Homework 1 Solutions

Aditya Kumar
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign, IL 61801, USA

1. (a) A repeated letter index indicates that we need to perform over a sum over that index by assigning
it the values 1, 2 and 3. Hence,
ii =

3
X

ii = 11 + 22 + 33 = 1 + 1 + 1 = 3

i=1

(b)
rs sr = rr = ss = 3
or, expanding the 2 sums
rs sr =

3 X
3
X

rs sr = r1 1r + r2 2r + r3 3r

r=1 s=1

= 11 11 + 21 12 + 31 13 + 12 21 + 22 22 + 32 23 + 13 31 + 23 32 + 33 33
=1+0+0+0+1+0+0+0+1=3
(c)
ui is sj uj = us sj uj = us us = u1 u1 + u2 u2 + u3 u3
= 1 1 + 0 0 + 1 1 = 2
(Recall: ui ui = |u|2 )
2. Let u = ui ei and v = vj ej .
u v = (ui ei ) (vj ej ) = ui vj (ei ej ) = ui vj ij = ui vi

3. Recall that
detA = ijk Ai1 Aj2 Ak3
where ijk is defined as
ijk

1
= 1

Let us define
B=

if (ijk) = (123), (231), (312)

if (ijk) = (132), (321), (213)
otherwise
1
ijk pqr Aip Ajq Akr
6

Email addresses: akumar51@illinois.edu (Aditya Kumar)

and our task is to show that B = ijk Ai1 Aj2 Ak3 .

Expanding the summations over p, q and r with help of the definition of pqr and keeping only the
terms with non-zero values of pqr (namely when p 6= q 6= r 6= p), we have
1
B = (ijk Ai1 Aj2 Ak3 + ijk Ai2 Aj3 Ak1 + ijk Ai3 Aj1 Ak2
6
ijk Ai1 Aj3 Ak2 ijk Ai2 Aj1 Ak3 ijk Ai3 Aj2 Ak1 ) .

Using now the property that ijk = ikj = jik = kji we have
1
B = (ijk Ai1 Aj2 Ak3 + ijk Ai2 Aj3 Ak1 + ijk Ai3 Aj1 Ak2
6
+ikj Ai1 Ak2 Aj3 + jik Aj1 Ai2 Ak3 + kji Ak1 Aj2 Ai3 ) .
In this expression note that i, j, k are just dummy indices which can be denoted by any letter index
of our choice. Denoting index appearing in A with 1 by m, with 2 by n and with 3 by p, we obtain
1
B = (6 mnp Am1 An2 Ap3 ) = mnp Am1 An2 Ap3 = detA.
6

4. By definition of ijk and determinant representation of a triple scalar product of three vectors,


 1i 1j 1k 


ijk = (ei ej ) ek =  2i 2j 2k  .
 3i 3j 3k 
In this we have made use of the fact that the components of


 1i 1j 1k   1p


ijk pqr =  2i 2j 2k   2p
 3i 3j 3k   3p

the vector ei are [1i , 2i , 3i ]. Then


1q 1r 
2q 2r  .
(1)
3q 3r 


Making use of two properties of determinant:det (A) = det AT , det (AB) = det (A) det (B) and
the fact i1 p1 + i2 p2 + i3 p3 = is ps = ip , we can simplify (1) to


 ip jp kp 


ijk pqr =  iq jq kq  .
 ir jr kr 
Then setting r = k leads to

 ip

ijk pqk =  iq
 ik

jp
jq
jk

kp
kq
kk

 
  ip
 
 =  iq
 
  ik

jp
jq
jk

kp
kq
3

= ik (jp kq kp jq ) jk (ip kq kp iq ) + 3 (ip jq jp iq )

= jp iq ip jq ip jq + jp iq + 3ip jq 3jp iq
= ip jq iq jp .

