Part IA, {{ year }}
Part IA 2010
Paper 1, Section I, D
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a complex power series. State carefully what it means for the power series to have radius of convergence , with .
Suppose the power series has radius of convergence , with . Show that the sequence is unbounded if .
Find the radius of convergence of .
Paper 1, Section I, E
Part IA, 2010 commentFind the limit of each of the following sequences; justify your answers.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Find the general solution of the system of differential equations
(b) Depending on the parameter , find the general solution of the system of differential equations
and explain why has a particular solution of the form with constant vector for but not for .
[Hint: decompose in terms of the eigenbasis of the matrix in (1).]
(c) For , find the solution of (2) which goes through the point at .
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) State how the nature of a critical (or stationary) point of a function with can be determined by consideration of the eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix of , assuming is non-singular.
(b) Let . Find all the critical points of the function and determine their nature. Determine the zero contour of and sketch a contour plot showing the behaviour of the contours in the neighbourhood of the critical points.
(c) Now let . Show that is a critical point of for which the Hessian matrix of is singular. Find an approximation for to lowest non-trivial order in the neighbourhood of the point . Does have a maximum or a minimum at ? Justify your answer.
Paper 4, Section I, B
Part IA, 2010 commentA particle of mass and charge moves with trajectory in a constant magnetic field . Write down the Lorentz force on the particle and use Newton's Second Law to deduce that
where is a constant vector and is to be determined. Find and hence for the initial conditions
where and are constants. Sketch the particle's trajectory in the case .
[Unit vectors correspond to a set of Cartesian coordinates. ]
Paper 4, Section , B
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be an inertial frame with coordinates in two-dimensional spacetime. Write down the Lorentz transformation giving the coordinates in a second inertial frame moving with velocity relative to . If a particle has constant velocity in , find its velocity in . Given that and , show that .
Paper 4 , Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentA sphere of uniform density has mass and radius . Find its moment of inertia about an axis through its centre.
A marble of uniform density is released from rest on a plane inclined at an angle to the horizontal. Let the time taken for the marble to travel a distance down the plane be: (i) if the plane is perfectly smooth; or (ii) if the plane is rough and the marble rolls without slipping.
Explain, with a clear discussion of the forces acting on the marble, whether or not its energy is conserved in each of the cases (i) and (ii). Show that .
Suppose that the original marble is replaced by a new one with the same mass and radius but with a hollow centre, so that its moment of inertia is for some constant . What is the new value for ?
Paper 4, Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentA particle of unit mass moves in a plane with polar coordinates and components of acceleration . The particle experiences a force corresponding to a potential . Show that
are constants of the motion, where
Sketch the graph of in the cases and .
(a) Assuming and , for what range of values of do bounded orbits exist? Find the minimum and maximum distances from the origin, and , on such an orbit and show that
Prove that the minimum and maximum values of the particle's speed, and , obey
(b) Now consider trajectories with and of either sign. Find the distance of closest approach, , in terms of the impact parameter, , and , the limiting value of the speed as . Deduce that if then, to leading order,
Paper 4, Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentConsider a set of particles with position vectors and masses , where . Particle experiences an external force and an internal force from particle , for each . Stating clearly any assumptions you need, show that
where is the total momentum, is the total external force, is the total angular momentum about a fixed point , and is the total external torque about .
Does the result still hold if the fixed point is replaced by the centre of mass of the system? Justify your answer.
Suppose now that the external force on particle is and that all the particles have the same mass . Show that
Paper 4, Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentA particle of rest mass is fired at an identical particle which is stationary in the laboratory. On impact, and annihilate and produce two massless photons whose energies are equal. Assuming conservation of four-momentum, show that the angle between the photon trajectories is given by
where is the relativistic energy of .
Let be the speed of the incident particle . For what value of will the photons move in perpendicular directions? If is very small compared with , show that
[All quantities referred to are measured in the laboratory frame.]
Paper 3, Section I, D
Part IA, 2010 commentWrite down the matrix representing the following transformations of :
(i) clockwise rotation of around the axis,
(ii) reflection in the plane ,
(iii) the result of first doing (i) and then (ii).
