Orthogonal skew-symmetric matrix

ID: orthogonal-skew-symmetric-matrix

A real skew-symmetric matrix is an orthogonal matrix exactly when its square is minus the identity matrix. Indeed, . Such a matrix can exist only in even dimension: taking determinants of would otherwise give . In two dimensions every example is
These are rotation matrices through opposite right angles. Their orthogonal similarity transforms preserve eigenvalues, but do not in general produce a diagonal matrix.

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