View source for Trace of a square matrix

{{TEX|done}}
{{MSC|15A15}}
$
\newcommand{\tr}{\mathop{\mathrm{tr}}}
\newcommand{\Tr}{\mathop{\mathrm{Tr}}}
\newcommand{\Sp}{\mathop{\mathrm{Sp}}}
\newcommand{\End}{\mathop{\mathrm{End}}}
$

The sum of the entries on the main diagonal of this [[Matrix|matrix]]. The trace of a matrix $A = [a_{ij}]$ is denoted by $\tr A$, $\Tr A$ or $\Sp A$:
$$
\tr A = \sum_{i=0}^n a_{ii}
$$
Let $A$ be a square matrix of order $n$ over a [[field]] $k$. The trace of $A$ coincides with the sum of the roots of the [[characteristic polynomial]] of $A$. If $k$ is a field of characteristic 0, then the $n$ traces $\tr A, \ldots \tr A^n$ uniquely determine the characteristic polynomial of $A$. In particular, $A$ is nilpotent if and only if $\tr A^m = 0$ for all $m=1,\ldots,n$.

If $A$ and $B$ are square matrices of the same order over $k$, and $\alpha,\beta \in k$, then
$$
\tr(\alpha A + \beta B) = \alpha \tr A + \beta \tr B, \quad 
\tr AB = \tr BA,
$$
while if $\det B \neq 0$,
$$\label{eq:a1}
\tr(BAB^{-1}) = \tr A.
$$
The trace of the [[Tensor product|tensor (Kronecker) product]] of square matrices over a field is equal to the product of the traces of the factors.

The trace of a product of matrices $A \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times m}$, $B \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n}$ with a resulting square matrix is equal to the sum over all components of a [[Hadamard product]] of $A$ and $B^T$:
$$
\tr(AB) = \sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^n (A \circ B^T)_{i,j}.
$$
====References==== 

{|
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|valign="top"|{{Ref|Co}}||valign="top"| P.M. Cohn, "Algebra", '''1''', Wiley (1982) pp. 336
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|Ga}}||valign="top"| F.R. [F.R. Gantmakher] Gantmacher, "The theory of matrices", '''1''', Chelsea, reprint (1959) (Translated from Russian)
|-
|}

====Comment====
The trace of an endomorphism $\alpha$ of a finite-dimensional vector space $V$ over the field $k$ may be defined as the trace of any matrix representing it with respect to a given basis  for $V$.  Since the trace is invariant for [[similar matrices]] (equation 1), this is well-defined.  It may be defined in a basis-independent way from the sequence
$$
\End(V) \leftrightarrow V^* \otimes V \rightarrow k \ .
$$

====References==== 

{|
|-
|valign="top"|{{Ref|Bo}}||valign="top"| N. Bourbaki, "Algebra", '''1''', Chap.1-3, Springer (1989) §4.3
|-
|}