Part II, {{ year }}
Part II 2019
Paper 4, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a smooth projective plane curve, defined by a homogeneous polynomial of degree over the complex numbers .
(i) Define the divisor , where is a hyperplane in not contained in , and prove that it has degree .
(ii) Give (without proof) an expression for the degree of in terms of .
(iii) Show that does not have genus 2 .
(b) Let be a smooth projective curve of genus over the complex numbers . For let
there is no with , and for all
(i) Define , for a divisor .
(ii) Show that for all ,
(iii) Show that has exactly elements. [Hint: What happens for large ?]
(iv) Now suppose that has genus 2 . Show that or .
[In this question denotes the set of positive integers.]
Paper 3, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentLet be the curve defined by the equation over the complex numbers , and let be its closure.
(a) Show is smooth.
(b) Determine the ramification points of the defined by
Using this, determine the Euler characteristic and genus of , stating clearly any theorems that you are using.
(c) Let . Compute for all , and determine a basis for
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Consider the topology on the natural numbers induced by the standard topology on . Prove it is the discrete topology; i.e. is the power set of .
(b) Describe the corresponding Borel sets on and prove that any function or is measurable.
(c) Using Lebesgue integration theory, define for a function and then for . State any condition needed for the sum of the latter series to be defined. What is a simple function in this setting, and which simple functions have finite sum?
(d) State and prove the Beppo Levi theorem (also known as the monotone convergence theorem).
(e) Consider such that for any , the function is non-decreasing. Prove that
Show that this need not be the case if we drop the hypothesis that is nondecreasing, even if all the relevant limits exist.
Paper 3, Section I, I
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a positive definite binary quadratic form with integer coefficients. What does it mean to say that is reduced? Show that if is reduced and has discriminant , then and . Deduce that for fixed , there are only finitely many reduced of discriminant .
Find all reduced positive definite binary quadratic forms of discriminant .
Paper 2, Section I, I
Part II, 2019 commentDefine the Jacobi symbol , where and is odd and positive.
State and prove the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity for the Jacobi symbol. [You may use Quadratic Reciprocity for the Legendre symbol without proof but should state it clearly.]
Compute the Jacobi symbol .
Paper 1, Section I, I
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State and prove the Chinese remainder theorem.
(b) Let be an odd positive composite integer, and a positive integer with . What does it mean to say that is a Fermat pseudoprime to base b? Show that 35 is a Fermat pseudoprime to base if and only if is congruent to one of or .
Paper 4, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be positive integers, and a positive real number. Show that for every , if , then , where , are sequences of integers satisfying
Show that , and that lies between and .
(b) Show that if is the continued fraction expansion of a positive irrational , then as .
(c) Let the convergents of the continued fraction be . Using part (a) or otherwise, show that the -th and -th convergents of are and respectively.
(d) Show that if is a purely periodic continued fraction with convergents , then , where . Deduce that if is the other root of , then .
Paper 3, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a prime.
(a) What does it mean to say that an integer is a primitive root ?
(b) Let be an integer with . Let
Show that . [Recall that by convention .]
(c) Let for some , and let . Show that for any or , and that
Hence show that there exist integers , not all divisible by , such that .
Paper 4, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentFor a 2-periodic analytic function , its Fourier expansion is given by the formula
(a) Consider the two-point boundary value problem
with periodic boundary conditions . Construct explicitly the infinite dimensional linear algebraic system that arises from the application of the Fourier spectral method to the above equation, and explain how to truncate the system to a finitedimensional one.
(b) A rectangle rule is applied to computing the integral of a 2-periodic analytic function :
Find an expression for the error of , in terms of , and show that has a spectral rate of decay as . [In the last part, you may quote a relevant theorem about .]
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentThe Poisson equation on the unit square, equipped with zero boundary conditions, is discretized with the 9-point scheme:
where , and are the grid points with . We also assume that .
(a) Prove that all tridiagonal symmetric Toeplitz (TST-) matrices
share the same eigenvectors with the components for . Find expressions for the corresponding eigenvalues for . Deduce that , where and is the matrix
(b) Show that, by arranging the grid points ( into a one-dimensional array by columns, the 9 -points scheme results in the following system of linear equations of the form
where , the vectors are portions of , respectively, and are TST-matrices whose elements you should determine.
(c) Using , show that (2) is equivalent to
where and are diagonal matrices.
(d) Show that, by appropriate reordering of the grid, the system (3) is reduced to uncoupled systems of the form
Determine the elements of the matrices .
Paper 3, Section II, 40C
Part II, 2019 commentThe diffusion equation
with the initial condition , and boundary conditions , is discretised by with . The Courant number is given by .
(a) The system is solved numerically by the method
Prove directly that implies convergence.
(b) Now consider the method
where and are real constants. Using an eigenvalue analysis and carefully justifying each step, determine conditions on and for this method to be stable.
[You may use the notation for the tridiagonal matrix with along the diagonal, and along the sub-and super-diagonals and use without proof any relevant theorems about such matrices.]
Paper 1, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Describe the Jacobi method for solving a system of linear equations as a particular case of splitting, and state the criterion for its convergence in terms of the iteration matrix.
(b) For the case when
find the exact range of the parameter for which the Jacobi method converges.
(c) State the Householder-John theorem and deduce that the Jacobi method converges if is a symmetric positive-definite tridiagonal matrix.
Paper 4, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentDefine the spin raising and spin lowering operators and . Show that
where and .
Two spin- particles, with spin operators and , have a Hamiltonian
where and are constants. Express in terms of the two particles' spin raising and spin lowering operators and the corresponding -components , . Hence find the eigenvalues of . Show that there is a unique groundstate in the limit and that the first excited state is triply degenerate in this limit. Explain this degeneracy by considering the action of the combined spin operator on the energy eigenstates.
Paper 4, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 comment(a) A classical beam of particles scatters off a spherically symmetric potential . Draw a diagram to illustrate the differential cross-section , and use this to derive an expression for in terms of the impact parameter and the scattering angle .
A quantum beam of particles of mass and momentum is incident along the -axis and scatters off a spherically symmetric potential . Write down the asymptotic form of the wavefunction in terms of the scattering amplitude . By considering the probability current , derive an expression for the differential cross-section in terms of .
