Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/5/solution

For a unit vector, the radial coordinate is and the spherical coordinates give
The Pauli matrices therefore give
The diagonal entries are real and the off-diagonal entries are complex conjugates, so . Its trace is zero and its determinant is , giving eigenvalues and . A convenient orthonormal eigenbasis is
The half-angle identities verify , and . Multiplication of either vector by any unit-modulus phase gives an equivalent normalized eigenvector. At a pole, the azimuth is undefined geometrically, but the remaining phase freedom makes the chosen expressions consistent with the same one-dimensional eigenspaces.

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