How does Gram–Schmidt straighten any independent list into an orthonormal one, and why does that make every complex operator upper triangular in an orthonormal basis?
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The Gram–Schmidt procedure
Write the formulas for and , prove by induction that is orthonormal with the same span as , and orthonormalize in .
Existence and extension of orthonormal bases
Prove that every finite-dimensional inner product space has an orthonormal basis and that every orthonormal list extends to one, both by applying Gram–Schmidt to a suitable basis.
Upper-triangular matrices in an orthonormal basis, and Schur's theorem
State the minimal-polynomial condition, prove it via Gram–Schmidt preserving the invariant spans , and deduce Schur's theorem for complex operators.