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What is the geometric interpretation of complex eigenvalues? For me it is clear that real eigenvalues of a matrix $A$ are associates to eigenvectors along which the matrix $A$ contracts or expands. Complex eigenvalues are associated intuitively (but not clearly) to me to eigenvectors along which the matrix $A$ rotates the space.

user39115
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  • Do you know about the real Jordan form? That makes clear your intuition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_normal_form#Real_matrices – Lee Mosher Jul 30 '14 at 18:00
  • I know it, but I do not have it geometric interpretation clear. – user39115 Jul 30 '14 at 18:02
  • I may write an answer later but here is a good geometric description: https://www.math.purdue.edu/~bkrummel/ma265_lecture5_5.pdf – Al.G. Jul 31 '21 at 07:27
  • @Al.G. the link is dead, do you remember the title of the note? – Yaroslav Bulatov Nov 27 '23 at 16:55
  • Sadly not, but there are other resources that explain the same. A quick googling lead me here: https://services.math.duke.edu/~jdr/1617f-1553/materials/11-09-web.pdf, which kinda explains what I was thinking about - a pair of complex eigenvalues means rotation by the complex value argument within a particular subspace (in contrast to real eigenvalues, which encode scaling of the axes). – Al.G. Nov 27 '23 at 17:10

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If $A$ is real matrix and exists its (not real) eigenvalue $\lambda=a+bi$ and eigenvector $x=v+iw$ ($a,b \in \mathbb{R}$, $v,w$-real vectors), then:

$Ax=\lambda x$, so:

$A(v+iw)=\lambda(v+iw)$

$Av+iAw=av-bw+i(aw+bv)$

So $Av=av-bw$ and $Aw=ax+bw$. You can interpret this result this way: there exist $a,b \in \mathbb{R}$ and vectors $v,w$ that $A$ transforms $v$ to $av-bw$ and $w$ to $aw+bv$.

agha
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