Let and be three vector spaces over the same base field. A bilinear map is a function such that for all, the map is a linear map from to, and for all, the map is a linear map from to. In other words, when we hold the first entry of the bilinear map fixed while letting the second entry vary, the result is a linear operator, and similarly for when we hold the second entry fixed. Such a map satisfies the following properties.
For any,.
The map is additive in both components: if and, then and.
If and we have for all v, w in V, then we say that B is symmetric. If X is the base fieldF, then the map is called a bilinear form, which are well-studied.
Modules
The definition works without any changes if instead of vector spaces over a field F, we use modules over a commutative ringR. It generalizes to n-ary functions, where the proper term is multilinear. For non-commutative rings R and S, a left R-module M and a right S-module N, a bilinear map is a map with T an -bimodule, and for which any n in N, is an R-module homomorphism, and for any m in M, is an S-module homomorphism. This satisfies for all m in M, n in N, r in R and s in S, as well as B being additive in each argument.
Properties
A first immediate consequence of the definition is that whenever or. This may be seen by writing the zero vector 0V as and moving the scalar 0 "outside", in front of B, by linearity. The set of all bilinear maps is a linear subspace of the space of all maps from into X. If V, W, X are finite-dimensional, then so is. For, i.e. bilinear forms, the dimension of this space is . To see this, choose a basis for V and W; then each bilinear map can be uniquely represented by the matrix, and vice versa. Now, if X is a space of higher dimension, we obviously have.
Examples
Matrix multiplication is a bilinear map.
If a vector space V over the real numbersR carries an inner product, then the inner product is a bilinear map.
In general, for a vector space V over a field F, a bilinear form on V is the same as a bilinear map.
If V is a vector space with dual spaceV∗, then the application operator, is a bilinear map from to the base field.
Let V and W be vector spaces over the same base field F. If f is a member of V∗ and g a member of W∗, then defines a bilinear map.
Let be a bilinear map, and be a linear map, then is a bilinear map on.
Continuity and separate continuity
Suppose X, Y, and Z are topological vector spaces and let be a bilinear map. Then b is said to be separately continuous if the following two conditions hold:
for all, the map given by is continuous;
for all, the map given by is continuous.
Many separately continuous bilinear that are not continuous satisfy an additional property: hypocontinuity. All continuous bilinear maps are hypocontinuous.
Sufficient conditions for continuity
Many bilinear maps that occur in practice are separately continuous but not all are continuous. We list here sufficient conditions for a separately continuous bilinear to be continuous.
If X is a Baire space and Y is metrizable then every separately continuous bilinear map is continuous.
If X, Y, and Z are the strong duals of Fréchet spaces then every separately continuous bilinear map is continuous.
If a bilinear map is continuous at then it is continuous everywhere.
Composition map
Let X, Y, and Z be locally convexHausdorff spaces and let be the composition map defined by. In general, the bilinear map C is not continuous. We do, however, have the following results: Give all three spaces of linear maps one of the following topologies:
give all three the topology of bounded convergence;
