Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2003 Paper 1 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Let . The commutation relation gives , so preserves the eigenspace of with eigenvalue . Because it is a nondegenerate eigenvalue, the eigenspace is one-dimensional, and for some real . This includes . Thus the eigenvectors of form a common eigenbasis, andWriting the corresponding unit-modulus eigenvalue of as givesThe pairing refers to the same common eigenvector; independent reorderings of the two real spectra would lose this information. The simultaneous diagonalization can also be constructed without requiring simple eigenvalues by diagonalizing within each eigenspace of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2004 Paper 1 5 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A real orthogonal matrix satisfies ; a complex unitary matrix satisfies . Their columns are orthonormal in the corresponding real or complex inner product.
Adopt the convention that a complex inner product is linear in its second argument, conjugate symmetric, and positive definite: , with equality exactly when . Conjugate symmetry and second-argument linearity then imply antilinearity in the first:For the specified real symmetric matrix use . Its upper block is the outer product , so it has one zero eigenvalue and one eigenvalue . A complete orthonormal eigenbasis isIf , the last two eigenvalues coincide and their eigenspace is the span of ; every nonzero vector in that span is an eigenvector. Since , the zero eigenspace remains one-dimensional.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2005 Paper 1 5 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A unitary matrix satisfies over the complex numbers; a real orthogonal matrix satisfies . Their inverses are their conjugate transposes and transposes, respectively.
With , the coordinate has eigenvalue . In the plane, the traceless symmetric two-by-two matrix has eigenvalues , where . If , choose with and . Then an orthonormal eigenbasis isIf equals or , the corresponding eigenspace is the span of the two listed vectors with that eigenvalue. If , then , the plane is the zero eigenspace, and retains eigenvalue ; if also , every vector belongs to the zero eigenspace. This includes the degenerate cases that a division by would miss.
For the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, take and remove the orthogonal projection of along . Positivity of the squared norm givesMultiplication by and square roots prove ; the case is immediate. Equality means linear dependence. ThereforeTaking the nonnegative square root proves the triangle inequality.
Over the chosen scalar field, an -by- matrix is diagonalizable if and only if it has linearly independent eigenvectors. Repeated eigenvalues are allowed provided all eigenspaces together supply a basis.
For the given matrix, the characteristic polynomial is . One may chooseTaking these as columns gives the change of basisThis is not a rotation matrix. The PDF's terminology cannot hold literally: is real and nonsymmetric, whereas a real matrix orthogonally similar to a real diagonal matrix is symmetric. Also , so scaling these eigenvectors cannot make an orthonormal rotation basis. A general invertible similarity is the valid construction.
Let . Inserting between successive factors gives , and henceTo write , match its action on the two eigenspaces:Solving gives the matrix powers for a diagonalizable matrix with two eigenvaluesThe cases recover , respectively. Equivalently the spectral projections of a diagonalizable matrix are and , and the power multiplies them by and .
Taking the adjoint of gives . In particular, the Hermitian parts of a unitary matrix are uniquely determined:Expanding both unitary identities givesSubtracting shows , and adding gives . If , commutation implies . The assumed simple spectrum makes the eigenspace one-dimensional, so . Thus have a common orthonormal eigenbasis.
On such a vector, . If the corresponding unitary eigenvalue is , thenThe formulas for also show the same eigenvalue correspondence directly from and . Degeneracies do not prevent existence of a common basis, although the simple-spectrum assumption makes the elementary proof immediate.
The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices supplies real eigenvalues and an orthonormal eigenbasis. Compute eigenvectors, normalize them, and within each repeated-eigenvalue eigenspace choose an orthonormal basis. Distinct eigenspaces are already orthogonal because symmetry gives for eigenvectors with eigenvalues .
Use the resulting basis vectors as columns of . ThenThe order and signs of the columns can be chosen freely; rotations within a repeated-eigenvalue eigenspace are also allowed.
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, givingThe essential hypothesis is commutation; Hermiticity supplies this convenient diagonalization proof.
The spectral theorem for a real symmetric matrix gives real eigenvalues and an orthonormal eigenbasis. Compute the roots of , find a basis for each eigenspace, and orthonormalize within any repeated-eigenvalue eigenspace. Eigenvectors belonging to distinct eigenvalues are already orthogonal: if and , symmetry gives .
Putting the normalized basis vectors in the columns of an orthogonal matrix yieldsFor repeated eigenvalues, the choice of axes inside their eigenspace is not unique.
Minimize or maximize subject to . A Lagrange multiplier givesThe constraint excludes and implies , so it is a regular constraint surface. Multiplying the stationarity equation by gives . Thus the distance extrema on a real quadratic surface satisfyEvery constrained extremum lies in a positive-eigenvalue eigenspace, with squared distance . If is positive definite, the global minimum is and the global maximum is . For an indefinite or singular form the surface need not be bounded; eigenvector directions give stationary candidates, which may be saddles and need not supply both global extrema. With a repeated positive eigenvalue, there can be an entire family of equally distant stationary points.
An matrix is diagonalizable over a chosen field exactly when it has a basis of linearly independent eigenvectors. Equivalently, is diagonal for some invertible . Distinct eigenvalues suffice but are not necessary. For example,is not diagonalizable: its only eigenvalue is and its eigenspace is the one-dimensional span of . It is a nontrivial Jordan block.