(2)

5. (a) To show that ijk Tjk are the components of a first-order tensor, we need to go to the definition
0
0
0
of a Cartesian tensor. Let ijk Tjk = Si and pmr Tmr = Sp . Then considering a change of basis
0
from {ei } to {e0i } defined by Q Orth+ such that e0i = Qij ej , we need to prove that Si = Qip Sp .
2

By definition, ijk and Tjk are third- and second-order tensors. That is, they transform under
the change of basis as
0

ijk = Qip Qjq Qkr pqr

and Tjk = Qjm Qkn Tmn .

Note that all dummy indices in the two previous expressions are taken as different. This prevents
dummy indices to be repeated more than twice on multiplication which is the next step
0

ijk Tjk = Qip Qjq Qkr Qjm Qkn pqr Tmn .

Recall that QQT = I = QT Q, or in indicial notation Qab Qcb = ac . Then
0

ijk Tjk = Qip Qjq Qkr Qjm Qkn pqr Tmn

= Qip (Qjq Qjm ) (Qkr Qkn ) pqr Tmn
= Qip (mq ) (nr ) pqr Tmn
= Qip pmr Tmr .

Thus, ijk Tjk are the components of a first-order tensor.

(b) To Prove (Tij = Tji ) (ijk Tjk = 0)
(=) Assume Tij = Tji .
Then
ijk Tjk = ijk Tkj

(Tij = Tji )

= ikj Tkj
= ijk Tjk

Hence ijk Tjk = 0.

(dummy indices)

(=) Assume ijk Tjk = 0

First note that ijk Tjk = jki Tjk = 0. Then
pqi jki Tjk = pqi 0 = 0

(pj qk pk qj ) Tjk = 0

(with Eq. (2))

pj qk Tjk pk qj Tjk = 0
qk Tpk qj Tjp = 0
Tpq Tqp = 0
Tpq = Tqp Tij = Tji
Thus, (Tij = Tji ) (ijk Tjk = 0) .
6. Starting from the definition of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of T,
Tv = v
with and v as any of its eigenvalue and eigenvector respectively, it is easy to obtain that for Tk
where k is an integer k is an eigenvalue with v as the corresponding eigenvector. Then the
eigenvalue for T1 , assuming det (T) 6= 0, is given by 1 . Thus the characteristic equation of T1
is






3 I1 T1 2 + I2 T1 1 I3 T1 = 0
(3)
3

Now the characteristic equation for T is

3 I1 (T) 2 + I2 (T) I3 (T) = 0
Dividing by 3 I3 (T) gives
3

1
I2 (T) 2 I1 (T) 1
+

= 0.
I3 (T)
I3 (T)
I3 (T)

(4)

Finally, comparing Equations (3) and (4) yields

I2 (T)
I1 T1 =
,
I3 (T)

I1 (T)
I2 T1 =
,
I3 (T)

I3 T1 =

1
.
I3 (T)

7. By the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, we have the following relation:

T3 I1 (T) T2 + I2 (T) T I3 (T) I = 0.

(5)

Taking the trace of Equation (5) and using the linearity of the trace operator namely, tr (A + B) =
trA + trB and tr (A) = trA, where R we have
trT3 I1 (T) trT2 + I2 (T) trT I3 (T) trI = tr0 = 0.
Recalling the definitions of the first three invariants gives
i

1h
2
trT3 (trT) trT2 +
(trT) trT2 trT (detT) (trI) = 0,
2
where trI = ii = 3.
Solving the equation for detT and simplifying the result gives
detT =

i


1h
3
(trT) 3 (trT) trT2 + 2trT3
6

8. (a) By the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, we have the following (Note that Ij (T) is written more
compactly as Ij , where j = 1, 2, 3)

T3 I1 T2 + I2 T I3 I = 0.


T T2 I1 T + I2 I = I3 I


T1 T T2 I1 T + I2 I = I3 T1 I (assuming T1 exists)

T2 I1 T + I2 I = I3 T1 .

