Part IA, {{ year }}
Part IA 2018
Paper 1, Section I, E
Part IA, 2018 commentProve that an increasing sequence in that is bounded above converges.
Let be a decreasing function. Let and . Prove that as .
Paper 1, Section I,
Part IA, 2018 commentDefine the radius of convergence of a complex power series . Prove that converges whenever and diverges whenever .
If for all does it follow that the radius of convergence of is at least that of ? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 commentConsider the differential equation
What values of are ordinary points of the differential equation? What values of are singular points of the differential equation, and are they regular singular points or irregular singular points? Give clear definitions of these terms to support your answers.
For not equal to an integer there are two linearly independent power series solutions about . Give the forms of the two power series and the recurrence relations that specify the relation between successive coefficients. Give explicitly the first three terms in each power series.
For equal to an integer explain carefully why the forms you have specified do not give two linearly independent power series solutions. Show that for such values of there is (up to multiplication by a constant) one power series solution, and give the recurrence relation between coefficients. Give explicitly the first three terms.
If is a solution of the above second-order differential equation then
where is an arbitrarily chosen constant, is a second solution that is linearly independent of . For the case , taking to be a power series, explain why the second solution is not a power series.
[You may assume that any power series you use are convergent.]
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 commentThe temperature in an oven is controlled by a heater which provides heat at rate . The temperature of a pizza in the oven is . Room temperature is the constant value .
and satisfy the coupled differential equations
where and are positive constants. Briefly explain the various terms appearing in the above equations.
Heating may be provided by a short-lived pulse at , with or by constant heating over a finite period , with , where and are respectively the Dirac delta function and the Heaviside step function. Again briefly, explain how the given formulae for and are consistent with their description and why the total heat supplied by the two heating protocols is the same.
For . Find the solutions for and for , for each of and , denoted respectively by and , and and . Explain clearly any assumptions that you make about continuity of the solutions in time.
Show that the solutions and tend respectively to and in the limit as and explain why.
Paper 4, Section I, 3A
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Define an inertial frame.
(b) Specify three different types of Galilean transformation on inertial frames whose space coordinates are and whose time coordinate is .
(c) State the Principle of Galilean Relativity.
(d) Write down the equation of motion for a particle in one dimension in a potential . Prove that energy is conserved. A particle is at position at time . Find an expression for time as a function of in terms of an integral involving .
(e) Write down the values of any equilibria and state (without justification) whether they are stable or unstable for:
(i)
(ii) for and .
Paper 4, Section I, A
Part IA, 2018 commentExplain what is meant by a central force acting on a particle moving in three dimensions.
Show that the angular momentum of a particle about the origin for a central force is conserved, and hence that its path lies in a plane.
Show that, in the approximation in which the Sun is regarded as fixed and only its gravitational field is considered, a straight line joining the Sun and an orbiting planet sweeps out equal areas in equal time (Kepler's second law).
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2018 commentConsider a rigid body, whose shape and density distribution are rotationally symmetric about a horizontal axis. The body has mass , radius and moment of inertia about its axis of rotational symmetry and is rolling down a non-slip slope inclined at an angle to the horizontal. By considering its energy, calculate the acceleration of the disc down the slope in terms of the quantities introduced above and , the acceleration due to gravity.
(a) A sphere with density proportional to (where is distance to the sphere's centre and is a positive constant) is launched up a non-slip slope of constant incline at the same time, level and speed as a vertical disc of constant density. Find such that the sphere and the disc return to their launch points at the same time.
(b) Two spherical glass marbles of equal radius are released from rest at time on an inclined non-slip slope of constant incline from the same level. The glass in each marble is of constant and equal density, but the second marble has two spherical air bubbles in it whose radii are half the radius of the marbles, initially centred directly above and below the marble's centre, respectively. Each bubble is centred half-way between the centre of the marble and its surface. At a later time , find the ratio of the distance travelled by the first marble and the second. [ You may state without proof any theorems that you use and neglect the mass of air in the bubbles. ]
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2018 commentDefine the 4-momentum of a particle of rest mass and velocity . Calculate the power series expansion of the component for small (where is the speed of light in vacuo) up to and including terms of order , and interpret the first two terms.
(a) At CERN, anti-protons are made by colliding a moving proton with another proton at rest in a fixed target. The collision in question produces three protons and an anti-proton. Assume that the rest mass of a proton is identical to the rest mass of an anti-proton. What is the smallest possible speed of the incoming proton (measured in the laboratory frame)?
(b) A moving particle of rest mass decays into particles with 4 -momenta , and rest masses , where . Show that
Thus, show that
(c) A particle decays into particle and a massless particle 1 . Particle subsequently decays into particle and a massless particle 2 . Show that
where and are the 4-momenta of particles 1 and 2 respectively and are the masses of particles and respectively.