(b) The solution of the radial Schrödinger equation for a particle of mass and wave number moving in a spherically symmetric potential has the asymptotic form
valid for , where and are constants and denotes the th Legendre polynomial. Define the S-matrix element and the corresponding phase shift for the partial wave of angular momentum , in terms of and . Define also the scattering length for the potential .
Outside some core region, , the Schrödinger equation for some such potential is solved by the s-wave (i.e. ) wavefunction with,
where is a constant. Extract the S-matrix element , the phase shift and the scattering length . Deduce that the potential has a bound state of zero angular momentum and compute its energy. Give the form of the (un-normalised) bound state wavefunction in the region .
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentConsider the Hamiltonian , where is a small perturbation. If , write down an expression for the eigenvalues of , correct to second order in the perturbation, assuming the energy levels of are non-degenerate.
In a certain three-state system, and take the form
with and real, positive constants and .
(a) Consider first the case and . Use the results of degenerate perturbation theory to obtain the energy eigenvalues correct to order .
(b) Now consider the different case and . Use the results of non-degenerate perturbation theory to obtain the energy eigenvalues correct to order . Why is it not necessary to use degenerate perturbation theory in this case?
(c) Obtain the exact energy eigenvalues in case (b), and compare these to your perturbative results by expanding to second order in .
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let and be two eigenstates of a time-independent Hamiltonian , separated in energy by . At time the system is perturbed by a small, time independent operator . The perturbation is turned off at time . Show that if the system is initially in state , the probability of a transition to state is approximately
(b) An uncharged particle with spin one-half and magnetic moment travels at speed through a region of uniform magnetic field . Over a length of its path, an additional perpendicular magnetic field is applied. The spin-dependent part of the Hamiltonian is
where and are Pauli matrices. The particle initially has its spin aligned along the direction of . Find the probability that it makes a transition to the state with opposite spin
(i) by assuming and using your result from part (a),
(ii) by finding the exact evolution of the state.
[Hint: for any 3-vector , where is the unit matrix, and
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentA isotropic harmonic oscillator of mass and frequency has lowering operators
where and are the position and momentum operators. Assuming the standard commutation relations for and , evaluate the commutators and , for , among the components of the raising and lowering operators.
How is the ground state of the oscillator defined? How are normalised higher excited states obtained from ? [You should determine the appropriate normalisation constant for each energy eigenstate.]
By expressing the orbital angular momentum operator in terms of the raising and lowering operators, show that each first excited state of the isotropic oscillator has total orbital angular momentum quantum number , and find a linear combination of these first excited states obeying and .
Paper 4, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 commentWe consider a statistical model .
(a) Define the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and the Fisher information
(b) Let and assume there exist a continuous one-to-one function and a real-valued function such that
(i) For i.i.d. from the model for some , give the limit in almost sure sense of
Give a consistent estimator of in terms of .
(ii) Assume further that and that is continuously differentiable and strictly monotone. What is the limit in distribution of . Assume too that the statistical model satisfies the usual regularity assumptions. Do you necessarily expect for all ? Why?
(iii) Propose an alternative estimator for with smaller bias than if for some with .
(iv) Further to all the assumptions in iii), assume that the MLE for is of the form
What is the link between the Fisher information at and the variance of ? What does this mean in terms of the precision of the estimator and why?
[You may use results from the course, provided you state them clearly.]
Paper 3, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 commentWe consider the exponential model , where
We observe an i.i.d. sample from the model.
(a) Compute the maximum likelihood estimator for . What is the limit in distribution of ?
(b) Consider the Bayesian setting and place a , prior for with density
where is the Gamma function satisfying for all . What is the posterior distribution for ? What is the Bayes estimator for the squared loss?
(c) Show that the Bayes estimator is consistent. What is the limiting distribution of ?
[You may use results from the course, provided you state them clearly.]
Paper 2, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 comment(a) We consider the model and an i.i.d. sample from it. Compute the expectation and variance of and check they are equal. Find the maximum likelihood estimator for and, using its form, derive the limit in distribution of .
(b) In practice, Poisson-looking data show overdispersion, i.e., the sample variance is larger than the sample expectation. For and , let ,
Show that this defines a distribution. Does it model overdispersion? Justify your answer.
(c) Let be an i.i.d. sample from . Assume is known. Find the maximum likelihood estimator for .
(d) Furthermore, assume that, for any converges in distribution to a random variable as . Suppose we wanted to test the null hypothesis that our data arises from the model in part (a). Before making any further computations, can we necessarily expect to follow a normal distribution under the null hypothesis? Explain. Check your answer by computing the appropriate distribution.
[You may use results from the course, provided you state it clearly.]
Paper 1, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 commentIn a regression problem, for a given fixed, we observe such that
for an unknown and random such that for some known .
(a) When and has rank , compute the maximum likelihood estimator for . When , what issue is there with the likelihood maximisation approach and how many maximisers of the likelihood are there (if any)?
(b) For any fixed, we consider minimising
over . Derive an expression for and show it is well defined, i.e., there is a unique minimiser for every and .
Assume and that has rank . Let and note that for some orthogonal matrix and some diagonal matrix whose diagonal entries satisfy . Assume that the columns of have mean zero.
(c) Denote the columns of by . Show that they are sample principal components, i.e., that their pairwise sample correlations are zero and that they have sample variances , respectively. [Hint: the sample covariance between and is .]
(d) Show that
Conclude that prediction is the closest point to within the subspace spanned by the normalised sample principal components of part (c).
(e) Show that
Assume for some . Conclude that prediction is approximately the closest point to within the subspace spanned by the normalised sample principal components of part (c) with the greatest variance.
Paper 2, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let for be two measurable spaces. Define the product -algebra on the Cartesian product . Given a probability measure on for each , define the product measure . Assuming the existence of a product measure, explain why it is unique. [You may use standard results from the course if clearly stated.]
(b) Let be a probability space on which the real random variables and are defined. Explain what is meant when one says that has law . On what measurable space is the measure defined? Explain what it means for and to be independent random variables.
(c) Now let , let be its Borel -algebra and let be Lebesgue measure. Give an example of a measure on the product such that for every Borel set , but such that is not Lebesgue measure on .