Paper 3, Section I, D
Part IA, 2010 commentExpress the element in as a product of disjoint cycles. Show that it is in . Write down the elements of its conjugacy class in .
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part IA, 2010 commentDetermine whether the following series converge or diverge. Any tests that you use should be carefully stated.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2010 comment(i) State the orbit-stabilizer theorem.
Let be the group of rotations of the cube, the set of faces. Identify the stabilizer of a face, and hence compute the order of .
Describe the orbits of on the set of pairs of faces.
(ii) Define what it means for a subgroup of to be normal. Show that has a normal subgroup of order 4 .
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2010 commentState Lagrange's theorem. Let be a prime number. Prove that every group of order is cyclic. Prove that every abelian group of order is isomorphic to either or
Show that , the dihedral group of order 12 , is not isomorphic to the alternating .
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a group, a set on which acts transitively, the stabilizer of a point .
Show that if stabilizes the point , then there exists an with .
Let , acting on by Möbius transformations. Compute , the stabilizer of . Given
compute the set of fixed points
Show that every element of is conjugate to an element of .
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a finite group, the set of proper subgroups of . Show that conjugation defines an action of on .
Let be a proper subgroup of . Show that the orbit of on containing has size at most the index . Show that there exists a which is not conjugate to an element of .
Paper 4, Section I, E
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Find the smallest residue which equals .
[You may use any standard theorems provided you state them correctly.]
(b) Find all integers which satisfy the system of congruences
Paper 4, Section I,
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Let be a real root of the polynomial , with integer coefficients and leading coefficient 1 . Show that if is rational, then is an integer.
(b) Write down a series for . By considering for every natural number , show that is irrational.
Paper 4, Section II, E
Part IA, 2010 commentThe Fibonacci numbers are defined for all natural numbers by the rules
Prove by induction on that, for any ,
Deduce that
Put and for . Show that these (Lucas) numbers satisfy
Show also that, for all , the greatest common divisor is 1 , and that the greatest common divisor is at most 2 .
Paper 4, Section II,
Part IA, 2010 commentState and prove Fermat's Little Theorem.
Let be an odd prime. If , show that divides for infinitely many natural numbers .
Hence show that divides infinitely many of the integers
Paper 4, Section II,
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Let be finite non-empty sets, with . Show that there are mappings from to . How many of these are injective ?
(b) State the Inclusion-Exclusion principle.
(c) Prove that the number of surjective mappings from a set of size onto a set of size is
Deduce that
Paper 4 , Section II, E
Part IA, 2010 commentWhat does it mean for a set to be countable ?
Show that is countable, but is not. Show also that the union of two countable sets is countable.
A subset of has the property that, given and , there exist reals with and with and . Can be countable ? Can be uncountable ? Justify your answers.
A subset of has the property that given there exists such that if for some , then . Is countable ? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) State and prove Taylor's theorem with the remainder in Lagrange's form.
(b) Suppose that is a differentiable function such that and for all . Use the result of (a) to prove that
[No property of the exponential function may be assumed.]
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2010 commentJensen's inequality states that for a convex function and a random variable with a finite mean, .
(a) Suppose that where is a positive integer, and is a random variable taking values with equal probabilities, and where the sum . Deduce from Jensen's inequality that
(b) horses take part in races. The results of different races are independent. The probability for horse to win any given race is , with .
Let be the probability that a single horse wins all races. Express as a polynomial of degree in the variables .
By using (1) or otherwise, prove that .
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2010 commentLet and be two non-constant random variables with finite variances. The correlation coefficient is defined by
(a) Using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality or otherwise, prove that
(b) What can be said about the relationship between and when either (i) or (ii) . [Proofs are not required.]
(c) Take and let be independent random variables taking values with probabilities . Set
Find .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) What does it mean to say that a random variable with values has a geometric distribution with a parameter where ?
