Part IB, {{ year }}
Part IB 2005
1.I.1C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be an -dimensional vector space over , and let be a linear map. Define the minimal polynomial of . Prove that is invertible if and only if the constant term of the minimal polynomial of is non-zero.
1.II.9C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a finite dimensional vector space over , and be the dual space of .
If is a subspace of , we define the subspace of by
Prove that . Deduce that, if is any real -matrix of rank , the equations
have linearly independent solutions in .
3.I.1C
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine what is meant by two elements of a group being conjugate, and prove that this defines an equivalence relation on . If is finite, sketch the proof that the cardinality of each conjugacy class divides the order of .
- Part IB, 2005
comment(i) Define a primitive polynomial in , and prove that the product of two primitive polynomials is primitive. Deduce that is a unique factorization domain.
(ii) Prove that
is a field. Show, on the other hand, that
is an integral domain, but is not a field.
4.I.2C
Part IB, 2005 commentState Eisenstein's irreducibility criterion. Let be an integer . Prove that is irreducible in if and only if is a prime number.
4.II.11C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the ring of Gaussian integers , where , which you may assume to be a unique factorization domain. Prove that every prime element of divides precisely one positive prime number in . List, without proof, the prime elements of , up to associates.
Let be a prime number in . Prove that has cardinality . Prove that is not a field. If , show that is a field. If , decide whether is a field or not, justifying your answer.
1.I
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the map defined by
where . Describe briefly the image . Let denote the open subset of given by ; prove that the restriction defines a smooth parametrization of a certain open subset (which you should specify) of . Hence, or otherwise, prove that is a smooth embedded surface in .
[You may assume that the image under of any open set is open in .]
2.II.12A
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be an open subset of equipped with a Riemannian metric. For a smooth curve, define what is meant by its length and energy. Prove that length , with equality if and only if has constant norm with respect to the metric.
Suppose now is the upper half plane model of the hyperbolic plane, and are points on the positive imaginary axis. Show that a smooth curve joining and represents an absolute minimum of the length of such curves if and only if , with a smooth monotonic real function.
Suppose that a smooth curve joining the above points and represents a stationary point for the energy under proper variations; deduce from an appropriate form of the Euler-Lagrange equations that must be of the above form, with constant.
3.I.2A
Part IB, 2005 commentWrite down the Riemannian metric on the disc model of the hyperbolic plane. Given that the length minimizing curves passing through the origin correspond to diameters, show that the hyperbolic circle of radius centred on the origin is just the Euclidean circle centred on the origin with Euclidean . Prove that the hyperbolic area is .
State the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for the area of a hyperbolic triangle. Given a hyperbolic triangle and an interior point , show that the distance from to the nearest side is at most .
3.II.12A
Part IB, 2005 commentDescribe geometrically the stereographic projection map from the unit sphere to the extended complex plane , positioned equatorially, and find a formula for .
Show that any Möbius transformation on has one or two fixed points. Show that the Möbius transformation corresponding (under the stereographic projection map) to a rotation of through a non-zero angle has exactly two fixed points and , where . If now is a Möbius transformation with two fixed points and satisfying , prove that either corresponds to a rotation of , or one of the fixed points, say , is an attractive fixed point, i.e. for as .
[You may assume the fact that any rotation of corresponds to some Möbius transformation of under the stereographic projection map.]
4.II.12A
Part IB, 2005 commentGiven a parametrized smooth embedded surface , where is an open subset of with coordinates , and a point , define what is meant by the tangent space at , the unit normal at , and the first fundamental form
[You need not show that your definitions are independent of the parametrization.]
The second fundamental form is defined to be
where and . Prove that the partial derivatives of (considered as a vector-valued function of ) are of the form , , where
Explain briefly the significance of the determinant .
1.II.11B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a sequence of continuous real-valued functions defined on a set . Suppose that the functions converge uniformly to a function . Prove that is continuous on .