(d) Let be as in part (c) and let be intervals of length and respectively. Show that
(e) Let be as in part (c). Fix and let denote the projection from to . Construct a probability measure on , such that the image under each coincides with the -dimensional Lebesgue measure, while itself is not the -dimensional Lebesgue measure. Hint: Consider the following collection of independent random variables: uniformly distributed on , and such that for each
Paper 3, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let and be real random variables such that for every compactly supported continuous function . Show that and have the same law.
(b) Given a real random variable , let be its characteristic function. Prove the identity
for real , where is is continuous and compactly supported, and where is a Lebesgue integrable function such that is also Lebesgue integrable, where
is its Fourier transform. Use the above identity to derive a formula for in terms of , and recover the fact that determines the law of uniquely.
(c) Let and be bounded random variables such that for every positive integer . Show that and have the same law.
(d) The Laplace transform of a non-negative random variable is defined by the formula
for . Let and be (possibly unbounded) non-negative random variables such that for all . Show that and have the same law.
(e) Let
where is a non-negative integer and is the indicator function of the interval .
Given non-negative integers , suppose that the random variables are independent with having density function . Find the density of the random variable .
Paper 4, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let and be real random variables with finite second moment on a probability space . Assume that converges to almost surely. Show that the following assertions are equivalent:
(i) in as
(ii) as .
(b) Suppose now that is the Borel -algebra of and is Lebesgue measure. Given a Borel probability measure on we set
where is the distribution function of and .
(i) Show that is a random variable on with law .
(ii) Let and be Borel probability measures on with finite second moments. Show that
if and only if converges weakly to and converges to as
[You may use any theorem proven in lectures as long as it is clearly stated. Furthermore, you may use without proof the fact that converges weakly to as if and only if converges to almost surely.]
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentA Hamiltonian is invariant under the discrete translational symmetry of a Bravais lattice . This means that there exists a unitary translation operator such that for all . State and prove Bloch's theorem for .
Consider the two-dimensional Bravais lattice defined by the basis vectors
Find basis vectors and for the reciprocal lattice. Sketch the Brillouin zone. Explain why the Brillouin zone has only two physically distinct corners. Show that the positions of these corners may be taken to be and .
The dynamics of a single electron moving on the lattice is described by a tightbinding model with Hamiltonian
where and are real parameters. What is the energy spectrum as a function of the wave vector in the Brillouin zone? How does the energy vary along the boundary of the Brillouin zone between and ? What is the width of the band?
In a real material, each site of the lattice contains an atom with a certain valency. Explain how the conducting properties of the material depend on the valency.
Suppose now that there is a second band, with minimum . For what values of and the valency is the material an insulator?
Paper 1, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 commentLet be an -valued random variable. Given we let
be its characteristic function, where is the usual inner product on .
(a) Suppose is a Gaussian vector with mean 0 and covariance matrix , where and is the identity matrix. What is the formula for the characteristic function in the case ? Derive from it a formula for in the case .
(b) We now no longer assume that is necessarily a Gaussian vector. Instead we assume that the 's are independent random variables and that the random vector has the same law as for every orthogonal matrix . Furthermore we assume that .
(i) Show that there exists a continuous function such that
[You may use the fact that for every two vectors such that there is an orthogonal matrix such that . ]
(ii) Show that for all
(iii) Deduce that takes values in , and furthermore that there exists such that , for all .
(iv) What must be the law of ?
[Standard properties of characteristic functions from the course may be used without proof if clearly stated.]
Paper 4, Section I,
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Define the order of for coprime integers and with . Explain briefly how knowledge of this order can be used to provide a factor of , stating conditions on and its order that must be satisfied.
(b) Shor's algorithm for factoring starts by choosing coprime. Describe the subsequent steps of a single run of Shor's algorithm that computes the order of mod with probability .
[Any significant theorems that you invoke to justify the algorithm should be clearly stated (but proofs are not required). In addition you may use without proof the following two technical results.
Theorem : For positive integers and with , and any , let be the largest integer such that Let QFT denote the quantum Fourier transform . Suppose we measure to obtain an integer with Then with probability will be an integer closest to a multiple of for which the value of (between 0 and ) is coprime to .
Theorem CF: For any rational number with and with integers a and having at most digits each, let with and coprime, be any rational number satisfying
Then is one of the convergents of the continued fraction of and all the convergents can be classically computed from in time .]
Paper 3, Section I,
Part II, 2019 commentLet denote the set of all -bit strings and write . Let denote the identity operator on qubits and for introduce the -qubit operator
where is the Hadamard operation on each of the qubits, and and are given by
Also introduce the states
Let denote the real span of and .
(a) Show that maps to itself, and derive a geometrical interpretation of the action of on , stating clearly any results from Euclidean geometry that you use.
(b) Let be the Boolean function such that iff . Suppose that . Show that we can obtain an with certainty by using just one application of the standard quantum oracle for (together with other operations that are independent of ).
Paper 2, Section I,
Part II, 2019 commentThe BB84 quantum key distribution protocol begins with Alice choosing two uniformly random bit strings and .
(a) In terms of these strings, describe Alice's process of conjugate coding for the BB84 protocol.
(b) Suppose Alice and Bob are distantly separated in space and have available a noiseless quantum channel on which there is no eavesdropping. They can also communicate classically publicly. For this idealised situation, describe the steps of the BB84 protocol that results in Alice and Bob sharing a secret key of expected length .
(c) Suppose now that an eavesdropper Eve taps into the channel and carries out the following action on each passing qubit. With probability , Eve lets it pass undisturbed, and with probability she chooses a bit uniformly at random and measures the qubit in basis where and . After measurement Eve sends the post-measurement state on to Bob. Calculate the bit error rate for Alice and Bob's final key in part (b) that results from Eve's action.
Paper 1, Section I, Introduce the 2 -qubit states
Part II, 2019 commentwhere and are the standard qubit Pauli operations and .
(a) For any 1-qubit state show that the 3 -qubit state of system can be expressed as
where the 1 -qubit states are uniquely determined. Show that .
