)
(i.e. F Tm0, and G Tn0), then the components of their tensor product are given by
[3]

Thus, the components of the tensor product of two tensors are the ordinary product of the components of each
tensor. Another example: let U be a tensor of type (1,1) with components U, and let V be a tensor of type (1,0)
with components V. Then

and

Relation to dual space

A particular example is the tensor product of some vector space V with its dual vector space

(which consists of

all linear maps f from V to the ground field K). In this case, there is a natural "evaluation" map

which on elementary tensors is defined by

The resulting map

is called tensor contraction (for r, s > 0).

On the other hand, if V is finite-dimensional, there is a map in the other direction (called coevaluation)

where

is a basis of V, and

is its dual basis. The interplay of evaluation and coevaluation map can be

used to characterize finite-dimensional vector spaces without referring to bases.[4]

Tensor product

Tensor product vs. Hom

Given three vector spaces U, V, W the tensor product is linked to the vector space of all linear maps, as follows:

Here

denotes the K-vector space of all linear maps. This is an example of adjoint functors: the tensor

product is "left adjoint" to Hom.

Adjoint representation
The tensor

may be naturally viewed as a module for the Lie algebra End(V) by means of the diagonal action:

for simplicity let us assume r = s = 1, then, for each

where u in End(V) is the transpose of u, that is, in terms of the obvious pairing on V V,
.
There is a canonical isomorphism

given by

Under this isomorphism, every u in End(V) may be first viewed as an endomorphism of

and then viewed as

an endomorphism of End(V). In fact it is the adjoint representation ad(u) of End(V) .

Tensor products of modules over a ring

Main article: Tensor product of modules
The tensor product of two modules A and B over a commutative ring

is defined in exactly the same way as the

tensor product of vector spaces over a field:

where now

is the free R-module generated by the cartesian product and G is the R-module generated by

the same relations as above.

More generally, the tensor product can be defined even if the ring is non-commutative (ab ba). In this case A has
to be a right-R-module and B is a left-R-module, and instead of the last two relations above, the relation

is imposed. If R is non-commutative, this is no longer an R-module, but just an abelian group.

The universal property also carries over, slightly modified: the map

defined by

is a middle linear map (referred to as "canonical Middle Linear Map".); that is, it satisfies:

The first two properties make

a bilinear map of the abelian group

, a unique group homomorphism

of

satisfies

within group isomorphism. See the main article for details.

. For any middle linear map

, and this property determines

of

Tensor product

Computing the tensor product

For vector spaces, the tensor product
basis of

is quickly computed since bases of V of W immediately determine a

, as was mentioned above. For modules over a general (commutative) ring, not every module is

free. For example, Z/n is not a free abelian group (=Z-module). The tensor product with Z/n is given by

More generally, given a presentation of some R-module M, that is, a number of generators
together with relations

, with

, the tensor product can be computed as the following

cokernel:

Here

and the map is determined by sending some

in the jth copy of

to

(in

). Colloquially, this may be rephrased by saying that a presentation of M gives rise to a presentation of
. This is referred to by saying that the tensor product is a right exact functor. It is not in general left
exact, that is, given an injective map of R-modules

, the tensor product

is not usually injective. For example, tensoring the (injective) map given by multiplication with n,
yields the 0 map

with

which is not injective. Higher Tor functors measure the defect of the

tensor product being not left exact. All higher Tor functors are assembled in the derived tensor product.

Tensor product of algebras

Main article: Tensor product of algebras
Let R be a commutative ring. The tensor product of R-modules applies, in particular, if A and B are R-algebras. In
this case, the tensor product
is an R-algebra itself by putting

For example,

A particular example is when A and B are fields containing a common subfield R. The tensor product of fields is
closely related to Galois theory: if, say,
, where f is some irreducible polynomial with
coefficients in R, the tensor product can be calculated as
where now f is interpreted as the same polynomial, but with its coefficients regarded as elements of B. In the larger
field B, the polynomial may become reducible, which brings in Galois theory. For example, if A = B is a Galois
extension of R, then

is isomorphic (as an A-algebra) to the

Tensor product

Other examples of tensor products

Tensor product of Hilbert spaces
Main article: Tensor product of Hilbert spaces

Topological tensor product

Main article: Topological tensor product

Tensor product of graded vector spaces

Main article: Graded vector space Operations on graded vector spaces

Tensor product of quadratic forms

Main article: Tensor product of quadratic forms

Tensor product of multilinear maps

Given multilinear maps

and

their tensor product is the multilinear function

Tensor product of graphs

Main article: Tensor product of graphs

Monoidal categories
A general context for tensor product is that of a monoidal category.

Applications
Exterior and symmetric algebra
Two notable constructions in linear algebra can be constructed as quotients of the tensor product: the exterior algebra
and the symmetric algebra. For example, given a vector space V, the exterior product

is defined as

Note that when V's underlying field does not have characteristic 2, then this definition is equivalent to

The image of

in the exterior product is usually denoted

. Similar constructions are possible for

and satisfies, by construction,

(n factors), giving rise to

, the

n-th exterior power of V. The latter notion is the basis of differential n-forms.
The symmetric algebra is constructed in a similar manner:

That is, in the symmetric algebra two adjacent vectors (and therefore all of them) can be interchanged. The resulting
objects are called symmetric tensors.

Tensor product

Tensor product of line bundles

Main article: Vector bundle Operations on vector bundles

Tensor product in programming

Array programming languages
Array programming languages may have this pattern built in. For example, in APL the tensor product is expressed as
(for example
or
). In J the tensor product is the dyadic form of */ (for example a */ b or a */
b */ c).
Note that J's treatment also allows the representation of some tensor fields, as a and b may be functions instead of
constants. This product of two functions is a derived function, and if a and b are differentiable, then a */ b is
differentiable.
However, these kinds of notation are not universally present in array languages. Other array languages may require
explicit treatment of indices (for example, MATLAB), and/or may not support higher-order functions such as the
Jacobian derivative (for example, Fortran/APL).

Notes
[1] http:/ / math. stanford. edu/ ~ganatra/ math113/ notes/ tensor_products. pdf
[2] See Tensor or Tensor (intrinsic definition).
[3] Analogous formulas also hold for contravariant tensors, as well as tensors of mixed variance. Although in many cases such as when there is
an inner product defined, the distinction is irrelevant.
[4] See Compact closed category.

References
Bourbaki, Nicolas (1989), Elements of mathematics, Algebra I, Springer-Verlag, ISBN3-540-64243-9.
Halmos, Paul (1974), Finite dimensional vector spaces, Springer, ISBN0-387-90093-4.
Lang, Serge (2002), Algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 211 (Revised third ed.), New York:
Springer-Verlag, ISBN978-0-387-95385-4, Zbl 0984.00001 (http://www.zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/en/
search/?format=complete&q=an:0984.00001), MR 1878556 (http://www.ams.org/
mathscinet-getitem?mr=1878556)
Mac Lane, S.; Birkhoff, G. (1999), Algebra, AMS Chelsea, ISBN0-8218-1646-2.
((citation|first1=M.|last1=Aguiar|first2=S.|last2=Mahajan| title = Monoidal functors, species and Hopf
algebras|publisher = CRM Monograph Series Vol 29 |year=2010|isbn=0-8218-4776-7)).
Bibliography on the nonabelian tensor product of groups (http://pages.bangor.ac.uk/~mas010/nonabtens.
html)

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