Geometric Algebra for Subspace Operations

Abstract

The set theory relations ∈, \,Δ,∩, and ∪ have corollaries in subspace relations. Geometric algebra is introduced as a useful framework to explore these subspace operations. The relations ∈, \, and Δ are easily subsumed by geometric algebra for Euclidean metrics. A short computation shows that the meet (∩) and join (∪) are resolved in a projection operator representation with the aid of one additional product beyond the standard geometric algebra products. The result is that the join can be computed even when the subspaces have a common factor, and the meet can be computed without knowing the join. All of the operations can be defined and computed in any signature (including degenerate signatures) by transforming the problem to an analogous problem in a different algebra through a transformation induced by a linear invertible function (a LIFT to a different algebra). The new results, as well as the techniques by which we reach them, add to the tools available for subspace computations.