Lecture 4: the Grassmannian Gr(k, V) of k-dimensional subspaces of V.
Instances For
Dimension of the ambient space of the Plücker embedding: dim (⋀^k V) = C(dim V, k).
A 2-vector ω ∈ ⋀^2 M is decomposable if it can be written as a single wedge v₁ ∧ v₂.
Instances For
Anticommutativity of the canonical map ι into the exterior algebra: x ∧ y = -(y ∧ x).
The wedge square of a decomposable 2-vector vanishes: (v₁ ∧ v₂) ∧ (v₁ ∧ v₂) = 0.
Easy direction of Lecture 4, Lemma 6: any decomposable 2-vector has zero wedge square.
Two wedge-products of pairs commute: (a ∧ b) ∧ (c ∧ d) = (c ∧ d) ∧ (a ∧ b).
Expansion of the wedge square of a sum of two decomposables:
(v₁ ∧ v₂ + v₃ ∧ v₄)^2 = 2 · (v₁ ∧ v₂ ∧ v₃ ∧ v₄).
For a 4-dimensional V, dim (⋀^2 V) = 6.
For a 4-dimensional V, the top exterior power is 1-dimensional: dim (⋀^4 V) = 1.
Skew normal form in dimension 4: any 2-form on a 4-dimensional V is either decomposable or
a sum of two decomposable terms based on a linearly independent 4-tuple.
The product v₁ ∧ v₂ ∧ v₃ ∧ v₄ in the exterior algebra agrees with the multilinear map
ιMulti K 4 applied to the 4-tuple.
A linearly independent 4-tuple in a 4-dimensional V has nonzero top wedge product.
In dimension 4, a 2-form with zero wedge square must be decomposable: this is the converse half of the classification used in Lemma 6.
Converse direction of Lecture 4, Lemma 6: in dimension 4, vanishing of ω ∧ ω forces ω to
be decomposable.
Lecture 4, Lemma 6 (full statement): in dimension 4, a 2-form is decomposable iff its wedge square vanishes.
Lecture 4, Theorem 4.1 applied to Gr(2, 4): the Plücker ambient space has dimension 6.