Thread: Au=1

Let A be a linear operator. If has a complex-valued solution, then it also has a real-valued solution.

How do I prove this?

What kind of space is u in? Is A a differential operator? Do you know anything about A other than it's a linear operator?

Originally Posted by Ackbeet

What kind of space is u in? Is A a differential operator? Do you know anything about A other than it's a linear operator?

That is everything I know.

Is that the real number 1 on the RHS? Or is that a vector?

Real number 1.

What is the overall context for this problem? Is it from a textbook? If so, how did the book define a linear operator?

In particular, I'm interested in knowing if A always maps real-valued vectors/functions to real-valued vectors/functions. If it does, then you can choose as your real-valued solution. If not, your problem is a bit more complicated.

It is from the particular solutions section of PDE.

We say an operator A is defined if there is a rule which assigns to each function u of one given class another function of a second class.

Originally Posted by dwsmith

Let A be a linear operator. If has a complex-valued solution, then it also has a real-valued solution.

How do I prove this?

This is all you have? Okay, if Au= 1 has a "complex-valued solution" then u must be a complex number and A is a linear operator that maps numbers to numbers. In particular, A could be multiplication by -i: (-i)(i)= 1. That problem has only i as solution, there is no real-valued solution.

Note, that, since the real numbers are a subset of the complex numbers, saying there is a complex solution could mean that there is a real number solution. However, the problem says "it also has a real solution" and that is not true.

Here is the solution the professor furnished.

Let

and v is a real-valued solution.

That is the solution I hinted at in post # 6. However, this solution assumes that A maps real-valued solutions to real-valued solutions. That may or may not be a good assumption.