Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ia / Paper 1 / 7A / c / Solution

Expand $x={\sum }_j{c}_j{v}_j$ in the orthonormal basis from part (a). ThenFor $x\ne 0$, the weights $|c_j{|}^2/{\sum }_k|c_k{|}^2$ are nonnegative and sum to one. The Rayleigh quotient therefore lies between the smallest and largest eigenvalues. Conversely, normalized extreme eigenvectors $v_{\min },v_{\max }$ give, for $0\le t\le 1$,Thus the exact Hermitian Rayleigh quotient range isWhen $n=1$, the range is the singleton containing the sole eigenvalue.