Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ib / Paper 1 / 1G (Linear Algebra)

In the given basis, the matrix is $A=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 1\\ 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 1& 0\end{array}\right)$. Let $\omega =e^{2\pi i/3}$, a primitive cube root of unity. For each $\xi \in \{1,\omega ,{\omega }^2\}$,Thus these are eigenvectors with distinct eigenvalues $1,{\omega }^2,\omega$, respectively, and form an eigenbasis. SetThe columns are mutually orthogonal with squared norm three, so $P^{-1}=P^{\ast }/3$. The diagonalization and characteristic polynomial areScaling $P$ by $1/\sqrt{3}$ gives a unitary diagonalizing matrix.