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2018 commentWrite down the Lorentz force law for a charge travelling at velocity in an electric field and magnetic field .
In a space station which is in an inertial frame, an experiment is performed in vacuo where a ball is released from rest a distance from a wall. The ball has charge and at time , it is a distance from the wall. A constant electric field of magnitude points toward the wall in a perpendicular direction, but there is no magnetic field. Find the speed of the ball on its first impact.
Every time the ball bounces, its speed is reduced by a factor . Show that the total distance travelled by the ball before it comes to rest is
where and are quadratic functions which you should find explicitly.
A gas leak fills the apparatus with an atmosphere and the experiment is repeated. The ball now experiences an additional drag force , where is the instantaneous velocity of the ball and . Solve the system before the first bounce, finding an explicit solution for the distance between the ball and the wall as a function of time of the form
where is a function and and are dimensional constants, all of which you should find explicitly.
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2018 commentThe position and velocity of a particle of mass are measured in a frame which rotates at constant angular velocity with respect to an inertial frame. The particle is subject to a force . What is the equation of motion of the particle?
Find the trajectory of the particle in the coordinates if and at and .
Find the maximum value of the speed of the particle and the times at which it travels at this speed.
[Hint: You may find using the variable helpful.]
Paper 3, Section I, D
Part IA, 2018 commentFind the order and the sign of the permutation .
How many elements of have order And how many have order
What is the greatest order of any element of ?
Paper 3, Section I, D
Part IA, 2018 commentProve that every member of is a product of at most three reflections.
Is every member of a product of at most two reflections? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Let be a function, and let . Define what it means for to be continuous at . Show that is continuous at if and only if for every sequence with .
(b) Let be a non-constant polynomial. Show that its image is either the real line , the interval for some , or the interval for some .
(c) Let , let be continuous, and assume that holds for all . Show that must be constant.
Is this also true when the condition that be continuous is dropped?
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2018 commentDefine the sign of a permutation . You should show that it is well-defined, and also that it is multiplicative (in other words, that it gives a homomorphism from to .
Show also that (for ) this is the only surjective homomorphism from to .
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2018 commentLet be an element of a group . We define a map from to by sending to . Show that is an automorphism of (that is, an isomorphism from to ).
Now let denote the group of automorphisms of (with the group operation being composition), and define a map from to by setting . Show that is a homomorphism. What is the kernel of ?
Prove that the image of is a normal subgroup of .
Show that if is cyclic then is abelian. If is abelian, must be abelian? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2018 commentDefine the quotient group , where is a normal subgroup of a group . You should check that your definition is well-defined. Explain why, for finite, the greatest order of any element of is at most the greatest order of any element of .
Show that a subgroup of a group is normal if and only if there is a homomorphism from to some group whose kernel is .
A group is called metacyclic if it has a cyclic normal subgroup such that is cyclic. Show that every dihedral group is metacyclic.
Which groups of order 8 are metacyclic? Is metacyclic? For which is metacyclic?
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part IA, 2018 commentState and prove the Direct Product Theorem.
Is the group isomorphic to Is isomorphic to ?
Let denote the group of all invertible complex matrices with , and let be the subgroup of consisting of those matrices with determinant
Determine the centre of .
Write down a surjective homomorphism from to the group of all unit-length complex numbers whose kernel is . Is isomorphic to ?
Paper 4, Section I, E
Part IA, 2018 commentState Fermat's theorem.
Let be a prime such that . Prove that there is no solution to
Show that there are infinitely many primes congruent to .
Paper 4, Section I, E
Part IA, 2018 commentGiven , show that is either an integer or irrational.
Let and be irrational numbers and be rational. Which of and must be irrational? Justify your answers. [Hint: For the last part consider .]
Paper 4, Section II,
Part IA, 2018 commentLet be a positive integer. Show that for any coprime to , there is a unique such that . Show also that if and are integers coprime to , then is also coprime to . [Any version of Bezout's theorem may be used without proof provided it is clearly stated.]
State and prove Wilson's theorem.
Let be a positive integer and be a prime. Show that the exponent of in the prime factorisation of ! is given by where denotes the integer part of .
Evaluate and
Let be a prime and . Let be the exponent of in the prime factorisation of . Find the exponent of in the prime factorisation of , in terms of and .
Paper 4, Section II, E
Part IA, 2018 commentFor let denote the set of all sequences of length . We define the distance between two elements and of to be the number of coordinates in which they differ. Show that for all .
For and let . Show that .
A subset of is called a -code if for all with . Let be the maximum possible value of for a -code in . Show that
Find , carefully justifying your answer.
Paper 4, Section II,
Part IA, 2018 commentLet and be subsets of a finite set . Let . Show that if belongs to for exactly values of , then
where with the convention that , and denotes the indicator function of Hint: Set and consider for which one has .]
