Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ia / Paper 1 / 7B / b / Solution

A real skew-symmetric matrix satisfies $A^{†}=A^T=-A$, so it is a skew-Hermitian matrix. If $Ax=\lambda x$, thenTaking the complex conjugate and using $A^{†}=-A$ shows that this scalar is the negative of its conjugate. Henceso every eigenvalue is purely imaginary or zero.

If $Ax=\lambda x$ and $Ay=\mu y$, thenSince ${\lambda }^{\ast }=-\lambda$, this becomes $(\mu -\lambda )x^{†}y=0$. Distinct eigenvalues therefore have orthogonal eigenvectors: