Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/ib/paper-2/2c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ib Paper 2 2C Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let . A rotation matrix maps the unit sphere and its surface measure to themselves. Changing variables therefore gives , so is an isotropic second-rank tensor. Reflection symmetry also directly makes its off-diagonal entries zero, while interchange of coordinates makes its three diagonal entries equal. Its trace ishence . Oddness gives . Expanding the defining product for now givesThe action on a vector is . For , its eigenvalues and eigenspaces are thereforeThe latter has multiplicity two. If , the single eigenvalue has multiplicity three and every vector is an eigenvector apart from the excluded zero vector.
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