The commutator of two matrices $A, B$, is defined to be the matrix
$$
C=[A, B]=A B-B A \text {. }
$$
(a) Explain why $[A, B]$ is defined if and only if $A$ and $B$ are square matrices of the same size. (b) Show that $A$ and $B$ commute under matrix multiplication if and only if $[A, B]=\mathrm{O}$. (c) Compute the commutator of the following matrices:
(i) $\left(\begin{array}{rr}1 & 0 \\ 1 & -1\end{array}\right),\left(\begin{array}{rr}2 & 1 \\ -2 & 0\end{array}\right)$;
(ii) $\left(\begin{array}{rr}-1 & 3 \\ 3 & -1\end{array}\right),\left(\begin{array}{ll}1 & 7 \\ 7 & 1\end{array}\right)$;
(iii) $\left(\begin{array}{rrr}0 & -1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1\end{array}\right),\left(\begin{array}{rrr}1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & -1 \\ 0 & 1 & 0\end{array}\right)$;
(d) Prove that the commutator is (i) Bilinear: $[c A+d B, C]=c[A, C]+d[B, C]$ and $[A, c B+d C]=c[A, B]+d[A, C]$ for any scalars $c, d$; (ii) Skew-symmetric: $[A, B]=-[B, A] ;$ (iii) satisfies the the Jacobi identity:
$$
[[A, B], C]+[[C, A], B]+[[B, C], A]=\mathrm{O},
$$
for any square matrices $A, B, C$ of the same size.
Remark. The commutator plays a very important role in geometry, symmetry, and quantum mechanics. See Section 10.4 as well as $[\mathbf{5 4}, \mathbf{6 0}, \mathbf{9 3}]$ for further developments.