Show that the series defines a continuous function on the half-open interval .
[Hint: You may assume the convergence of standard series.]
2.I.1C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the set of all matrices of the form , where are in , and
Prove that is closed under multiplication and determine its dimension as a vector space over . Prove that
and deduce that each non-zero element of is invertible.
2.I.3B
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine uniform continuity for a real-valued function defined on an interval in .
Is a uniformly continuous function on the interval necessarily bounded?
Is uniformly continuous on ?
Is uniformly continuous on ?
Justify your answers.
2.II.13B
Part IB, 2005 commentUse the standard metric on in this question.
(i) Let be a nonempty closed subset of and a point in . Show that there is a point which minimizes the distance to , in the sense that for all .
(ii) Suppose that the set in part (i) is convex, meaning that contains the line segment between any two of its points. Show that point described in part (i) is unique.
3.I.3B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a function. What does it mean to say that is differentiable at a point in ? Show that if is differentiable at , then is continuous at .
For each of the following functions, determine whether or not it is differentiable at . Justify your answers.
(i)
(ii)
3.II.13B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a real-valued differentiable function on an open subset of . Assume that and that for all and is also in . Suppose that is homogeneous of degree , in the sense that for all and . By means of the Chain Rule or otherwise, show that
for all . (Here denotes the derivative of at , viewed as a linear map .)
Conversely, show that any differentiable function on with for all must be homogeneous of degree .
4.I 3 B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the vector space of continuous real-valued functions on . Show that the function
defines a norm on .
For , let . Is a convergent sequence in the space with this norm? Justify your answer.
4.II.13B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a continuous function. Let be the maximum value of . Suppose there is a constant such that
for all and . Let . Show that there is a unique function such that
and
[Hint: First show that the differential equation with its initial condition is equivalent to the integral equation
1.II.12A
Part IB, 2005 commentSuppose that and are metric spaces. Show that the definition
defines a metric on the product , under which the projection map is continuous.
If is compact, show that every sequence in has a subsequence converging to a point of . Deduce that the projection map then has the property that, for any closed subset , the image is closed in . Give an example to show that this fails if is not assumed compact.
2.I.4A
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a topological space. Suppose that are connected subsets of with non-empty for all . Prove that
is connected. If each is path-connected, prove that is path-connected.
3.I.4A
Part IB, 2005 commentShow that a topology is determined on the real line by specifying that a nonempty subset is open if and only if it is a union of half-open intervals , where are real numbers. Determine whether is Hausdorff.
Let denote the cofinite topology on (that is, a non-empty subset is open if and only if its complement is finite). Prove that the identity map induces a continuous .
4.II.14A
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a metric space, and a non-empty closed subset of . For , set
Prove that is a continuous function of , and that it is strictly positive for .
A topological space is called normal if for any pair of disjoint closed subsets , there exist disjoint open subsets . By considering the function
or otherwise, deduce that any metric space is normal.
Suppose now that is a normal topological space, and that are disjoint closed subsets in . Prove that there exist open subsets , whose closures are disjoint. In the case when with the standard metric topology, and , find explicit open subsets with the above property.
2.II.10C
Part IB, 2005 comment(i) Let be an matrix with entries in C. Define the determinant of , the cofactor of each , and the adjugate matrix . Assuming the expansion of the determinant of a matrix in terms of its cofactors, prove that
where is the identity matrix.
(ii) Let
Show the eigenvalues of are , where , and determine the diagonal matrix to which is similar. For each eigenvalue, determine a non-zero eigenvector.
1.I.3F
Part IB, 2005 commentState the Cauchy integral formula.
Using the Cauchy integral formula, evaluate
1.II.13F
Part IB, 2005 commentDetermine a conformal mapping from to the complex unit disc
[Hint: A standard method is first to map to , then to the complex right half-plane and, finally, to
2.II.14F
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a rational function, where and has no real zeros. Using the calculus of residues, write a general expression for
in terms of residues and briefly sketch its proof.
