Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-2/10/iii/solution

The matrices are listed in the order . In the first representation, is the clockwise quarter-turn matrix and . In the second, , whose successive powers give the listed scalar matrices. Both therefore obey the group table and distinguish all four elements.
Taking traces gives the characters of a representation:
In particular but . Since trace is invariant under similarity, the representations are inequivalent, even after allowing complex changes of basis for the real matrices of .
One can also see the obstruction directly: conjugating the scalar matrix leaves it unchanged, whereas is not scalar. Over the complex numbers, has eigenvalues , while has ; those different multiplicities cannot be removed by changing basis.

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