By the spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices, choose an orthonormal eigenbasis corresponding to , with . Write and . This orthogonal change of coordinates givesThe plane constraint is therefore . On that plane the quadratic form vanishes exactly whenConsequently the entire set isThe two direction vectors are nonzero and not parallel, since are linearly independent. An invertible orthogonal transformation maps each full line to a full line. Thus the set consists of precisely two infinite lines through the origin.
Split the Cartesian second-rank tensor into symmetric and antisymmetric parts:Define . The symmetric part contributes zero to this contraction. The epsilon-delta identity then givesThereforeThe symmetric part and the three independent antisymmetric components determine these quantities uniquely. Under proper rotations is a vector; under reflections it is an axial vector.
Let . It is an isotropic tensor and is invariant under every permutation of its four indices. Thus the three coefficients in the general rank-four isotropic form must coincide:A double tensor contraction givesHere the three contracted Kronecker delta products contribute , and . Contracting instead with the four unit vectors yieldsThis agrees with subtracting two instances of the isotropic fourth moment of a ball.
Introduce the second moment tensor . The spherical shell is preserved by every rotation, so this is an isotropic tensor, . Its trace determines the constant:Contracting with the components of the two unit vectors givesThis is the second-order case of radial tensor moments in three dimensions.
A rigid rotation of a regular tetrahedron permutes its four vertices, giving an injective group homomorphism from its rotation group to : fixing every vertex forces the rotation to be the identity. Its seven nontrivial rotation axes are four lines through a vertex and the opposite face centre, and three lines through midpoints of opposite edges.
Each vertex-face axis admits rotations by , giving eight three-cycles on the vertices. Each opposite-edge axis admits a half-turn, giving three double transpositions. Along with the identity there are twelve rotations. All their induced permutations are even, so the injective image is a twelve-element subgroup of , hence the whole group. ThereforeIts action on supplies a three-dimensional representation. To prove irreducibility even after complexification, choose verticesThe group contains the half-turns and their cyclic variants, as well as the coordinate cycle . If a nonzero invariant subspace over the complex numbers contains a vector with nonzero component, applying shows it contains the axis. If another component is nonzero, use the corresponding projection instead. The coordinate cycle then supplies the other two axes. Every nonzero invariant subspace is therefore the full space, provingThis also gives an elementary proof without presupposing the character table.
Differentiate the position vector, using the angular factor from the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates:The basis is an orthonormal basis, so all cross terms in its squared length vanish. The Euclidean line element is thereforeIn particular, an angular change at fixed radius traverses a physical distance .
Write the position vector as . Its coordinate tangent vectors areTheir pairwise dot products vanish. Their lengths, the scale factors of orthogonal coordinates, areThus the cylindrical coordinate system is orthogonal wherever it is a nonsingular coordinate chart. At , the angular tangent vector vanishes and the azimuth is undefined; this is the usual coordinate singularity on the axis, not a failure of the Euclidean geometry.
The radial unit vector in the spherical coordinate system isThe coordinate tangent in the polar direction has length , so its corresponding unit vector isDifferentiating at fixed therefore givesThe factor is not : the corresponding scale factors of orthogonal coordinates occur in the derivative of the position vector, whereas the question differentiates its unit direction. The formula is understood away from the coordinate singularities where a complete spherical basis is not uniquely specified.
Label the equilibrium vertices in the order , and write their displacements as . Their eighteen Cartesian components are generalized coordinates. Linearize the axial Hookean springs about the unstressed equilibrium. For an edge with unit direction , its first-order extension is , so the quadratic potential energy isThree zero modes are translations: for each Cartesian unit vector , take at every vertex. Three more are infinitesimal rotations . Explicitly, in the stated vertex order, their displacement vectors areTranslations leave each displacement difference zero. For rotations,because the equilibrium edge vector is parallel to . Hence every spring has zero first-order extension in all six patterns, and the stiffness matrix annihilates them.
The translations have nonzero summed displacement, while all the rotations have zero sum. The three rotational patterns are themselves independent because the vertices do not lie on a single line. ThusThese are the rigid-motion zero modes of a spring framework. The rotational displacements describe infinitesimal rigid rotations; an arbitrary finite rotation would require its nonlinear displacement field.
