Past exam of the mathematical methods I course of the University of Oxford / 2021 resit / 5 / Solution

The characteristic polynomial isThus the eigenvalues are $i$ and $-i$. There is no real diagonalization, because a real diagonal matrix would have real eigenvalues. Over the complex numbers, the two distinct eigenvalues give linearly independent eigenvectors, so the matrix is diagonalizable.

For $\lambda =i$, the first row gives $(1-i)x+2y=0$. Choose $x=2$, giving $y=-1+i$. Its standard complex norm is $\sqrt{|2{|}^2+|-1+i{|}^2}=\sqrt{6}$; the conjugate eigenvector belongs to $-i$. Hence normalized eigenvectors and a suitable change of basis areDirectly, $AP=P\mathrm{diag}(i,-i)$ and $\det P=-2i/3\ne 0$, soNormalization does not assert that these eigenvectors are orthogonal.