Simplifying for T1 gives

T1 =


1  2
T I1 T + I2 I ,
I3

which more explicitly is

T1 =


1  2
T I1 (T) T + I2 (T) I .
I3 (T)

(6)

(b) We make use of mathematical induction to prove that Tn is expressible in terms of a linear
combination of I, T and T2 multiplied by coefficients that are invariants of T, for any positive
or negative integer n, that is, there exists functions fn , gn and hn of invariants such that
Tn = fn T2 + gn T + hn I.

(7)

The technique of mathematical induction requires a base case. Hence we first restrict the proof
to positive integers and will later prove it for negative integers with a different base case.
The Cayley-Hamilton Theorem provides the base case (for n = 3) since T3 = I1 T2 I2 T + I3 I.
Note that the cases n = 0, 1, 2 are trivial.
For the inductive step, we assume that we indeed have functions fn , gn and hn such that Equation
(7) holds. We then multiply Equation (7) by T to obtain
Tn+1 = fn T3 + gn T2 + hn T
= (fn I1 + gn )T2 + (fn I2 + hn )T + fn I3 I. (with Cayley-Hamilton theorem)

Therefore,
Tn+1 = fn+1 T2 + gn+1 T + hn+1 I,
with
fn+1 = I1 fn + gn ,
gn+1 = I2 gn + hn ,
hn+1 = I3 fn .
Note that fn+1 , gn+1 , hn+1 are all functions of invariants of T. Hence Equation (7) holds for
n + 1. Thus the property is proved for any positive integer n.
The same induction proof using Equation 6 as base case, assuming the property true for Tn
(n > 0) and proving that it holds for Tn1 can be employed to prove that the statement is
true for negative integers as well.
9. To find the eigenvalues of T, we need to find the roots of characteristic equation: 3 I1 (T)2 +
I2 (T) I3 (T) = 0. Straightforward calculations yield the following values for the invariants:
I1 (T) = trT = 6
h
i
2
I2 (T) = 21 (trT) trT2 =

1
2

62 48 = 6

I3 (T) = detT = 12.

Therefore, the characteristic equation becomes 3 62 6 + 12 = 0, which has the following roots:
1 = 1.6977,

2 = 1.0658,

3 = 6.6319.

Now in order to obtain the eigenvectors, we solve the following linear system:


T (i) I v(i) = 0.
For i = 1:
(T + 1.6997I) vi = 0
gives

2.6977
1
0

1
4.6977
4

0
v1
0
v2 = 0 ,
4
3.6977
v3
0
5

As this is a homogeneous system of equations, we can choose v3 as 1 and find the other two components
which will be

0.3426
v(i) = 0.9224 .
1
The same calculation is done for i = 2 and i = 3. Normalizing the eigenvectors gives

0.2440
0.9606
0.1332
(1) = 0.6583 , v
(2) = 0.0632 , and v
(3) = 0.7501 .
v
0.7121
0.2707
0.6478
(2) , v
(3) }, T is given by
With respect to the basis of its eigenvectors {
v(1) , v

1.6977
0
0
.
0
1.0658
0
T0 =
0
0
6.6319
Again it is straightforward to calculate
I1 (T0 ) = trT0 = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 = I1 (T)
i
h
2
2
I2 (T0 ) = 21 {(trT0 ) tr (T0 ) } = 1 2 + 2 3 + 3 1 = 6 = I2 (T)
I3 (T0 ) = detT0 = 1 2 3 = 12 = I3 (T).
10. Let us consider the two symmetric second-order tensors S and T. We want to prove that coaxiality
of S and T coaxiality means that the eigenvectors coincide is equivalent to ST = TS. We define
{u(i) } and {v(i) } as respectively the sets of eigenvectors of S and T.
(=) Assume that S and T are coaxial. Two equivalent solutions of different length are included
here.
Short version
Since the eigenvectors of S and T coincide, then in the basis formed by these common eigenvectors, we know that S and T are diagonal from their spectral representation. Therefore
TS = ST.
Long version
If the sets {u(i) } and {v(i) } coincide in some order by definition of the coaxiality of S and T,
we can rearrange one of theses sets so that u(i) coincides with v(i) for i = 1, 2, 3. Furthermore,
we can normalize the eigenvectors so that u(i) = v(i) are unit vectors for i = 1, 2, 3. We have
therefore by definition
Su(i) = (i) u(i)

and Tu(i) = (i) u(i)

for i = 1, 2, 3.

