Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / ib / Paper 4 / 1F / Solution

An eigenvalue of a matrix $A$ is a scalar $\lambda$ for which $Av=\lambda v$ for some nonzero eigenvector $v$. Its corresponding eigenspace is

Write $v=(a,b,c,d{)}^T$. The displayed matrix is the outer product $A=v{v}^T$, soIts column space is contained in $\mathrm{span}\{v\}$ and is nonzero because $Av=\Vert v{\Vert }^{2}v\ne 0$. Hence $A$ is a rank-one matrix.

The vector $v$ is an eigenvector with eigenvalue $\Vert v{\Vert }^2=a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2$, and every vector in the orthogonal complement $v^{\perp }$ has eigenvalue $0$. ThusSince ${\mathbb{R}}^4=\mathrm{span}\{v\}\oplus v^{\perp }$ is a direct sum of these eigenspaces, $A$ has an eigenbasis and is therefore a diagonalizable.