The initial displacement lies in an invariant subspace of axial motions. Let the three opposite vertex pairs have positionsFor a vertex on the positive axis, the two springs towards the vertices contribute in the direction; the two towards the vertices contribute . Transverse components cancel in pairs. Cyclically,The matrix is . It has eigenvalue on the breathing vector , and eigenvalue on the orthogonal plane . This identifies the axial normal modes of an octahedral spring framework without a large characteristic determinant.
Put and decompose the initial vector asSince all initial velocities are zero, only cosine time factors occur. The complete motion to first order in the displacements iswith the vertex positions given by the first displayed formula. No translation or rotation is excited: the initial displacements are orthogonal to those zero modes and their initial velocities vanish. The two checks and respectively isolate pure breathing and pure traceless axial oscillation. Nonlinear corrections beyond the small-displacement approximation have been omitted.
Differentiate the position vector with respect to the three coordinates to obtain the coordinate basis vectors:The chain rule gives . The scale factors of orthogonal coordinates are the corresponding norms:Direct dot products give , , and . Thus the parabolic coordinates are orthogonal wherever the coordinate vectors are nondegenerate. Their degeneracy on is the usual axis degeneracy of the azimuthal coordinate.
The three coordinate basis vectors are the partial derivatives of the position vector with respect to the three coordinates. Direct differentiation givesThe multivariable chain rule then gives . These are coordinate tangent vectors, not necessarily unit vectors.
The required actions have already been identified:In three dimensions choose a unit vector perpendicular to both. Its one-dimensional orthogonal complement to the pair is invariant under . On a one-dimensional real space, a skew-symmetric matrix must act as zero: would imply . Thus .
The columns of form an orthonormal basis, so is an orthogonal matrix. The displayed actions giveand thereforeIf , take and any orthogonal matrix . Otherwise its nonzero two-dimensional block supplies the pair used above.
Since is constant, the product rule gives . Applying the divergence theorem therefore givesThis holds for every constant vector , so each component of the difference vanishes. Consequently the gradient has the boundary representation
Apply the product rule to the tensor field, without assuming any symmetry of :Integrating, the divergence theorem converts each of the two divergences into a boundary term:The repeated indices are summed according to Einstein summation convention, while labels the component of the resulting vector identity.
If were a singular matrix, a nonzero vector would satisfy , so . This would make an eigenvalue of the anti-Hermitian matrix, contrary to part (a). Thus . The same argument shows is an invertible matrix, which will also be used below.
Put , so . Because the Hermitian matrices commute,For every nonzero vector ,since is an invertible matrix. Thus and are invertible matrices, justifying the inverse in the definition of . The conjugate transpose of is . Since and commute, their inverses do too, andHence is a unitary matrix.
Complete the square in the Hermitian matrix polynomial:For every nonzero vector ,Thus is a positive-definite matrix, so . In finite-dimensional spectral theorem terms, each eigenvalue isIf , the scalar polynomial has real roots of a polynomialAn allowed nonzero root can be an eigenvalue of , a Hermitian matrix which is also an invertible matrix, in which case has a zero eigenvalue. For example, , , gives . The weaker inequality does not force failure for every ; it removes the general positive lower bound. There is also the harmless corner , for which stays positive definite because is invertible, even though the strict discriminant hypothesis is absent.
For every vector , the Hermitian inner product givesThe norm vanishes only on the zero vector, so for every and . In contrast,is a nonzero nilpotent matrix. Multiplying a matrix by its conjugate transpose detects column norms; multiplying it by itself has no corresponding positivity property.
Let be the centre displacement and the small disk rotation. Put . The moment of inertia of a uniform disc is , obtained from and . Thus the kinetic energy is .
For one spring, let point radially towards its fixed anchor and let be the perpendicular unit vector. The moving attachment is , while the anchor is . Expanding their separation to second order gives the spring extension beyond natural length:Insert this in the elastic potential energy . For the three symmetric directions, and . Dropping the constant equilibrium energy givesTherefore the quadratic Lagrangian isThe prestretch terms cannot be omitted: they supply transverse spring stiffness and the entire rotational restoring torque, as derived generally in small oscillations of a disk attached to prestretched radial springs.