(b) In addition to you may now assume that . Alice and Bob are separated distantly in space and share a state with and labelling qubits held by Alice and Bob respectively. Alice also has a qubit in state whose identity is unknown to her. Using the results of part (a) show how she can transfer the state of to Bob using only local operations and classical communication, i.e. the sending of quantum states across space is not allowed.
(c) Suppose that in part (b), while sharing the state, Alice and Bob are also unable to engage in any classical communication, i.e. they are able only to perform local operations. Can Alice now, perhaps by a modified process, transfer the state of to Bob? Give a reason for your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentLet denote a -dimensional state space with orthonormal basis . For any let be the operator on defined by
for all and .
(a) Define , the quantum Fourier transform (for any chosen .
(b) Let on (for any chosen ) denote the operator defined by
for . Show that the Fourier basis states for are eigenstates of . By expressing in terms of find a basis of eigenstates of and determine the corresponding eigenvalues.
(c) Consider the following oracle promise problem:
Input: an oracle for a function .
Promise: has the form where and are unknown coefficients (and with all arithmetic being .
Problem: Determine with certainty.
Can this problem be solved by a single query to a classical oracle for (and possible further processing independent of ? Give a reason for your answer.
Using the results of part (b) or otherwise, give a quantum algorithm for this problem that makes just one query to the quantum oracle for .
(d) For any , let and (all arithmetic being ). Show how and can each be implemented with one use of together with other unitary gates that are independent of .
(e) Consider now the oracle problem of the form in part (c) except that now is a quadratic function with unknown coefficients (and all arithmetic being mod 3), and the problem is to determine the coefficient with certainty. Using the results of part (d) or otherwise, give a quantum algorithm for this problem that makes just two queries to the quantum oracle for .
Paper 2, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentLet be two quantum states and let and be associated probabilities with and . Alice chooses state with probability and sends it to Bob. Upon receiving it, Bob performs a 2-outcome measurement with outcomes labelled 0 and 1 , in an attempt to identify which state Alice sent.
(a) By using the extremal property of eigenvalues, or otherwise, show that the operator has exactly two nonzero eigenvalues, one of which is positive and the other negative.
(b) Let denote the probability that Bob correctly identifies Alice's sent state. If the measurement comprises orthogonal projectors (corresponding to outcomes 0 and 1 respectively) give an expression for in terms of and .
(c) Show that the optimal success probability , i.e. the maximum attainable value of , is
where .
(d) Suppose we now place the following extra requirement on Bob's discrimination process: whenever Bob obtains output 0 then the state sent by Alice was definitely . Show that Bob's now satisfies .
Paper 3, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentIn this question all representations are complex and is a finite group.
(a) State and prove Mackey's theorem. State the Frobenius reciprocity theorem.
(b) Let be a finite -set and let be the corresponding permutation representation. Pick any orbit of on : it is isomorphic as a -set to for some subgroup of . Write down the character of .
(i) Let be the trivial representation of . Show that may be written as a direct sum
for some representation .
(ii) Using the results of (a) compute the character inner product in terms of the number of double cosets.
(iii) Now suppose that , so that . By writing as a direct sum of irreducible representations, deduce from (ii) that the representation is irreducible if and only if acts 2 -transitively. In that case, show that is not the trivial representation.
Paper 4, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 comment(a) What is meant by a compact topological group? Explain why is an example of such a group.
[In the following the existence of a Haar measure for any compact Hausdorff topological group may be assumed, if required.]
(b) Let be any compact Hausdorff topological group. Show that there is a continuous group homomorphism if and only if has an -dimensional representation over . [Here denotes the subgroup of preserving the standard (positive-definite) symmetric bilinear form.]
(c) Explicitly construct such a representation by showing that acts on the following vector space of matrices,
by conjugation.
Show that
(i) this subspace is isomorphic to ;
(ii) the trace map induces an invariant positive definite symmetric bilinear form;
(iii) is surjective with kernel . [You may assume, without proof, that is connected.]
Paper 2, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 comment(a) For any finite group , let be a complete set of non-isomorphic complex irreducible representations of , with dimensions , respectively. Show that
(b) Let be the matrices
and let . Write .
(i) Prove that the derived subgroup .
(ii) Show that for all , and deduce that is a 2-group of order at most 32 .
(iii) Prove that the given representation of of degree 4 is irreducible.
(iv) Prove that has order 32 , and find all the irreducible representations of .
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentGive an account of the variational principle for establishing an upper bound on the ground state energy of a Hamiltonian .
A particle of mass moves in one dimension and experiences the potential with an integer. Use a variational argument to prove the virial theorem,
where denotes the expectation value in the true ground state. Deduce that there is no normalisable ground state for .
For the case , use the ansatz to find an estimate for the energy of the ground state.
Paper 1, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State and prove Schur's lemma over .
In the remainder of this question we work over .
(b) Let be the cyclic group of order 3 .
(i) Write the regular -module as a direct sum of irreducible submodules.
(ii) Find all the intertwining homomorphisms between the irreducible -modules. Deduce that the conclusion of Schur's lemma is false if we replace by .
(c) Henceforth let be a cyclic group of order . Show that
(i) if is even, the regular -module is a direct sum of two (non-isomorphic) 1dimensional irreducible submodules and (non-isomorphic) 2-dimensional irreducible submodules;
(ii) if is odd, the regular -module is a direct sum of one 1-dimensional irreducible submodule and (non-isomorphic) 2-dimensional irreducible submodules.
Paper 3, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a lattice in , and a holomorphic map of complex tori. Show that lifts to a linear map .
Give the definition of , the Weierstrass -function for . Show that there exist constants such that
Suppose , that is, is a biholomorphic group homomorphism. Prove that there exists a lift of , where is a root of unity for which there exist such that .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Prove that as a map from the upper half-plane to is a covering map which is not regular.
(b) Determine the set of singular points on the unit circle for
(c) Suppose is a holomorphic map where is the unit disk. Prove that extends to a holomorphic map . If additionally is biholomorphic, prove that .
(d) Suppose that is a holomorphic injection with a compact Riemann surface. Prove that has genus 0 , stating carefully any theorems you use.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentDefine .
(a) Prove by defining an atlas that is a Riemann surface.