An expedition is sent to the Himalayas with the objective of catching a pair of wild yaks for breeding. Assume yaks are loners and roam about the Himalayas at random. The probability that a given trapped yak is male is independent of prior outcomes. Let be the number of yaks that must be caught until a breeding pair is obtained. (b) Find the expected value of . (c) Find the variance of .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 commentThe yearly levels of water in the river Camse are independent random variables , with a given continuous distribution function and . The levels have been observed in years and their values recorded. The local council has decided to construct a dam of height
Let be the subsequent time that elapses before the dam overflows:
(a) Find the distribution function , and show that the mean value
(b) Express the conditional probability , where and , in terms of .
(c) Show that the unconditional probability
(d) Determine the mean value .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 commentIn a branching process every individual has probability of producing exactly offspring, , and the individuals of each generation produce offspring independently of each other and of individuals in preceding generations. Let represent the size of the th generation. Assume that and and let be the generating function of . Thus
(a) Prove that
(b) State a result in terms of about the probability of eventual extinction. [No proofs are required.]
(c) Suppose the probability that an individual leaves descendants in the next generation is , for . Show from the result you state in (b) that extinction is certain. Prove further that in this case
and deduce the probability that the th generation is empty.
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be bivariate normal random variables, with the joint probability density function
where
and .
(a) Deduce that the marginal probability density function
(b) Write down the moment-generating function of in terms of and proofs are required.]
(c) By considering the ratio prove that, conditional on , the distribution of is normal, with mean and variance and , respectively.
Paper 3, Section I, C
Part IA, 2010 commentConsider the vector field
defined on all of except the axis. Compute on the region where it is defined.
Let be the closed curve defined by the circle in the -plane with centre and radius 1 , and be the closed curve defined by the circle in the -plane with centre and radius 1 .
By using your earlier result, or otherwise, evaluate the line integral .
By explicit computation, evaluate the line integral . Is your result consistent with Stokes' theorem? Explain your answer briefly.
Paper 3, Section I, C
Part IA, 2010 commentA curve in two dimensions is defined by the parameterised Cartesian coordinates
where the constants . Sketch the curve segment corresponding to the range . What is the length of the curve segment between the points and , as a function of ?
A geometrically sensitive ant walks along the curve with varying speed , where is the curvature at the point corresponding to parameter . Find the time taken by the ant to walk from to , where is a positive integer, and hence verify that this time is independent of .
[You may quote without proof the formula ]
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Define a rank two tensor and show that if two rank two tensors and are the same in one Cartesian coordinate system, then they are the same in all Cartesian coordinate systems.
The quantity has the property that, for every rank two tensor , the quantity is a scalar. Is necessarily a rank two tensor? Justify your answer with a proof from first principles, or give a counterexample.
(b) Show that, if a tensor is invariant under rotations about the -axis, then it has the form
(c) The inertia tensor about the origin of a rigid body occupying volume and with variable mass density is defined to be
The rigid body has uniform density and occupies the cylinder
Show that the inertia tensor of about the origin is diagonal in the coordinate system, and calculate its diagonal elements.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a function of two variables, and a region in the -plane. State the rule for evaluating as an integral with respect to new variables and .
Sketch the region in the -plane defined by
Sketch the corresponding region in the -plane, where
Express the integral
as an integral with respect to and . Hence, or otherwise, calculate .
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IA, 2010 commentDefine what it means for a bounded function to be Riemann integrable.
Show that a monotonic function is Riemann integrable, where .
Prove that if is a decreasing function with as , then and either both diverge or both converge.
Hence determine, for , when converges.
Paper 3 , Section II, C
Part IA, 2010 commentState the divergence theorem (also known as Gauss' theorem) relating the surface and volume integrals of appropriate fields.
The surface is defined by the equation for ; the surface is defined by the equation for ; the surface is defined by the equation for satisfying . The surface is defined to be the union of the surfaces and . Sketch the surfaces and (hence) .
The vector field is defined by
Evaluate the integral
where the surface element points in the direction of the outward normal to .
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2010 commentGiven a spherically symmetric mass distribution with density , explain how to obtain the gravitational field , where the potential satisfies Poisson's equation
The remarkable planet Geometria has radius 1 and is composed of an infinite number of stratified spherical shells labelled by integers . The shell has uniform density , where is a constant, and occupies the volume between radius and .