Evaluate explicitly the integral
3.II.14A
Part IB, 2005 commentState the Cauchy integral formula, and use it to deduce Liouville's theorem.
Let be a meromorphic function on the complex plane such that is bounded outside some disc (for some fixed integer ). By considering Laurent expansions, or otherwise, show that is a rational function in .
4.I.4A
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a closed path, where all paths are assumed to be piecewise continuously differentiable, and let be a complex number not in the image of . Write down an expression for the winding number in terms of a contour integral. From this characterization of the winding number, prove the following properties:
(a) If and are closed paths not passing through zero, and if is defined by for all , then
(b) If is a closed path whose image is contained in , then .
(c) If and are closed paths and is a complex number, not in the image of either path, such that
for all , then .
[You may wish here to consider the path defined by .]
3.I.5F
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine a harmonic function and state when the harmonic functions and are conjugate
Let and be two pairs of harmonic conjugate functions. Prove that are also harmonic conjugate.
4.II.15F
Part IB, 2005 commentDetermine the Fourier expansion of the function , where , in the two cases where is an integer and is a real non-integer.
Using the Parseval identity in the case , find an explicit expression for the sum
1.II.14E
Part IB, 2005 commentFind the Fourier Series of the function
Find the solution of the Poisson equation in two dimensions inside the unit disk
subject to the boundary condition .
[Hint: The general solution of is ]
From the solution, show that
2.I.5E
Part IB, 2005 commentConsider the differential equation for in
subject to boundary conditions , and . Find the Green function such that the solution for is given by
2.II.15E
Part IB, 2005 commentWrite down the Euler-Lagrange equation for the variational problem for
with boundary conditions , where is a given positive constant. Show that if does not depend explicitly on , i.e. , then the equation has a first integral
where is a constant.
An axisymmetric soap film is formed between two circular rings at . Find the equation governing the shape which minimizes the surface area. Show that the shape takes the form
Show that there exist no solution if , where is the unique positive solution of .
3.II.10B
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the vector space of functions such that the th derivative of is defined and continuous for every . Define linear maps by and . Show that
where in this question means and is the identity map on .
Now let be any real vector space with linear maps such that . Suppose that there is a nonzero element with . Let be the subspace of spanned by , and so on. Show that is in and give a formula for it. More generally, show that is in for each , and give a formula for it.
Show, using your formula or otherwise, that are linearly independent. (Or, equivalently: show that are linearly independent for every .)
3.I.6E
Part IB, 2005 commentDescribe briefly the method of Lagrangian multipliers for finding the stationary points of a function subject to a constraint .
Use the method to find the stationary values of subject to the constraint
3.II.15H
Part IB, 2005 commentObtain the power series solution about of
and show that regular solutions , which are polynomials of degree , are obtained only if Show that the polynomial must be even or odd according to the value of .
Show that
for some .
Using the identity
and considering an expansion show that
if we assume .
By considering
determine the coefficient .
4.I.5H
Part IB, 2005 commentShow how the general solution of the wave equation for ,
can be expressed as
Show that the boundary conditions relate the functions and and require them to be periodic with period .
Show that, with these boundary conditions,
and that this is a constant independent of .
4.II.16H
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine an isotropic tensor and show that are isotropic tensors.
For a unit vector and the area element on the unit sphere show that
is an isotropic tensor for any . Hence show that
for some which should be determined.
Explain why
where is the region inside the unit sphere.
[The general isotropic tensor of rank 4 has the form ]
1.II.15G
Part IB, 2005 commentThe wave function of a particle of mass that moves in a one-dimensional potential well satisfies the Schrödinger equation with a potential that is zero in the region and infinite elsewhere,
Determine the complete set of normalised energy eigenfunctions for the particle and show that the energy eigenvalues are
where is a positive integer.
