Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/6/solution

The characteristic polynomial factors as . Thus in algebraic multiplicity. An orthonormal basis of corresponding eigenvectors is
Direct multiplication verifies , , . Their mutual Hermitian inner products vanish and each has norm one, which proves linear independence. For the repeated eigenvalue, Gaussian elimination gives
Hence . The second equality follows from the rank-nullity theorem and agrees with the two-dimensional eigenspace. A repeated eigenvalue alone would not imply a two-dimensional eigenspace for an arbitrary matrix; here the Hermitian matrix is diagonalizable.

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