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Exercise 6.6.10
Answers
We use induction on the dimension of . If , and will be diagonalized simultaneously by any orthonormal basis. Suppose the statement is true for . Consider the case . Now pick one arbitrary eigenspace of for some eigenvalue . Note that is -invariant naturally and -invariant since
for all . If , then we may apply Theorem 6.16 to the operator and get an orthonormal basis consisting of eigenvectors of . Those vectors will also be eigenvectors of . If is a proper subspace of , we may apply the induction hypothesis to and , which are normal by Exercise 6.4.7 and Exercise 6.4.8, and get an orthonormal basis for consisting of eigenvectors of and . So those vectors are also eigenvectors of and . On the other hand, we know that is also - and -invariant by Exercise 6.4.7. They are also normal operators by Exercise 6.4.7(d). Again, by applying the induction hypothesis we get an orthonormal basis for consisting of eigenvectors of and . Since is finite dimensional, we know that is an orthonormal basis for consisting of eigenvectors of and .