HOMEWORK 3

PAUL BRESSLER

Recall that, for two sets S and T the set of all maps from S to T is
denoted by T S .
If S is a set and V is a vector space, then the set V S has the canonical
vector space structure characterized uniquely by the property that for
any s ∈ S the evaluation map
evs : V S → V : f 7→ f (s)
(i.e. evs (f ) = f (s)) is linear.
Recall that for vector spaces U and V the subset of V U which consists
of linear maps is denoted Hom(U, V ).
Recall that, for a map of sets f : S → T the graph of f , denoted Γf
is the subset of S × T defined by
Γf = {(s, t)|t = f (s)} ⊂ S × T

1. Miscellaneous problems
1.1. Suppose that U and V are vector spaces and f ∈ V U (i.e. f is a
map of underlying sets which is not necessarily linear).
Show that f is linear if and only if Γf is a linear subspace of U ×
V. 

1.2. Suppose that U and V are vector spaces. Show that Hom(U, V )
is a vector subspace of V U .

2. Composition of maps
Suppose that R, S and T are sets and f : S → T is a map. Then,
“composition with f ” defines the map denoted
f ∗ : RT → RS
by the formula f ∗ (g) = g ◦ f . In other words, for g : T → R, the map
f g
f ∗ (g) : S → R is the composition S →− T →− R.
Similarly, the map
f∗ : S R → T R
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2 P.BRESSLER

is defined by the formula f∗ (h) = f ◦ h. In other words, for h : R → S,

h f
the map f∗ (h) : R → T is the composition R →− S→ − T.
In the following problems U , V and W are vector spaces and f : V →
W is a linear map.
2.1. Show that the restriction of the map f ∗ : U W → U V to Hom(W, U )
takes values in Hom(V, U ), in other words, if g is linear, then so is f ∗ (g).
2.2. Show that the map f ∗ : Hom(W, U ) → Hom(V, U ) is linear.
2.3. Show that the restriction of the map f∗ : V U → W U to Hom(U, V )
takes values in Hom(U, W ), in other words, if h is linear, then so is
f∗ (h).
2.4. Show that the map f∗ : Hom(U, V ) → Hom(U, W ) is linear.
2.5. And now, for the highest point of confusion! So far, we have, for
each linear map f ∈ Hom(V, W ) the linear maps f ∗ : Hom(W, U ) →
Hom(V, U ) and f∗ : Hom(U, V ) → Hom(U, W ). In other words, we
have the map
Hom(V, W ) → Hom(Hom(W, U ), Hom(V, U )) : f 7→ f ∗
and
Hom(V, W ) → Hom(Hom(U, V ), Hom(U, W )) : f 7→ f∗ .
Show that these maps are linear.
Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad de Los Andes
E-mail address: paul.bressler@gmail.com