Paper 4, Section II, G
Part IB, 2009
What does it mean to say two real symmetric bilinear forms and on a vector space are congruent ?
State and prove Sylvester's law of inertia, and deduce that the rank and signature determine the congruence class of a real symmetric bilinear form. [You may use without proof a result on diagonalisability of real symmetric matrices, provided it is clearly stated.]
How many congruence classes of symmetric bilinear forms on a real -dimensional vector space are there? Such a form defines a family of subsets , for . For how many of the congruence classes are these associated subsets all bounded subsets of ? Is the quadric surface
a bounded or unbounded subset of ? Justify your answers.