A Hermitian matrix satisfies , where the dagger denotes conjugate transpose. If with , thenThe denominator is positive real, soFor and , Hermiticity also givesThusThis is the necessary qualification to the PDF's orthogonality wording: arbitrary eigenvectors belonging to a repeated eigenvalue need not be orthogonal. Within each repeated eigenspace, Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization produces an orthonormal basis; together the eigenspaces give an orthonormal eigenbasis by the finite-dimensional spectral theorem. For example, and are nonorthogonal eigenvectors of the identity matrix.
The block has characteristic polynomial . A convenient orthonormal eigenbasis for the full real symmetric matrix iswith eigenvalues , , and , respectively. Hence its orthogonal diagonalization isFor repeated eigenvalues, every nonzero combination within the corresponding eigenspace is also an eigenvector; the displayed basis remains valid. Introduce principal axes coordinatesThe quadratic form becomesThe principal-axis reduction of a quadric therefore has three regimes.
For , all coefficients are positive: the surface is an ellipsoid centred at the origin, withFor , the term disappears. The surface is an elliptic cylinder, unbounded along , whose cross-section is :For , there is one negative coefficient, so the surface is a one-sheet hyperboloid:Its waist at is an ellipse with semiaxes and . At other , both waist radii are multiplied by . There is no intercept on its longitudinal axis. Its asymptotic cone is . If positive eigenvalues coincide, the corresponding choice of principal axes is not unique, reflecting a rotational symmetry of the surface.
Suppose first that , and take an eigenvector of , with . Commutation givesSince the eigenvalue is simple, its eigenspace is one-dimensional, so for some scalar . Thus every vector in an eigenbasis of is also an eigenvector of . The simple spectrum of ensures these account for its eigenvector directions as well. Eigenvectors are understood up to nonzero scaling and permutation, rather than as literally identical numerical vectors.
Conversely, if are a common eigenbasis with and , thenfor every basis vector. Hence . ThereforeThis is simple spectrum gives simultaneous diagonalization. Without simple spectra, commuting Hermitian matrices still possess a common orthonormal eigenbasis, but not every arbitrary eigenvector of one matrix must be an eigenvector of the other.
A square matrix is a diagonalizable matrix over a specified field if some invertible matrix makes diagonal. Equivalently, the underlying vector space has a basis of eigenvectors of .
For example,The first is already diagonal. The second has only the eigenvalue one, of algebraic multiplicity two, but its eigenspace consists of and has dimension one. It cannot supply a two-vector eigenbasis.
The entries of are real, and the transpose rule gives . Thus it is a real symmetric matrix, hence also a Hermitian matrix.
For any complex vector ,In particular, if with ,Thus is positive semidefinite. Its zero eigenspace is precisely the kernel of , since is equivalent to . This is the Gram-matrix structure behind the nonnegative eigenvalues.
By the spectral theorem, a Hermitian matrix has real eigenvalues and an orthonormal eigenbasis. Choose column vectors with and , and form . Then , so is unitary, and givesThe entries of are the real eigenvalues, repeated according to their multiplicities. Within a degenerate eigenspace, any orthonormal basis may be used. Equivalently .
The second coordinate direction is already an eigenvector with eigenvalue three. The first and third coordinates form a symmetric block, whose sum and difference directions giveFor example, the sum of the block's diagonal and off-diagonal entries is , while their difference is . Equivalently the characteristic polynomial is .
The displayed basis works for every real . At , the eigenvalue three has eigenspace spanned by the second and third listed vectors; at , the eigenvalue six has eigenspace spanned by the first and third. Every nonzero vector in a repeated eigenspace is an eigenvector, and any orthonormal basis of it may replace the displayed choices.
Use the principal coordinatesPart (c) puts the equation in the canonical formIf , all three coefficients are positive: the surface is an ellipsoid with semiaxes , and along the three eigenvectors listed in part (c).
If , the equation is independent of : it is an elliptic cylinder parallel to , with cross-sectional semiaxes and .
If , the form has two positive coefficients and one negative coefficient: it is a one-sheet hyperboloid, with axis and waist ellipse at . Its axial scale is .
These are the three cases of the signature transition from an ellipsoid to an elliptic cylinder and a one-sheet hyperboloid. At the repeated eigenvalues and , principal axes in the corresponding two-dimensional eigenspace are not unique: the ellipsoid is respectively an oblate spheroid about the axis or a prolate spheroid about the axis.
Let be a Hermitian matrix and with . The scalar equals its own complex conjugate, becauseSince and the squared norm is positive, .
Now take and . The inner product satisfiesSubtracting gives . Thus distinct eigenvalues imply , proving orthogonality of the corresponding eigenvectors. Within a degenerate eigenspace, an orthonormal basis may be chosen, but arbitrary distinct vectors in that same eigenspace need not be orthogonal.
All factors that are rational functions of commute. Taking the Hermitian conjugate reverses product order and givesThereforeso . This is a Cayley transform of a Hermitian matrix, with scale and the convention that an infinite real eigenvalue maps to one.
Applying it to each eigenvector yieldsThe eigenvectors are unchanged, and because numerator and denominator are complex conjugates. No equals one when . The scalar map is injective on real , so the eigenspaces, including any degeneracies, are preserved exactly.
Let with in the self-adjoint domain. By the boundary identity from part (i),Since its squared weighted norm is positive, .
For and , the same identity givesThus impliesThis is orthogonality of Sturm-Liouville eigenfunctions. Degenerate eigenspaces can be given an orthonormal basis, although vectors in a degenerate eigenspace are not automatically orthogonal.