Use this to show that the number of elements of that belong to for exactly values of is
Deduce the Inclusion-Exclusion Principle.
Using the Inclusion-Exclusion Principle, prove a formula for the Euler totient function in terms of the distinct prime factors of .
A Carmichael number is a composite number such that for every integer coprime to . Show that if is the product of distinct primes satisfying for , then is a Carmichael number.
Paper 4, Section II, 8E
Part IA, 2018 commentDefine what it means for a set to be countable.
Show that for any set , there is no surjection from onto the power set . Deduce that the set of all infinite sequences is uncountable.
Let be the set of sequences of subsets of such that for all and . Let consist of all members of for which for all but finitely many . Let consist of all members of for which for all but finitely many . For each of and determine whether it is countable or uncountable. Justify your answers.
Paper 1, Section II,
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Let be differentiable at . Show that is continuous at .
(b) State the Mean Value Theorem. Prove the following inequalities:
and
(c) Determine at which points the following functions from to are differentiable, and find their derivatives at the points at which they are differentiable:
(d) Determine the points at which the following function from to is continuous:
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2018 commentLet and be independent Poisson random variables with parameters and respectively.
(i) Show that is Poisson with parameter .
(ii) Show that the conditional distribution of given is binomial, and find its parameters.
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) State the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and Markov's inequality. State and prove Jensen's inequality.
(b) For a discrete random variable , show that implies that is constant, i.e. there is such that .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Let and be independent discrete random variables taking values in sets and respectively, and let be a function.
Let . Show that
Let . Show that
(b) Let be independent Bernoulli random variables. For any function , show that
Let denote the set of all sequences of length . By induction, or otherwise, show that for any function ,
where and .
Paper 2, Section II, 10F
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Let and be independent random variables taking values , each with probability , and let . Show that and are pairwise independent. Are they independent?
(b) Let and be discrete random variables with mean 0 , variance 1 , covariance . Show that .
(c) Let be discrete random variables. Writing , show that .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Consider a Galton-Watson process . Prove that the extinction probability is the smallest non-negative solution of the equation where . [You should prove any properties of Galton-Watson processes that you use.]
In the case of a Galton-Watson process with
find the mean population size and compute the extinction probability.
(b) For each , let be a random variable with distribution . Show that
in distribution, where is a standard normal random variable.
Deduce that
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2018 commentFor a symmetric simple random walk on starting at 0 , let .
(i) For and , show that
(ii) For , show that and that
(iii) Prove that .
Paper 3, Section I, C
Part IA, 2018 commentDerive a formula for the curvature of the two-dimensional curve .
Verify your result for the semicircle with radius given by .
Paper 3, Section I,
Part IA, 2018 commentIn plane polar coordinates , the orthonormal basis vectors and satisfy
Hence derive the expression for the Laplacian operator .
Calculate the Laplacian of , where and are constants. Hence find all solutions to the equation
Explain briefly how you know that there are no other solutions.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2018 commentGiven a one-to-one mapping and between the region in the -plane and the region in the -plane, state the formula for transforming the integral into an integral over , with the Jacobian expressed explicitly in terms of the partial derivatives of and .
Let be the region and consider the change of variables and . Sketch , the curves of constant and the curves of constant in the -plane. Find and sketch the image of in the -plane.
Calculate using this change of variables. Check your answer by calculating directly.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2018 commentState the formula of Stokes's theorem, specifying any orientation where needed.
Let . Calculate and verify that .
Sketch the surface defined as the union of the surface and the surface .
Verify Stokes's theorem for on .
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part IA, 2018 commentState and prove the Comparison Test for real series.
Assume for all . Show that if converges, then so do and . In each case, does the converse hold? Justify your answers.
Let be a decreasing sequence of positive reals. Show that if converges, then as . Does the converse hold? If converges, must it be the case that as ? Justify your answers.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2018 commentUse Maxwell's equations,
to derive expressions for and in terms of and .
Now suppose that there exists a scalar potential such that , and as . If is spherically symmetric, calculate using Gauss's flux method, i.e. by integrating a suitable equation inside a sphere centred at the origin. Use your result to find and in the case when for and otherwise.
For each integer , let be the sphere of radius centred at the point . Suppose that vanishes outside , and has the constant value in the volume between and for . Calculate and at the point .
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Suppose that a tensor can be decomposed as
where is symmetric. Obtain expressions for and in terms of , and check that is satisfied.
(b) State the most general form of an isotropic tensor of rank for , and verify that your answers are isotropic.
(c) The general form of an isotropic tensor of rank 4 is
Suppose that and satisfy the linear relationship , where is isotropic. Express in terms of , assuming that and . If instead and , find all such that .
