TITLE: Understanding isomorphic equivalences of tensor product
QUESTION [41 upvotes]: I get some big picture of tensor and tensor product by reading their Wikipedia articles, and several questions and answers posted before by others. But I cannot figure out how to show the following isomorphic equivalences:

from Zach Conn:

For finite-dimensional spaces V,W, the tensor product $V^* \otimes W$ is
  isomorphic to the space of homomorphisms $\textrm{Hom}(V, W)$. So in other
  words
  every linear map $V \to W$ has a tensor expansion, i.e., a
  representation as 
  a tensor in $V^* \otimes W$.

I wonder why "the tensor product $V^* \otimes W$ is isomorphic to the space of homomorphisms $\textrm{Hom}(V,W)$"?
from Hans Lundmark:

a bilinear map $B:V \times U \to \mathbb{R}$ can be canonically identified with an
  element
  of the space $V^* \otimes U^*$.

How is a bilinear map $B:V \times U \to \mathbb{R}$ canonically identified with an
element of the space $V^* \otimes U^*$?
from Qiaochu Yuan:


A linear transformation $V \to V$,
An element of $V^* \otimes V$,
A linear map $V \otimes V^* \to \mathbb{R} $.

The identification (of the first) with the second picture comes
  from the fact that
  dual distributes over tensor product (which again comes down to
  tensor
  contraction) and the fact that $V^{**} \cong V$. Alternately, again by
  tensor
  contraction, there is a natural bilinear map $V \times (V^* \otimes V) \to V$ which
  identifies an element of $V^* \otimes V$ with a linear transformation $V \to V$.

How does that dual distributes over tensor product
come from tensor contraction, and how does this lead to the identification?
How is the natural bilinear map $V \times (V^* \otimes V) \to V$ defined?

Thanks and regards!

REPLY [13 votes]: I'll note that there is a slightly different universal property the tensor product satisfies: for any three vector spaces $U, V, W$ over a common field $k$, there is an isomorphism
$$\textrm{Hom}(U \otimes V, W) \cong \textrm{Hom}(U, \textrm{Hom}(V, W))$$
which is moreover natural in $U$ (contravariantly), $W$ (covariantly) and $V$ (extraordinarily). Taking $W = k$ yields the usual universal property in terms of bilinear maps. (A bilinear map $U \times V \to k$, after all, is essentially the same thing as a linear map $U \to \textrm{Hom}(V, k)$.)
The above adjunction property yields an alternative abstract-nonsense answer for the first question, if we take the isomorphism $(U \otimes V)^* \cong U^* \otimes V^*$ for granted. Recall that every finite-dimensional vector space is naturally isomorphic to its double dual. So, if $U$ and $V$ are finite-dimensional $k$-vector spaces,
$$U^* \otimes V \cong \textrm{Hom}((U^* \otimes V)^*, k) \cong \textrm{Hom}(U^{**} \otimes V^*, k) \cong \textrm{Hom}(U^{**}, V^{**}) \cong \textrm{Hom}(U, V)$$
Obviously, this proof doesn't work when either $U$ or $V$ are infinite-dimensional. (In fact, the claim isn't even true.)
Dylan's answer adequately addresses the second question, so I'll skip that.
As for the third question, I too am not sure what Qiaochu meant. To me, tensor contraction is the linear map $U^* \otimes U \to k$ which is obtained from the bilinear map $U^* \times U \to k$ given by $(\alpha, v) \mapsto \alpha (v)$. If you think of $U^* \otimes U$ as being a space of matrices, this is just the trace map.
The natural bilinear map $\epsilon : V \times (V^* \otimes V) \to V$ Qiaochu is alluding to is the map given by $(v, \alpha \otimes v') \mapsto \alpha(v) v'$. In other words, it is the result of evaluating an element of $V^* \otimes V$, regarded as a linear map $V \to V$, at $v$. (But there is another natural bilinear map, namely the one given by $(v, \alpha \otimes v') \mapsto \alpha(v') v$. I'm quite sure this isn't the one he meant.) Another way of getting $\epsilon$ is by considering what happens to the map $V^* \otimes V \to \textrm{Hom}(V, V)$ from the first question under the isomorphism
$$\textrm{Hom}((V^* \otimes V) \otimes V, V) \cong \textrm{Hom}(V^* \otimes V, \textrm{Hom}(V, V))$$
As for the connection with tensor contraction: note that there is a natural isomorphism $V \otimes (V^* \otimes V) \cong (V \otimes V^*) \otimes V$, and a natural isomorphism $V \otimes V^* \cong V^* \otimes V$; the map $\epsilon$ is essentially the composition of the trace map with these isomorphisms.