Prove that if the Wronskian of the functions are Linearly Independent over I
Th. Prove that if the Wronskian of the functions \(f_{1}\, f_{2}\, \ldots f_{n}\) over an Interval I is non-zero, then the functions are linearly independent over I.
Proof: Consider the relation
\[ c_{1}f_{1} + c_{2}f_{2} + \ldots + c_{n}f_{n} = 0 ...(1)\]
where \( z_{1}, c_{2}, \ldots, c_{n} \) are constants. Differentiating (1) successively \( n-1 \) times with respect to \( x \), we get,
\[ c_{1}f'_{1} +c_{2}f'_{2} +c_{3}f'_{3} + \ldots + c_{n} {f_{n}}^{\prime} = 0 ...(2)\]
\[ c_{1}f''_{1} + c_{2}f''_{2} + \ldots + c_{n}f''_n = 0 ...(3)\]
\[ c_{1}{f_{1}}^{(n-1)} + c_{2}{f_{2}}^{(n-1)} + \ldots + c_{n}{f_{n}}^{(n-1)} = 0 ...(n)\]
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These \( n \) equations can be written as
Now we know that the matrix equation \( AX = \underline{O} \) has a trivial solution if \( |A| \neq 0 \). Hence,
\[ Therefore, c_{1} = c_{2} = \ldots = c_{n} = 0 \]
We have,
That is,
\[ W(f_{1}, f_{2}, \ldots, f_{n}) \neq 0 \] \n Where W is Wronskian, \n then \( c_{1} = c_{2} = \ldots = c_{n} = 0 \) Therefore, the functions \( f_{1}, f_{2}, \ldots, f_{n} \) are linearly independent over I .