Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 1 / 6 / c / Solution

To avoid confusing the diagonalizing matrix with the exponential, write $A=WD{W}^{†}$ from part (b). The convergent matrix exponential series givesEach ${\lambda }_j$ is purely imaginary, so $|e^{{\lambda }_j}|=1$. The diagonal exponential is therefore a unitary matrix, andHence the matrix called $U=\exp (A)$ in this part is unitary. The series identity $(e^A{)}^{†}=e^{A^{†}}=e^{-A}$ gives the same conclusion directly and also covers repeated eigenvalues.