(b) Now assume that by adding finitely many points, it is possible to compactify to a Riemann surface so that the coordinate projections extend to holomorphic maps and from to . Compute the genus of .
(c) Assume that any holomorphic automorphism of extends to a holomorphic automorphism of . Prove that the group Aut of holomorphic automorphisms of contains an element of order 7 . Prove further that there exists a holomorphic map which satisfies .
Paper 4, Section I, J
Part II, 2019 commentIn a normal linear model with design matrix , output variables and parameters and , define a -level prediction interval for a new observation with input variables . Derive an explicit formula for the interval, proving that it satisfies the properties required by the definition. [You may assume that the maximum likelihood estimator is independent of , which has a distribution.]
Paper 3, Section I, J
Part II, 2019 comment(a) For a given model with likelihood , define the Fisher information matrix in terms of the Hessian of the log-likelihood.
Consider a generalised linear model with design matrix , output variables , a bijective link function, mean parameters and dispersion parameters . Assume is known.
(b) State the form of the log-likelihood.
(c) For the canonical link, show that when the parameter is known, the Fisher information matrix is equal to
for a diagonal matrix depending on the means . Identify .
Paper 2, Section I, J
Part II, 2019 commentThe cycling data frame contains the results of a study on the effects of cycling to work among 1,000 participants with asthma, a respiratory illness. Half of the participants, chosen uniformly at random, received a monetary incentive to cycle to work, and the other half did not. The variables in the data frame are:
miles: the average number of miles cycled per week
episodes: the number of asthma episodes experienced during the study
incentive: whether or not a monetary incentive to cycle was given
history: the number of asthma episodes in the year preceding the study
Consider the code below and its abbreviated output.
(episodes miles history, data=cycling)
Coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error value
(Intercept)
miles
history
episodes incentive history, data=cycling)
summary (lm.2)
Coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error value
(Intercept)
incentiveYes
history
miles incentive history, data=cycling)
Coefficients :
Estimate Std. Error t value
(Intercept)
incentiveYes
history
(a) For each of the fitted models, briefly explain what can be inferred about participants with similar histories.
(b) Based on this analysis and the experimental design, is it advisable for a participant with asthma to cycle to work more often? Explain.
Paper 1, Section I, J
Part II, 2019 commentThe Gamma distribution with shape parameter and scale parameter has probability density function
Give the definition of an exponential dispersion family and show that the set of Gamma distributions forms one such family. Find the cumulant generating function and derive the mean and variance of the Gamma distribution as a function of and .
Paper 4, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 commentA sociologist collects a dataset on friendships among Cambridge graduates. Let if persons and are friends 3 years after graduation, and otherwise. Let be a categorical variable for person 's college, taking values in the set . Consider logistic regression models,
with parameters either
; or,
; or,
, where if and 0 otherwise.
(a) Write the likelihood of the models.
(b) Show that the three models are nested and specify the order. Suggest a statistic to compare models 1 and 3, give its definition and specify its asymptotic distribution under the null hypothesis, citing any necessary theorems.
(c) Suppose persons and are in the same college consider the number of friendships, and , that each of them has with people in college ( and fixed). In each of the models above, compare the distribution of these two random variables. Explain why this might lead to a poor quality of fit.
(d) Find a minimal sufficient statistic for model 3. [You may use the following characterisation of a minimal sufficient statistic: let be the likelihood in this model, where and suppose is a statistic such that is constant in if and only if ; then, is a minimal sufficient statistic for .]
Paper 1, Section II, J
Part II, 2019 commentThe ice_cream data frame contains the result of a blind tasting of 90 ice creams, each of which is rated as poor, good, or excellent. It also contains the price of each ice cream classified into three categories. Consider the code below and its output.
(a) Write down the generalised linear model fitted by the code above.
(b) Prove that the fitted values resulting from the maximum likelihood estimator of the coefficients in this model are identical to those resulting from the maximum likelihood estimator when fitting a Multinomial model which assumes the number of ice creams at each price level is fixed.
(c) Using the output above, perform a goodness-of-fit test at the level, specifying the null hypothesis, the test statistic, its asymptotic null distribution, any assumptions of the test and the decision from your test. (d) If we believe that better ice creams are more expensive, what could be a more powerful test against the model fitted above and why?
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 commentA particle of mass and charge moving in a uniform magnetic field and electric field is described by the Hamiltonian
where is the canonical momentum.
[ In the following you may use without proof any results concerning the spectrum of the harmonic oscillator as long as they are stated clearly.]
(a) Let . Choose a gauge which preserves translational symmetry in the direction. Determine the spectrum of the system, restricted to states with . The system is further restricted to lie in a rectangle of area , with sides of length and parallel to the - and -axes respectively. Assuming periodic boundary conditions in the -direction, estimate the degeneracy of each Landau level.
(b) Consider the introduction of an additional electric field . Choosing a suitable gauge (with the same choice of vector potential as in part (a)), write down the resulting Hamiltonian. Find the energy spectrum for a particle on again restricted to states with .
Define the group velocity of the electron and show that its -component is given by .
When the system is further restricted to a rectangle of area as above, show that the previous degeneracy of the Landau levels is lifted and determine the resulting energy gap between the ground-state and the first excited state.
Paper 4, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentGive an outline of the Landau theory of phase transitions for a system with one real order parameter . Describe the phase transitions that can be modelled by the Landau potentials (i) , (ii) ,
where and are control parameters that depend on the temperature and pressure.
In case (ii), find the curve of first-order phase transitions in the plane. Find the region where it is possible for superheating to occur. Find also the region where it is possible for supercooling to occur.
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentWhat is meant by the chemical potential of a thermodynamic system? Derive the Gibbs distribution for a system at temperature and chemical potential (and fixed volume) with variable particle number .
Consider a non-interacting, two-dimensional gas of fermionic particles in a region of fixed area, at temperature and chemical potential . Using the Gibbs distribution, find the mean occupation number of a one-particle quantum state of energy . Show that the density of states is independent of and deduce that the mean number of particles between energies and is very well approximated for by
where is the Fermi energy. Show that, for small, the heat capacity of the gas has a power-law dependence on , and find the power.
Paper 2, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentUsing the classical statistical mechanics of a gas of molecules with negligible interactions, derive the deal gas law. Explain briefly to what extent this law is independent of the molecule's internal structure.
