Vector Spaces, Matrices and Tensors in Physics

Book excerpt: Vector spaces, matrices, and tensors in physics form an essential part of the mathematical background required by physicists. This book is written primarily as textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students and as a reference book for working physicists. Special emphasis is given to topics relevant to physics, for example linear independence and dependence of vectors, inner product, orthonormality, matrices as representations of linear transformations on vector spaces, similarity, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, diagonalization of matrices, expressing various physical quantities as tensors, tensorial formulation of vector algebra, calculus and geometry. The role of orthogonal, hermitian and unitary matrices in physics is highlighted.