Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / ia / Paper 1 / 8A / a / v / Solution

Start with the assumed basis of eigenvectors, grouping them by eigenvalue. In each eigenspace, apply the Gram-Schmidt process, which replaces a linearly independent list by an orthonormal list with the same span. Every new vector stays within that eigenspace, since an eigenspace is a vector subspace.

By part (iv), different eigenspaces are orthogonal. The combined lists therefore form an orthonormal basis of the entire space, still consisting of eigenvectors. Let $U$ have these vectors as columns. Then $U$ is a unitary matrix, soThis gives the required unitary diagonalization of a normal matrix, including repeated eigenvalues.