At time the wave function is
in the region , and zero otherwise. Determine the possible results for a measurement of the energy of the system and the relative probabilities of obtaining these energies.
In an experiment the system is measured to be in its lowest possible energy eigenstate. The width of the well is then doubled while the wave function is unaltered. Calculate the probability that a later measurement will find the particle to be in the lowest energy state of the new potential well.
2.II.16G
Part IB, 2005 commentA particle of mass moving in a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator potential satisfies the Schrödinger equation
where the Hamiltonian is given by
The operators and are defined by
where and is the usual momentum operator. Show that .
Express and in terms of and and, hence or otherwise, show that can be written in the form
Show, for an arbitrary wave function , that and hence that the energy of any state satisfies the bound
Hence, or otherwise, show that the ground state wave function satisfies and that its energy is given by
By considering acting on , and so on, show that states of the form
are also eigenstates and that their energies are given by
3.I.7G
Part IB, 2005 commentThe wave function is a solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a particle of mass in a potential ,
where is the Hamiltonian. Define the expectation value, , of any operator .
At time can be written as a sum of the form
where is a complete set of normalized eigenfunctions of the Hamiltonian with energy eigenvalues and are complex coefficients that satisfy . Find for . What is the probability of finding the system in a state with energy at time ?
Show that the expectation value of the energy is independent of time.
3.II.16G
Part IB, 2005 commentA particle of mass moves in two dimensions in an axisymmetric potential. Show that the time-independent Schrödinger equation can be separated in polar coordinates. Show that the angular part of the wave function has the form , where is the angular coordinate and is an integer. Suppose that the potential is zero for , where is the radial coordinate, and infinite otherwise. Show that the radial part of the wave function satisfies
where . What conditions must satisfy at and ?
Show that, when , the equation has the solution , where if is odd and
if is even
Deduce the coefficients and in terms of . By truncating the series expansion at order , estimate the smallest value of at which the is zero. Hence give an estimate of the ground state energy.
[You may use the fact that the Laplace operator is given in polar coordinates by the expression
4.I.6G
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine the commutator of two operators, and . In three dimensions angular momentum is defined by a vector operator with components
Show that and use this, together with permutations, to show that , where denotes any of the directions .
At a given time the wave function of a particle is given by
Show that this is an eigenstate of with eigenvalue equal to .
1.II.16H
Part IB, 2005 commentFor a static charge density show that the energy may be expressed as
where is the electrostatic potential and is the electric field.
Determine the scalar potential and electric field for a sphere of radius with a constant charge density . Also determine the total electrostatic energy.
In a nucleus with protons the volume is proportional to . Show that we may expect the electric contribution to energy to be proportional to .
4.I.1B
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine what it means for an complex matrix to be unitary or Hermitian. Show that every eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix is real. Show that every eigenvalue of a unitary matrix has absolute value 1 .
Show that two eigenvectors of a Hermitian matrix that correspond to different eigenvalues are orthogonal, using the standard inner product on .
2.I.6H
Part IB, 2005 commentWrite down Maxwell's equations in the presence of a charge density and current density . Show that it is necessary that satisfy a conservation equation.
If are zero outside a fixed region show that the total charge inside is a constant and also that
2.II.17H
Part IB, 2005 commentAssume the magnetic field
where is a unit vector in the vertical direction. Show that this satisfies the expected equations for a static magnetic field in vacuum.
A circular wire loop, of radius , mass and resistance , lies in a horizontal plane with its centre on the -axis at a height and there is a magnetic field given by . Calculate the magnetic flux arising from this magnetic field through the loop and also the force acting on the loop when a current is flowing around the loop in a clockwise direction about the -axis.
Obtain an equation of motion for the height when the wire loop is falling under gravity. Show that there is a solution in which the loop falls with constant speed which should be determined. Verify that in this situation the rate at which heat is generated by the current flowing in the loop is equal to the rate of loss of gravitational potential energy. What happens when ?
