k-frame
This article is about a linearly independent subset. For a spanning set in analysis, see frame of a vector space.
In linear algebra, a branch of mathematics, a k-frame is an ordered set of k linearly independent vectors in a space; thus k ≤ n, where n is the dimension of the vector space, and if k = n an n-frame is precisely an ordered basis.
If the vectors are orthogonal, or orthonormal, the frame is called an orthogonal frame, or orthonormal frame, respectively.
Properties
- The set of k-frames (particularly the set of orthonormal k-frames) in a given space X is known as the Stiefel manifold, and denoted Vk(X).
- A k-frame defines a parallelotope (a generalized parallelepiped); the volume can be computed via the Gram determinant.