Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / Paper 2 / 6 / c

Let $r=\sqrt{x_1^2+x_2^2}$. Averaging each pair of transposed entries gives the symmetric tensorFor $r>0$, the upper block is the outer product of $(x_1,x_2)$ with itself. It sends that vector to $r^2$ times itself and annihilates its perpendicular. Thus its orthonormal principal axes and corresponding eigenvalues areTaking these vectors as the rows of the change-of-components matrix givesThis matrix is orthogonal with determinant one. These are the principal axes of a planar rank-one tensor block.

The matrix is a pointwise frame transformation: because its angle varies with position, it does not represent one fixed Cartesian rotation diagonalizing the entire field everywhere. On the axis $r=0$, the symmetric tensor is zero; all principal values coincide and any orthonormal axes may be chosen. The displayed formula for $M$ is therefore used only off that axis.