Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-1/18/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2017 Paper 1 18 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
In , every row sums to one, so is an eigenvector with eigenvalue . The antisymmetric direction gives eigenvalue . A direction orthogonal to both is , and direct multiplication shows that it lies in the kernel of a linear map. Normalizing all three gives the complete systemThey form an orthonormal basis of . The extra zero eigenvalue reflects the one-dimensional kernel of a linear map for this rank-two rectangular matrix. The question's symbols denote the eigenvalues of ; the nonzero singular values of are their square roots, namely and .
New to topics? Read the docs here!