Given a \(k\)-tensor \(T\), we have
Alt(T)(v_1,…,v_k)=
1k!_ S_ksgn()
T(v_(1),…,v_(k))
omitted; see latex
Thus for example if \(k=3\):
Alt(T)(v_1,v_2,v_3)=
16(arraycc
+T(v_1,v_2,v_3)&
-T(v_1,v_3,v_2)
-T(v_2,v_1,v_3)&
+T(v_2,v_3,v_1)
+T(v_3,v_1,v_2)&
-T(v_3,v_2,v_1)
array
)
omitted; see latex
and it is reasonably easy to see that \(\mathrm{Alt}(T)\)
is alternating, in the sense that
Alt(T)(v_1,…,v_i,…,v_j,…,v_k)=
-Alt(T)(v_1,…,v_j,…,v_i,…,v_k)
omitted; see latex
Function Alt()
is intended to take and return an object of
class ktensor
; but if given a kform
object, it just
returns its argument unchanged.
See also the `Alt` vignette which contains more details and examples.