3.II.17H
Part IB, 2005 commentIf are solutions of Maxwell's equations in a region without any charges or currents show that are also solutions.
At the boundary of a perfect conductor with normal briefly explain why
Electromagnetic waves inside a perfectly conducting tube with axis along the -axis are given by the real parts of complex solutions of Maxwell's equations of the form
Suppose . Show that we can find a solution in this case in terms of a function where
so long as satisfies
for suitable . Show that the boundary conditions are satisfied if on the surface of the tube.
Obtain a similar solution with but show that the boundary conditions are now satisfied if the normal derivative on the surface of the tube.
4.I.7H
Part IB, 2005 commentFor a static current density show that we may choose the vector potential so that
For a loop , centred at the origin, carrying a current show that
[You may assume
and for fixed vectors
1.I.4G
Part IB, 2005 commentThe four-velocity of a particle of rest mass is defined by , where is the proper time (the time as measured in the particle's rest frame). Derive the expression for each of the four components of in terms of the components of the three-velocity and the speed of light, .
Show that for an appropriately defined scalar product.
The four-momentum, , of a particle of rest mass defines a relativistic generalisation of energy and momentum. Show that the standard non-relativistic expressions for the momentum and kinetic energy of a particle with mass travelling with velocity are obtained in the limit . Show also how the concept of a rest energy equal to emerges.
2.I.7G
Part IB, 2005 commentBob and Alice are twins. Bob accelerates rapidly away from Earth in a rocket that travels in a straight line until it reaches a velocity relative to the Earth. It then travels with constant for a long time before reversing its engines and decelerating rapidly until it is travelling at a velocity relative to the Earth. After a further long period of time the rocket returns to Earth, decelerating rapidly until it is at rest. Alice remains on Earth throughout. Sketch the space-time diagram that describes Bob's world-line in Alice's rest frame, assuming that the periods of acceleration and deceleration are negligibly small compared to the total time, explain carefully why Bob ages less than Alice between his departure and his return and show that
where is the time by which Bob has aged and is the time by which Alice has aged.
Indicate on your diagram how Bob sees Alice aging during his voyage.
4.II.17G
Part IB, 2005 commentObtain the Lorentz transformations that relate the coordinates of an event measured in one inertial frame to those in another inertial frame moving with velocity along the axis. Take care to state the assumptions that lead to your result.
A star is at rest in a three-dimensional coordinate frame that is moving at constant velocity along the axis of a second coordinate frame . The star emits light of frequency , which may considered to be a beam of photons. A light ray from the star to the origin in is a straight line that makes an angle with the axis. Write down the components of the four-momentum of a photon in this light ray.
The star is seen by an observer at rest at the origin of at time , when the origins of the coordinate frames and coincide. The light that reaches the observer moves along a line through the origin that makes an angle to the axis and has frequency . Make use of the Lorentz transformations between the four-momenta of a photon in these two frames to determine the relation
where is the observed wavelength of the photon and is the wavelength in the star's rest frame.
Comment on the form of this result in the special cases with and .
[You may assume that the energy of a photon of frequency momentum is a three-vector of magnitude
1.I.5E
Part IB, 2005 commentExplain how a streamfunction can be used to represent in Cartesian Coordinates an incompressible flow in two dimensions. Show that the streamlines are given by const.
Consider the two-dimensional incompressible flow
(a) Find the streamfunction, and hence the streamlines at .
(b) Find the path of a fluid particle released at from . For what value of does the particle not tend to infinity?
1.II.17E
Part IB, 2005 commentState Bernoulli's expression for the pressure in an unsteady potential flow with conservative force .
A spherical bubble in an incompressible liquid of density has radius . If the pressure far from the bubble is and inside the bubble is , show that
Calculate the kinetic energy in the flow outside the bubble, and hence show that
where is the volume of the bubble.
If , show that
where when .
