Yes, the Pauli matrices are indeed Hermitian. The Pauli matrices, denoted as σ₁, σ₂, and σ₃, are a set of three 2x2 matrices commonly used in quantum mechanics. Each Pauli matrix is Hermitian, which means it is equal to its own conjugate transpose.
The explicit forms of the Pauli matrices are:
σ₁ = | 0 1 | | 1 0 |
σ₂ = | 0 -i | | i 0 |
σ₃ = | 1 0 | | 0 -1 |
You can verify that each of these matrices is Hermitian by taking the conjugate transpose of each matrix and confirming that it is equal to the original matrix.