Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/6/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 1 6 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The cyclic property of the trace impliesTaking the matrix trace of the asserted equality therefore gives . For a positive integer over the complex numbers this requires . It is also sufficient: choose , or any two commuting matrices. Thus a finite-dimensional operator commutator cannot be a nonzero scalar multiple of the identity matrix.
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