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I have the equations

eq1=(a[3] - a[4]) \[Psi] . \[Xi] + (a[1] + 2 a[2]) \[Psi] . \[Phi]
eq2=2 (a[3] - a[4]) \[Psi] . \[Xi]
eq3=(a[1] + a[2] + a[3] + a[4]) \[Psi] . \[Phi]

Question: How do I make Mathematica to solve for the coefficients a[1], a[2], a[3] and a[4] the system of equations given by eq1=0, eq2=0 and eq3=0?

Elaborating on the question:

When equating any of the above equations to zero, each term should vanish separately, so that eq1=0 gives a[3] - a[4]=0 and a[1] + 2 a[2]=0.

For example, I could solve manually the system eq1=0, eq2=0 and eq3=0 in terms of a[1], a[2] and a[3]

Solve[{a[3] - a[4]==0,a[1] + 2 a[2]==0,a[1] + a[2] + a[3] + a[4]==0},{a[1],a[2],a[3]}]

To obtain

{{a[1] -> -4a[4], a[2] -> 2a[4], a[3] -> a[4]}}

But I want Mathematica to do the solving step for me and I don't want to specify for what variables it should solve for, It doesn't matter if It solves for a[1], a[3], a[4] as a function of a[2] instead. In my original code I can have more than three independent equations for the coefficients (these are the equations given by imposing eq1=0, eq2=0 and eq3=0) and the number of coefficients is not limited to four. This makes manually solving not feasible.

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1 Answer 1

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(* "13.0.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (December 3, 2021)" *)

Clear["Global`*"]

eq1 = (a[3] - a[4]) ψ . ξ + (a[1] + 2 a[2]) ψ . ϕ;
eq2 = 2 (a[3] - a[4]) ψ . ξ;
eq3 = (a[1] + a[2] + a[3] + a[4]) ψ . ϕ;

var = Variables[Level[{eq1, eq2, eq3}, {-1}]]

(* {ξ, ϕ, ψ} *)

sol = Select[Solve[{eq1, eq2, eq3} == 0], 
  FreeQ[#, Alternatives @@ var] &]

(* {{a[1] -> -4 a[3], a[2] -> 2 a[3], a[4] -> a[3]}} *)
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