(d) Suppose that and satisfy the quadratic relationship , where is an isotropic tensor of rank 6 . If is symmetric and is antisymmetric, find the most general non-zero form of and prove that there are only two independent terms. [Hint: You do not need to use the general form of an isotropic tensor of rank 6.]
Paper 1, Section I, C
Part IA, 2018 commentFor define the principal value of . State de Moivre's theorem.
Hence solve the equations (i) , (ii) , (iii) (iv)
[In each expression, the principal value is to be taken.]
Paper 1, Section I, A
Part IA, 2018 commentThe map is defined for , where is a unit vector in and is a real constant.
(i) Find the values of for which the inverse map exists, as well as the inverse map itself in these cases.
(ii) When is not invertible, find its image and kernel. What is the value of the rank and the value of the nullity of ?
(iii) Let . Find the components of the matrix such that . When is invertible, find the components of the matrix such that .
Paper 1, Section II,
Part IA, 2018 commentLet be non-zero real vectors. Define the inner product in terms of the components and , and define the norm . Prove that . When does equality hold? Express the angle between and in terms of their inner product.
Use suffix notation to expand .
Let be given unit vectors in , and let . Obtain expressions for the angle between and each of and , in terms of and . Calculate for the particular case when the angles between and are all equal to , and check your result for an example with and an example with .
Consider three planes in passing through the points and , respectively, with unit normals and , respectively. State a condition that must be satisfied for the three planes to intersect at a single point, and find the intersection point.
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Consider the matrix
representing a rotation about the -axis through an angle .
Show that has three eigenvalues in each with modulus 1 , of which one is real and two are complex (in general), and give the relation of the real eigenvector and the two complex eigenvalues to the properties of the rotation.
Now consider the rotation composed of a rotation by angle about the -axis followed by a rotation by angle about the -axis. Determine the rotation axis and the magnitude of the angle of rotation .
(b) A surface in is given by
By considering a suitable eigenvalue problem, show that the surface is an ellipsoid, find the lengths of its semi-axes and find the position of the two points on the surface that are closest to the origin.
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 commentLet be a real symmetric matrix.
(a) Prove the following:
(i) Each eigenvalue of is real and there is a corresponding real eigenvector.
(ii) Eigenvectors corresponding to different eigenvalues are orthogonal.
(iii) If there are distinct eigenvalues then the matrix is diagonalisable.
Assuming that has distinct eigenvalues, explain briefly how to choose (up to an arbitrary scalar factor) the vector such that is maximised.
(b) A scalar and a non-zero vector such that
are called, for a specified matrix , respectively a generalised eigenvalue and a generalised eigenvector of .
Assume the matrix is real, symmetric and positive definite (i.e. for all non-zero complex vectors ).
Prove the following:
(i) If is a generalised eigenvalue of then it is a root of .
(ii) Each generalised eigenvalue of is real and there is a corresponding real generalised eigenvector.
(iii) Two generalised eigenvectors , corresponding to different generalised eigenvalues, are orthogonal in the sense that .
(c) Find, up to an arbitrary scalar factor, the vector such that the value of is maximised, and the corresponding value of , where
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part IA, 2018 commentWhat is the definition of an orthogonal matrix ?
Write down a matrix representing the rotation of a 2-dimensional vector by an angle around the origin. Show that is indeed orthogonal.
Take a matrix
where are real. Suppose that the matrix is diagonal. Determine all possible values of .
Show that the diagonal entries of are the eigenvalues of and express them in terms of the determinant and trace of .
Using the above results, or otherwise, find the elements of the matrix
as a function of , where is a natural number.
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IA, 2018 comment(a) Let be a fixed enumeration of the rationals in . For positive reals , define a function from to by setting for each and for irrational. Prove that if then is Riemann integrable. If , can be Riemann integrable? Justify your answer.
(b) State and prove the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
Let be a differentiable function from to , and set for . Must be Riemann integrable on ?
Paper 2, Section I, B
Part IA, 2018 commentConsider the following difference equation for real :
where is a real constant.
For find the steady-state solutions, i.e. those with for all , and determine their stability, making it clear how the number of solutions and the stability properties vary with . [You need not consider in detail particular values of which separate intervals with different stability properties.]
Paper 2, Section I, B
Part IA, 2018 commentShow that for given there is a function such that, for any function ,
if and only if
Now solve the equation
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 commentBy choosing a suitable basis, solve the equation
subject to the initial conditions .
Explain briefly what happens in the cases or .
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part IA, 2018 commentThe function satisfies the partial differential equation
where and are non-zero constants.
Defining the variables and , where and are constants, and writing show that
where you should determine the functions and .
If the quadratic has distinct real roots then show that and can be chosen such that and .
If the quadratic has a repeated root then show that and can be chosen such that and .
Hence find the general solutions of the equations
and