Calculate the entropy of a monatomic gas of low density, with negligible interactions. Deduce the equation relating the pressure and volume of the gas on a curve in the -plane along which is constant.
[You may use for
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Explain, from a macroscopic and microscopic point of view, what is meant by an adiabatic change. A system has access to heat baths at temperatures and , with . Show that the most effective method for repeatedly converting heat to work, using this system, is by combining isothermal and adiabatic changes. Define the efficiency and calculate it in terms of and .
(b) A thermal system (of constant volume) undergoes a phase transition at temperature . The heat capacity of the system is measured to be
where are constants. A theoretical calculation of the entropy for leads to
How can the value of the theoretically-obtained constant be verified using macroscopically measurable quantities?
Paper 4, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Describe the (Cox-Ross-Rubinstein) binomial model. What are the necessary and sufficient conditions on the model parameters for it to be arbitrage-free? How is the equivalent martingale measure characterised in this case?
(b) Consider a discounted claim of the form for some function . Show that the value process of is of the form
for , where the function is given by
You may use any property of conditional expectations without proof.
(c) Suppose that only depends on the terminal value of the stock price. Derive an explicit formula for the value of at time .
(d) Suppose that is of the form , where . Show that the value process of is of the form
for , where the function is given by
for a function to be determined.
Paper 3, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 commentIn the Black-Scholes model the price at time 0 for a European option of the form with maturity is given by
(a) Find the price at time 0 of a European call option with maturity and strike price in terms of the standard normal distribution function. Derive the put-call parity to find the price of the corresponding European put option.
(b) The digital call option with maturity and strike price has payoff given by
What is the value of the option at any time ? Determine the number of units of the risky asset that are held in the hedging strategy at time .
(c) The digital put option with maturity and strike price has payoff
Find the put-call parity for digital options and deduce the Black-Scholes price at time 0 for a digital put.
Paper 2, Section II,
Part II, 2019 comment(a) In the context of a multi-period model in discrete time, what does it mean to say that a probability measure is an equivalent martingale measure?
(b) State the fundamental theorem of asset pricing.
(c) Consider a single-period model with one risky asset having initial price . At time 1 its value is a random variable on of the form
where . Assume that there is a riskless numéraire with . Show that there is no arbitrage in this model.
[Hint: You may find it useful to consider a density of the form and find suitable and . You may use without proof that if is a normal random variable then .]
(d) Now consider a multi-period model with one risky asset having a non-random initial price and a price process of the form
where are i.i.d. -distributed random variables on . Assume that there is a constant riskless numéraire with for all . Show that there exists no arbitrage in this model.
Paper 1, Section II, 30K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) What does it mean to say that is a martingale? (b) Let be a Markov chain defined by and
and
for . Show that is a martingale with respect to the filtration where is trivial and for .
(c) Let be adapted with respect to a filtration with for all . Show that the following are equivalent:
(i) is a martingale.
(ii) For every stopping time , the stopped process defined by , , is a martingale.
(iii) for all and every stopping time .
[Hint: To show that (iii) implies (i) you might find it useful to consider the stopping time
for any
Paper 4, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 commentShow that is irrational. [Hint: consider the functions given by
Paper 3, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 commentState Nash's theorem for a non zero-sum game in the case of two players with two choices.
The role playing game Tixerb involves two players. Before the game begins, each player chooses a with which they announce. They may change their choice as many times as they wish, but, once the game begins, no further changes are allowed. When the game starts, player becomes a Dark Lord with probability and a harmless peasant with probability . If one player is a Dark Lord and the other a peasant the Lord gets 2 points and the peasant . If both are peasants they get 1 point each, if both Lords they get each. Show that there exists a , to be found, such that, if there will be three choices of for which neither player can increase the expected value of their outcome by changing their choice unilaterally, but, if , there will only be one. Find the appropriate in each case.
Paper 4, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be such that is finite for any bounded measurable set . State the properties which define a (non-homogeneous) Poisson process on with intensity function .
(b) Let be a Poisson process on with intensity function , and let be a given function. Give a clear statement of the necessary conditions on the pair subject to which is a Poisson process on . When these conditions hold, express the mean measure of in terms of and .
(c) Let be a homogeneous Poisson process on with constant intensity 1 , and let be given by . Show that is a homogeneous Poisson process on with constant intensity .
Let be an increasing sequence of positive random variables such that the points of are Show that has density function
Paper 2, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 commentLet be the collection of non-empty closed bounded subsets of .
(a) Show that, if and we write
then .
(b) Show that, if , and
then .
(c) Assuming the result that
defines a metric on (the Hausdorff metric), show that if and are as in part (b), then as .
Paper 1, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 commentLet be the th Chebychev polynomial. Suppose that for all and that converges. Explain why is a well defined continuous function on .
Show that, if we take , we can find points with
such that for each .
Suppose that is a decreasing sequence of positive numbers and that as . Stating clearly any theorem that you use, show that there exists a continuous function with
for all polynomials of degree at most and all .
Paper 2, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 commentThroughout this question denotes the closed interval .
(a) For , consider the points with and . Show that, if we colour them red or green in such a way that and 1 are coloured differently, there must be two neighbouring points of different colours.
(b) Deduce from part (a) that, if with and closed, and , then .
(c) Deduce from part (b) that there does not exist a continuous function with for all and .
(d) Deduce from part (c) that if is continuous then there exists an with .
(e) Deduce the conclusion of part (c) from the conclusion of part (d).
(f) Deduce the conclusion of part (b) from the conclusion of part (c).
(g) Suppose that we replace wherever it occurs by the unit circle
Which of the conclusions of parts (b), (c) and (d) remain true? Give reasons.
Paper 4, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Suppose that is a non-empty subset of the square and is analytic in the larger square for some . Show that can be uniformly approximated on by polynomials.
(b) Let be a closed non-empty proper subset of . Let be the set of such that can be approximated uniformly on by polynomials and let . Show that and are open. Is it always true that is non-empty? Is it always true that, if is bounded, then is empty? Give reasons.
[No form of Runge's theorem may be used without proof.]
