Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / ib / Paper 4 / 10E (Linear Algebra)

A self-adjoint operator $T$ satisfies $⟨Tx,y⟩=⟨x,Ty⟩$. If $Tx=\lambda x$, then $\lambda ⟨x,x⟩=⟨Tx,x⟩=⟨x,Tx⟩=\overline{\lambda }⟨x,x⟩$, so $\lambda \in \mathbb{R}$. An eigenvector exists over $\mathbb{C}$; its orthogonal complement is $T$-invariant. Induction on dimension produces an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors, proving the finite-dimensional spectral theorem.

A self-adjoint $T$ is positive definite exactly when every eigenvalue is positive, since $⟨Tx,x⟩={\sum }_i{\lambda }_i|x_i{|}^2$ in an eigenbasis. The quadratic forms of two positive-definite operators add, so their sum is positive definite.

The same eigenbasis shows that $\mathrm{spec}T\subset [a,b]$ exactly when $T-\lambda I$ is positive definite for every $\lambda <a$ and negative definite for every $\lambda >b$. Finally, if $v$ is a unit eigenvector of $\alpha +\beta$ with eigenvalue $\gamma$, the Rayleigh quotient bounds giveThus every eigenvalue of $\alpha +\beta$ lies in $[a+c,b+d]$.