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What does it mean for a collection of bases $\{B_i\}_i$ for a corresponding set of vector subspaces $\{W_i\}_i$ to be pairwise disjoint? Thank you.

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Disjoint means "having empty intersection", so pairwise disjointness means $B_i \cap B_j = \emptyset$ for $i \ne j$.

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    Ah, so there is no implication that the elements in the $B_i$'s are linearly independent?2011-09-12
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    @johann: If each $B_i$ is a basis (implied by saying it is a "collection of bases"), then of course each $B_i$ is linearly independent, so the elements of *each* $B_i$ form a linearly independent set.2011-09-12
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    @Arturo: Thanks! Ah, I see it's an English slip... I meant that the elements from the different $B_i$'s.2011-09-12
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    I would imagine that if there is a vector in the intersection of different bases $B_i, B_j$ , that the change-of-basis matrix $T$ taking the matrix for $B_i$ (with vectors as columns) has an eigenvalue =$1$, with a vector in common as eigenvector associated with that eigenvalue.2011-09-12
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    @johann: No, there is no assumption on linear independent. For example, in $\mathbb{R}^3$, $B_1=\{(1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1)\}$ and $B_2=\{(1,1,0),(1,0,1), (0,1,1)\}$ are disjoint bases, but lots of subsets of 3 elements taken from the two bases are linearly dependent.2011-09-12
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    @gary: Not necessarily: over $\mathbb{R}$, say $B_1=[(1,0), (0,1)]$ and $B_2 = [(0,-1),(1,0)]$. One of the change of bases matrix is $$\left(\begin{array}{cc}0&-1\\1&0\end{array}\right)$$ which has no eigenvalues. More generally, take any invertible matrix that does not have $1$ as an eigenvalue, and use the columns to be one basis, and the standard basis to be the other basis. You seem to be assuming the change-of-basis will leave the common vector fixed, but it doesn't have to.2011-09-12