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Assuming a slowly-varying two-dimensional wave pattern of the form
where , and a local dispersion relation , derive the ray tracing equations,
for , explaining carefully the meaning of the notation used.
(b) For a homogeneous, time-independent (but not necessarily isotropic) medium, show that all rays are straight lines. When the waves have zero frequency, deduce that if the point lies on a ray emanating from the origin in the direction given by a unit vector , then
(c) Consider a stationary obstacle in a steadily moving homogeneous medium which has the dispersion relation
where is the velocity of the medium and is a constant. The obstacle generates a steady wave system. Writing , with , show that the wave satisfies
where is defined by
with and . Deduce that the wave pattern occupies a wedge of semi-angle , extending in the negative -direction.
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentThe linearised equation of motion governing small disturbances in a homogeneous elastic medium of density is
where is the displacement, and and are the Lamé moduli.
(a) The medium occupies the region between a rigid plane boundary at and a free surface at . Show that waves can propagate in the -direction within this region, and find the dispersion relation for such waves.
(b) For each mode, deduce the cutoff frequency, the phase velocity and the group velocity. Plot the latter two velocities as a function of wavenumber.
(c) Verify that in an average sense (to be made precise), the wave energy flux is equal to the wave energy density multiplied by the group velocity.
[You may assume that the elastic energy per unit volume is given by
Paper 3, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Derive the wave equation for perturbation pressure for linearised sound waves in a compressible gas.
(b) For a single plane wave show that the perturbation pressure and the velocity are linearly proportional and find the constant of proportionality, i.e. the acoustic impedance.
(c) Gas occupies a tube lying parallel to the -axis. In the regions and the gas has uniform density and sound speed . For the temperature of the gas has been adjusted so that it has uniform density and sound speed . A harmonic plane wave with frequency and unit amplitude is incident from . If is the (in general complex) amplitude of the wave transmitted into , show that
where and . Discuss both of the limits and .
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentThe equation of state relating pressure to density for a perfect gas is given by
where and are constants, and is the specific heat ratio.
(a) Starting from the equations for one-dimensional unsteady flow of a perfect gas of uniform entropy, show that the Riemann invariants,
are constant on characteristics given by
where is the velocity of the gas, is the local speed of sound, and is a constant.
(b) Such an ideal gas initially occupies the region to the right of a piston in an infinitely long tube. The gas and the piston are initially at rest. At time the piston starts moving to the left with path given by
(i) Solve for and in the region under the assumptions that and that is monotonically increasing, where dot indicates a time derivative.
[It is sufficient to leave the solution in implicit form, i.e. for given you should not attempt to solve the characteristic equation explicitly.]
(ii) Briefly outline the behaviour of and for times , where is the solution to .
(iii) Now suppose,
where . For , find a leading-order approximation to the solution of the characteristic equation when and .
[Hint: You may find it useful to consider the structure of the characteristics in the limiting case when .]
Paper 3, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 comment(a) What does it mean to say that a continuous-time Markov chain ) with state space is reversible in equilibrium? State the detailed balance equations, and show that any probability distribution on satisfying them is invariant for the chain.
(b) Customers arrive in a shop in the manner of a Poisson process with rate . There are servers, and capacity for up to people waiting for service. Any customer arriving when the shop is full (in that the total number of customers present is ) is not admitted and never returns. Service times are exponentially distributed with parameter , and they are independent of one another and of the arrivals process. Describe the number of customers in the shop at time as a Markov chain.
Calculate the invariant distribution of , and explain why is the unique invariant distribution. Show that is reversible in equilibrium.
[Any general result from the course may be used without proof, but must be stated clearly.]
Paper 2, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a Markov chain on the non-negative integers with generator given by
for a given collection of positive numbers .
(a) State the transition matrix of the jump chain of .
(b) Why is not reversible?
(c) Prove that is transient if and only if .
(d) Assume that . Derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the parameters for to be explosive.
(e) Derive a necessary and sufficient condition on the parameters for the existence of an invariant measure for .
[You may use any general results from the course concerning Markov chains and pure birth processes so long as they are clearly stated.]
Paper 1, Section II, K
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a countable set, and let be a Markov transition matrix with for all . Let be a discrete-time Markov chain on the state space with transition matrix .
The continuous-time process is constructed as follows. Let be independent, identically distributed random variables having the exponential distribution with mean 1. Let be a function on such that for all and some constant . Let for . Let and for . Finally, let for .
(a) Explain briefly why is a continuous-time Markov chain on , and write down its generator in terms of and the vector .
(b) What does it mean to say that the chain is irreducible? What does it mean to say a state is (i) recurrent and (ii) positive recurrent?
(c) Show that
(i) is irreducible if and only if is irreducible;
(ii) is recurrent if and only if is recurrent.
(d) Suppose is irreducible and positive recurrent with invariant distribution . Express the invariant distribution of in terms of and .
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentConsider, for small , the equation
Assume that has bounded solutions with two turning points where and .
(a) Use the WKB approximation to derive the relationship
[You may quote without proof any standard results or formulae from WKB theory.]
(b) In suitable units, the radial Schrödinger equation for a spherically symmetric potential given by , for constant , can be recast in the standard form as:
where and is a small parameter.
Use result to show that the energies of the bound states (i.e are approximated by the expression:
[You may use the result
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a commutative algebra over a field , and a -linear homomorphism. Define , the derivations of centered in , and define the tangent space in terms of this.
Show directly from your definition that if is not a zero divisor and , then the natural map is an isomorphism.
(b) Suppose is an algebraically closed field and for . Let
Find a surjective map . Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State Watson's lemma for the case when all the functions and variables involved are real, and use it to calculate the asymptotic approximation as for the integral , where
(b) The Bessel function of the first kind of order has integral representation
where is the Gamma function, and is in general a complex variable. The complex version of Watson's lemma is obtained by replacing with the complex variable , and is valid for and , for some such that . Use this version to derive an asymptotic expansion for as . For what values of is this approximation valid?
[Hint: You may find the substitution useful.]
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Define formally what it means for a real valued function to have an asymptotic expansion about , given by
Use this definition to prove the following properties.
