Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/ib/paper-3/5g/solution

Write for the complex coordinate. The inverse stereographic projection is
with mapped to the north pole. A rotation about the third axis sends to , represented by
For the rotation , substitution in the stereographic projection gives
Both displayed matrices are unitary with determinant one, hence belong to the special unitary group.
Use the rotation-generation result that every can be written , with angles chosen suitably. This is the Euler-angle decomposition, which is allowed here. Composition of Möbius transformations corresponds to multiplication of their matrix representatives, so
The formulas extend at poles in the Riemann sphere. This realizes sphere rotations as special-unitary Möbius transformations. The two representatives and define the same Möbius transformation, as expected for the double covering of the special orthogonal group.

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