Eigenvalue and eigenvectors, bra-ket

Samuel Williams
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Question

Consider the matrix $$
\left[
\matrix
{
0&0&-1+i \\
0&3&0 \\
-1-i&0&0
}
\right]
$$

(a) Find the eigenvalues and normalized eigenvectors of A. Denote the eigenvectors of A by |a1>, |a2>, |a3>. Any degenerate eigenvalues?

(b) Show that the eigenvectors |a1>, |a2>, |a3> form an orthonormal and complete basis ;
|a1><a1|+|a2><a2|+|a3><a3|= I, where I is the 3x3 unit matrix,
and that <aj|ak> is the Kronecker delta function

(c) Find the matrix corresponding to the operator obtained from the ket-bra product of the
first eigenvector P=|a1><a1|. Is P a projection operator?

My attempt

I have done part (a). I got the eigenvalues as 3,√2,√2 with corresponding eigenvectors

(0 1 0) , ( (1-i)/√2 0 1 ) , ( -(1-i)/√2 0 1 )

Even after normalizing the vectors, I still can't work out part (b). I just don't get the 3x3 unit matrix.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
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The latter two eigenvectors aren't normalized!

Also, the eigenvalue corresponding to ##\left(\begin{smallmatrix}\frac{1-i}{\sqrt{2}} & 0 & 1\end{smallmatrix}\right)##should have the opposite sign.
 
The eigenvalue should have a -, must have missed it.
I already normalized the vectors, giving

1/√(1-i)*((1−i√2) 0 1))

And it still doesn't seem to work out for me
 
Samuel Williams said:
I already normalized the vectors, giving

1/√(1-i)*((1−i√2) 0 1))
I skimmed over that, my bad. Even so, it still isn't normalized--the magnitude is ##2##, not ##1-i##.
Use the equation ##\|x\|=\sqrt{\langle x\;|\ x\rangle}## to recover the norm on a Hilbert space. It should always be real-valued and nonnegative.
 
I managed to figure out where I have been going wrong thanks to you. I have been using Euclidean inner products instead of Hermitian inner products. Thanks for the help
 
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There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
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