Solution EE.C19 Robert Beezer
First compute the characteristic polynomial, \begin{align*} \charpoly{C}{x} &=\detname{C-xI_2}&&\knowl{./knowls/definition.CP.knowl}{\text{Definition CP}}\\ &= \begin{vmatrix} -1-x & 2 \\ -6 & 6-x \end{vmatrix}\\ &=(-1-x)(6-x)-(2)(-6)&&\knowl{./knowls/theorem.DMST.knowl}{\text{Theorem DMST}}\\ &=x^2-5x+6\\ &=(x-3)(x-2) \end{align*} So the eigenvalues of $C$ are the solutions to $\charpoly{C}{x}=0$, namely, $\lambda=2$ and $\lambda=3$. Each eigenvalue has a factor that appears just once in the characteristic polynomial, so $\algmult{C}{2}=1$ and $\algmult{C}{3}=1$.

To obtain the eigenspaces, construct the appropriate singular matrices and find expressions for the null spaces of these matrices. \begin{align*} \lambda&=2\\ C-(2)I_2&= \begin{bmatrix} -3 & 2\\ -6 & 4 \end{bmatrix} \rref \begin{bmatrix} \leading{1} & -\frac{2}{3}\\ 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}\\ \eigenspace{C}{2}&=\nsp{C-(2)I_2}= \spn{\set{\colvector{\frac{2}{3}\\1}}} = \spn{\set{\colvector{2\\3}}} \end{align*} \begin{align*} \lambda&=3\\ C-(3)I_2&= \begin{bmatrix} -4 & 2\\ -6 & 3 \end{bmatrix} \rref \begin{bmatrix} \leading{1} & -\frac{1}{2}\\ 0 & 0 \end{bmatrix}\\ \eigenspace{C}{3}&=\nsp{C-(3)I_2}= \spn{\set{\colvector{\frac{1}{2}\\1}}} = \spn{\set{\colvector{1\\2}}} \end{align*} Each eigenspace has a single basis vector, so the dimensions are both $1$ and the geometric multiplicities are $\geomult{A}{2}=1$ and $\geomult{A}{3}=1$.