Note that the eigenvalues of S and T (respectively (i) and (i) associated with the eigenvector
u(i) ) are different but that the eigenvectors are identical. Thus we have
TSu(i) = (i) Tu(i) = (i) (i) u(i)

and STu(i) = (i) Su(i) = (i) (i) u(i)

(i)

(TS ST)u

=0

for i = 1, 2, 3,

for i = 1, 2, 3.

(i)

(8)
(1)

Since {u } is an orthonormal basis, we can write any non-zero vector w as w = w1 u

w2 u(2) + w3 u(3) , with (w1 , w2 , w3 ) 6= (0, 0, 0). Spelling out (TS ST)w gives
(TS ST)w = (TS ST)(w1 u(1) + w2 u(2) + w3 u(3) )
= w1 (TS ST)u(1) + w2 (TS ST)u(2) + w3 (TS ST)u(3)
= 0 (with Eq. (8)
6

Since w can be any vector, we have TS ST = 0 TS = ST.

(=) Assume that ST = TS. Now, (n) and u(n) are the eigenvalues and unit eigenvectors of S.
Since S is a symmetric real second-order tensors, its unit eigenvectors u(n) are orthogonal one to each
other and therefore form an orthonormal basis. In this basis, S is diagonal and written as

1 0
0
S = 0 2 0
0
0 3
Note that there is no a priori relation between the eigenvectors of S and T. Hence in the basis of
eigenvectors of S, T can be defined as

T11 T12 T13

T = T12 T22 T23
T13 T23 T33
Then applying ST = TS, we obtain the following three non-trivial conditions
1 T12 = 2 T12

(9)

1 T13 = 3 T13

(10)

2 T23 = 3 T23

(11)

We now consider 3 different case for the values of 1 , 2 , 3 .

1 6= 2 6= 3 6= 1
The conditions (9,10,11) yields T12 = T13 = T23 = 0, in which case T must have the same
eigenvectors as S because it is diagonal in the basis of eigenvectors of S. Thus T and S are
coaxial.
1 = 2 6= 3
The conditions (10,11) gives T13 = T23 = 0 and

T11
T = T12
0

T is of the form

T12
0
T22
0 .
0 T33

We can see right away that u(3) is an eigenvector of T with eigenvalue T33 . Since the remaining
two unit eigenvectors of T say v(1) and v(2) have to be orthogonal to u(3) , they both exist
in the same plane as u(1) and u(2) and hence can be expressed as a linear combination of u(1)
and u(2) . However, for arbitrary and , we have
S(u(1) + u(2) ) = Su(1) + Su(2)
= 1 u(1) + 1 u(2)
(1)

= 1 (u

(2)

+ u

(1 is a double eigenvalue)

).

Therefore, any linear combination of u(1) and u(2) is an eigenvector of S, in particular v(1) and
v(2) . Therefore, {v(1) , v(2) , u(3) } are both eigenvectors of S and of T: S and T are coaxial.
1 = 2 = 3 =
Using the same derivation as in the second case, we can show that any linear combination of u(1) ,
u(2) and u(3) is an eigenvector of S, in particular v(1) , v(2) and v(3) . Thus again, {v(1) , v(2) , v(3) }
are eigenvectors of both S and T: S and T are coaxial.
Note that in this final case, S = I and is therefore an isotropic tensor. An isotropic tensor has
the same components in any basis and hence S is diagonal in any orthonormal basis, especially
the one of the eigenvectors of T, where T itself is diagonal, in which case T is coaxial with S.
This is an alternate proof of coaxiality for the third case.
7