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Prove that unitary matrix $U$ satisfies $|\det U| = 1$, but $\det U$ is different from $\det U^{H}$.

How can I prove these two statements? I guess I should use the fact that every column of unitary matirx is orthonormal, but I'm not sure where to put that...

1 Answers 1

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We have $\det U^H=\overline{\det U}$ and $\det(AB)=\det A\det B$ for two square matrices of the same dimension, which gives $1=\det I_n=\det U\cdot U^H=\det U\cdot\det U^H=\det U\overline{\det U}=|\det U|^2.$

We can have $\det U=\det U^H$, when $U=I_n$ for example.