2.I.8E
Part IB, 2005 commentFor a steady flow of an incompressible fluid of density , show that
where is the vorticity and is to be found. Deduce that is constant along streamlines.
Now consider a flow in the -plane described by a streamfunction . Evaluate and deduce from that
4.II.10B
Part IB, 2005 comment(i) Let be a finite-dimensional real vector space with an inner product. Let be a basis for . Prove by an explicit construction that there is an orthonormal basis for such that the span of is equal to the span of for every .
(ii) For any real number , consider the quadratic form
on . For which values of is nondegenerate? When is nondegenerate, compute its signature in terms of .
3.II.18E
Part IB, 2005 commentConsider the velocity potential in plane polar coordinates
Find the velocity field and show that it corresponds to flow past a cylinder with circulation and uniform flow at large distances.
Find the distribution of pressure over the surface of the cylinder. Hence find the and components of the force on the cylinder
4.II.18E
Part IB, 2005 commentA fluid of density occupies the region and a second fluid of density occupies the region . State the equations and boundary conditions that are satisfied by the corresponding velocity potentials and and pressures and when the system is perturbed so that the interface is at and the motion is irrotational.
Seek a set of linearised equations and boundary conditions when the disturbances are proportional to , and derive the dispersion relation
where is the gravitational acceleration.
1.I.6F
Part IB, 2005 commentDetermine the Cholesky factorization (without pivoting) of the matrix
where is a real parameter. Hence, find the range of values of for which the matrix is positive definite.
2.II.18F
Part IB, 2005 comment(a) Let be a set of polynomials orthogonal with respect to some inner product in the interval . Write explicitly the least-squares approximation to by an th-degree polynomial in terms of the polynomials .
(b) Let an inner product be defined by the formula
Determine the th degree polynomial approximation of with respect to this inner product as a linear combination of the underlying orthogonal polynomials.
3.II.19F
Part IB, 2005 commentGiven real , we consider the matrix
Construct the Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel iteration matrices originating in the solution of the linear system .
Determine the range of real for which each iterative procedure converges.
4.I.8F
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine Gaussian quadrature.
Evaluate the coefficients of the Gaussian quadrature of the integral
which uses two function evaluations.
- Part IB, 2005
commentThe fast-food chain McGonagles have three sizes of their takeaway haggis, Large, Jumbo and Soopersize. A survey of 300 randomly selected customers at one branch choose 92 Large, 89 Jumbo and 119 Soopersize haggises.
Is there sufficient evidence to reject the hypothesis that all three sizes are equally popular? Explain your answer carefully.
1.II.18D
Part IB, 2005 commentIn the context of hypothesis testing define the following terms: (i) simple hypothesis; (ii) critical region; (iii) size; (iv) power; and (v) type II error probability.
State, without proof, the Neyman-Pearson lemma.
Let be a single observation from a probability density function . It is desired to test the hypothesis
with and , where is the distribution function of the standard normal, .
Determine the best test of size , where , and express its power in terms of and .
Find the size of the test that minimizes the sum of the error probabilities. Explain your reasoning carefully.
2.II.19D
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a random sample from a probability density function , where is an unknown real-valued parameter which is assumed to have a prior density . Determine the optimal Bayes point estimate of , in terms of the posterior distribution of given , when the loss function is
where and are given positive constants.
Calculate the estimate explicitly in the case when is the density of the uniform distribution on and .
3.I.8D
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a random sample from a normal distribution with mean and variance , where and are unknown. Derive the form of the size- generalized likelihood-ratio test of the hypothesis against , and show that it is equivalent to the standard -test of size .
[You should state, but need not derive, the distribution of the test statistic.]
1.II.10C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be a group, and a subgroup of finite index. By considering an appropriate action of on the set of left cosets of , prove that always contains a normal subgroup of such that the index of in is finite and divides !, where is the index of in .
Now assume that is a finite group of order , where and are prime numbers with . Prove that the subgroup of generated by any element of order is necessarily normal.