Obtain a closed form expression for the mass of Geometria.
Obtain a closed form expression for the gravitational field due to Geometria at a distance from its centre of mass, for each positive integer . What is the potential due to Geometria for ?
Paper 1, Section I,
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be the matrix representing a linear map with respect to the bases of and of , so that . Let be another basis of and let be another basis of . Show that the matrix representing with respect to these new bases satisfies with matrices and which should be defined.
Paper 1, Section I, C
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) The complex numbers and satisfy the equations
What are the possible values of ? Justify your answer.
(b) Show that for all complex numbers and . Does the inequality hold for all complex numbers and ? Justify your answer with a proof or a counterexample.
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part IA, 2010 commentLet and be real matrices.
(i) Define the trace of , and show that .
(ii) Show that , with if and only if is the zero matrix. Hence show that
Under what condition on and is equality achieved?
(iii) Find a basis for the subspace of matrices such that
Paper 1, Section II,
Part IA, 2010 commentLet and be vectors in . Give a definition of the dot product, , the cross product, , and the triple product, . Explain what it means to say that the three vectors are linearly independent.
Let and be vectors in . Let be a matrix with entries . Show that
Hence show that is of maximal rank if and only if the sets of vectors , and are both linearly independent.
Now let and be sets of vectors in , and let be an matrix with entries . Is it the case that is of maximal rank if and only if the sets of vectors and are both linearly independent? Justify your answer with a proof or a counterexample.
Given an integer , is it always possible to find a set of vectors in with the property that every pair is linearly independent and that every triple is linearly dependent? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a complex matrix with an eigenvalue . Show directly from the definitions that:
(i) has an eigenvalue for any integer ; and
(ii) if is invertible then and has an eigenvalue .
For any complex matrix , let . Using standard properties of determinants, show that:
(iii) ; and
(iv) if is invertible,
Explain, including justifications, the relationship between the eigenvalues of and the polynomial .
If has an eigenvalue , does it follow that has an eigenvalue with ? Give a proof or counterexample.
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2010 commentLet be a real orthogonal matrix with a real eigenvalue corresponding to some real eigenvector. Show algebraically that and interpret this result geometrically.
Each of the matrices
has an eigenvalue . Confirm this by finding as many independent eigenvectors as possible with this eigenvalue, for each matrix in turn.
Show that one of the matrices above represents a rotation, and find the axis and angle of rotation. Which of the other matrices represents a reflection, and why?
State, with brief explanations, whether the matrices are diagonalisable (i) over the real numbers; (ii) over the complex numbers.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Let and be a function . Define carefully what it means for to be times differentiable at a point .
Consider the function on the real line, with and
(b) Is differentiable at ?
(c) Show that has points of non-differentiability in any neighbourhood of .
(d) Prove that, in any finite interval , the derivative , at the points where it exists, is bounded: where depends on .
Paper 2, Section I, A
Part IA, 2010 commentFind the general solutions to the following difference equations for .
Paper 2, Section I, A
Part IA, 2010 commentLet where the variables and are related by a smooth, invertible transformation. State the chain rule expressing the derivatives and in terms of and and use this to deduce that
where and are second-order partial derivatives, to be determined.
Using the transformation and in the above identity, or otherwise, find the general solution of
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) Consider the differential equation
with and . Show that is a solution if and only if where
Show further that is also a solution of if is a root of the polynomial of multiplicity at least 2 .
(b) By considering , or otherwise, find the general real solution for satisfying
By using a substitution of the form in , or otherwise, find the general real solution for , with positive, where
Paper 2, Section II,
Part IA, 2010 comment(a) By using a power series of the form
or otherwise, find the general solution of the differential equation
(b) Define the Wronskian for a second order linear differential equation
and show that . Given a non-trivial solution of show that can be used to find a second solution of and give an expression for in the form of an integral.
(c) Consider the equation (2) with
where and have Taylor expansions
with a positive integer. Find the roots of the indicial equation for (2) with these assumptions. If is a solution, use the method of part (b) to find the first two terms in a power series expansion of a linearly independent solution , expressing the coefficients in terms of and .