Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-1/5/a/solution

Let . Commutation gives , so preserves each eigenspace of . Since the eigenvalues of are nondegenerate, each eigenspace is one-dimensional and . The spectral theorem for a Hermitian matrix lets us choose these vectors as an orthonormal eigenbasis. With ,
This is simple spectrum gives simultaneous diagonalization. The common eigenvectors can be chosen up to their phases and ordering. In fact degeneracy does not prevent a common eigenbasis for commuting Hermitian matrices, but the one-dimensional argument already suffices here.
The convergent matrix exponential series respects similarity, so and likewise for . Scalar exponentials multiply on each diagonal entry, giving
The essential hypothesis is commutation; Hermiticity supplies this convenient diagonalization proof.

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