4.II.19D
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be observations satisfying
where are independent random variables each with the distribution. Here are known but and are unknown.
(i) Determine the maximum-likelihood estimates of .
(ii) Find the distribution of .
(iii) By showing that and are independent, or otherwise, determine the joint distribution of and .
(iv) Explain carefully how you would test the hypothesis against .
1.I.8D
Part IB, 2005 commentConsider the problem:
where satisfy .
Formulate the dual of this problem and state necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality.
2.I.9D
Part IB, 2005 commentExplain what is meant by a two-person zero-sum game with payoff matrix .
Show that the problems of the two players may be expressed as a dual pair of linear programming problems. State without proof a set of sufficient conditions for a pair of strategies for the two players to be optimal.
3.II.20D
Part IB, 2005 commentConsider the linear programming problem
(a) After adding slack variables and and performing one pivot in the simplex algorithm the following tableau is obtained:
\begin{tabular}{c|rrrrrr|r} & & & & & & & \ \hline & 0 & 1 & & 1 & 0 & 0 & 11 \ & 0 & & & 0 & 1 & & \ & 1 & & & 0 & 0 & & \ \hline Payoff & 0 & & & 0 & 0 & & \end{tabular}
Complete the solution of the problem using the simplex algorithm.
(b) Obtain the dual problem and identify its optimal solution from the optimal tableau in (a).
(c) Suppose that the right-hand sides in the constraints to the original problem are changed from to . Give necessary and sufficient conditions on which ensure that the optimal solution to the dual obtained in (b) remains optimal for the dual for the amended problem.
4.II.20D
Part IB, 2005 commentDescribe the Ford-Fulkerson algorithm for finding a maximal flow from a source to a sink in a directed network with capacity constraints on the arcs. Explain why the algorithm terminates at an optimal flow when the initial flow and the capacity constraints are rational.
Illustrate the algorithm by applying it to the problem of finding a maximal flow from to in the network below.
1.II.19D
Part IB, 2005 commentEvery night Lancelot and Guinevere sit down with four guests for a meal at a circular dining table. The six diners are equally spaced around the table and just before each meal two individuals are chosen at random and they exchange places from the previous night while the other four diners stay in the same places they occupied at the last meal; the choices on successive nights are made independently. On the first night Lancelot and Guinevere are seated next to each other.
Find the probability that they are seated diametrically opposite each other on the th night at the round table, .
2.II.20D
Part IB, 2005 commentConsider a Markov chain with state space and transition probabilities given by
with , otherwise, where and .
For each , let
that is, the probability that the chain ever hits the state 0 given that it starts in state . Write down the equations satisfied by the probabilities and hence, or otherwise, show that they satisfy a second-order recurrence relation with constant coefficients. Calculate for each .
Determine for each value of , whether the chain is transient, null recurrent or positive recurrent and in the last case calculate the stationary distribution.
[Hint: When the chain is positive recurrent, the stationary distribution is geometric.]
3.I.9D
Part IB, 2005 commentProve that if two states of a Markov chain communicate then they have the same period.
Consider a Markov chain with state space and transition probabilities determined by the matrix
Identify the communicating classes of the chain and for each class state whether it is open or closed and determine its period.
4.I.9D
Part IB, 2005 commentProve that the simple symmetric random walk in three dimensions is transient.
[You may wish to recall Stirling's formula: ]
2.I.2C
Part IB, 2005 commentDefine an automorphism of a group , and the natural group law on the set of all automorphisms of . For each fixed in , put for all in . Prove that is an automorphism of , and that defines a homomorphism from into .
2.II.11C
Part IB, 2005 commentLet be the abelian group generated by two elements , subject to the relation . Give a rigorous explanation of this statement by defining as an appropriate quotient of a free abelian group of rank 2. Prove that itself is not a free abelian group, and determine the exact structure of .