(i) If both and have asymptotic expansions about , then also has an asymptotic expansion about
(ii) If has an asymptotic expansion about and is integrable, then
(b) Obtain, with justification, the first three terms in the asymptotic expansion as of the complementary error function, , defined as
Paper 1, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State the pumping lemma for context-free languages (CFLs).
(b) Which of the following are CFLs? Justify your answers.
(i) , where is the reverse of the word .
(ii) is a prime .
(iii) and .
(c) Let and be CFLs. Show that the concatenation is also a CFL.
Paper 4, Section I,
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Which of the following are regular languages? Justify your answers.
(i) .
(ii) contains an odd number of 's and an even number of 's .
(iii) contains no more than 7 consecutive 0 's .
(b) Consider the language over alphabet defined via
Show that satisfies the pumping lemma for regular languages but is not a regular language itself.
Paper 3, Section I,
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Define what it means for a context-free grammar (CFG) to be in Chomsky normal form (CNF). Can a CFG in CNF ever define a language containing ? If denotes the result of converting an arbitrary CFG into one in CNF, state the relationship between and .
(b) Let be a CFG in CNF. Give an algorithm that, on input of any word on the terminals of , decides if or not. Explain why your algorithm works.
(c) Convert the following CFG into a grammar in CNF:
Does in this case? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Define a recursive set and a recursively enumerable (r.e.) set. Prove that is recursive if and only if both and are r.e. sets.
(b) Let for some fixed and some fixed register machine code . Show that for some fixed register machine code . Hence show that is an r.e. set.
(c) Show that the function defined below is primitive recursive.
[Any use of Church's thesis in your answers should be explicitly stated. In this question denotes the set of non-negative integers.]
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a deterministic finite-state automaton (DFA). Define what it means for two states of to be equivalent. Define the minimal DFA for .
Let be a DFA with no inaccessible states, and suppose that is another DFA on the same alphabet as and for which . Show that has at least as many states as . [You may use results from the course as long as you state them clearly.]
Construct a minimal DFA (that is, one with the smallest possible number of states) over the alphabet which accepts precisely the set of binary numbers which are multiples of 7. You may have leading zeros in your inputs (e.g.: 00101). Prove that your DFA is minimal by finding a distinguishing word for each pair of states.
Paper 3, Section II, 12H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State the theorem and the recursion theorem.
(b) State and prove Rice's theorem.
(c) Show that if is partial recursive, then there is some such that
(d) Show there exists some such that has exactly elements.
(e) Given , is it possible to compute whether or not the number of elements of is a (finite) perfect square? Justify your answer.
[In this question denotes the set of non-negative integers. Any use of Church's thesis in your answers should be explicitly stated.]
Paper 4, Section I, E
Part II, 2019 comment(a) The angular momentum of a rigid body about its centre of mass is conserved.
Derive Euler's equations,
explaining the meaning of the quantities appearing in the equations.
(b) Show that there are two independent conserved quantities that are quadratic functions of , and give a physical interpretation of them.
(c) Derive a linear approximation to Euler's equations that applies when and . Use this to determine the stability of rotation about each of the three principal axes of an asymmetric top.
Paper 3, Section I, E
Part II, 2019 commentA simple harmonic oscillator of mass and spring constant has the equation of motion
(a) Describe the orbits of the system in phase space. State how the action of the oscillator is related to a geometrical property of the orbits in phase space. Derive the action-angle variables and give the form of the Hamiltonian of the oscillator in action-angle variables.
(b) Suppose now that the spring constant varies in time. Under what conditions does the theory of adiabatic invariance apply? Assuming that these conditions hold, identify an adiabatic invariant and determine how the energy and amplitude of the oscillator vary with in this approximation.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 . Consider the algebraic variety defined over by the polynomials
Determine
(i) the irreducible components of ,
(ii) the tangent space at each point of ,
(iii) for each irreducible component, the smooth points of that component, and
(iv) the dimensions of the irreducible components.
(b) Let be a finite extension of fields, and . Identify with over and show that
is the complement in of the vanishing set of some polynomial. [You need not show that is non-empty. You may assume that if and only if form a basis of over .]
Paper 2, Section I, E
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State Hamilton's equations for a system with degrees of freedom and Hamilto, where are canonical phase-space variables.
(b) Define the Poisson bracket of two functions and .
(c) State the canonical commutation relations of the variables and .
(d) Show that the time-evolution of any function is given by
(e) Show further that the Poisson bracket of any two conserved quantities is also a conserved quantity.
[You may assume the Jacobi identity,
Paper 1, Section I, E
Part II, 2019 comment(a) A mechanical system with degrees of freedom has the Lagrangian , where are the generalized coordinates and .
Suppose that is invariant under the continuous symmetry transformation , where is a real parameter and . State and prove Noether's theorem for this system.
(b) A particle of mass moves in a conservative force field with potential energy , where is the position vector in three-dimensional space.
Let be cylindrical polar coordinates. is said to have helical symmetry if it is of the form
for some constant . Show that a particle moving in a potential with helical symmetry has a conserved quantity that is a linear combination of angular and linear momenta.
Paper 2, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentThe Lagrangian of a particle of mass and charge moving in an electromagnetic field described by scalar and vector potentials and is
where is the position vector of the particle and .
(a) Show that Lagrange's equations are equivalent to the equation of motion
where
are the electric and magnetic fields.
(b) Show that the related Hamiltonian is
where . Obtain Hamilton's equations for this system.
(c) Verify that the electric and magnetic fields remain unchanged if the scalar and vector potentials are transformed according to
where is a scalar field. Show that the transformed Lagrangian differs from by the total time-derivative of a certain quantity. Why does this leave the form of Lagrange's equations invariant? Show that the transformed Hamiltonian and phase-space variables are related to and by a canonical transformation.
[Hint: In standard notation, the canonical transformation associated with the type-2 generating function is given by
Paper 4, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Explain what is meant by a Lagrange top. You may assume that such a top has the Lagrangian
in terms of the Euler angles . State the meaning of the quantities and appearing in this expression.
Explain why the quantity
is conserved, and give two other independent integrals of motion.
Show that steady precession, with a constant value of , is possible if
(b) A rigid body of mass is of uniform density and its surface is defined by
where is a positive constant and are Cartesian coordinates in the body frame.
Calculate the values of and for this symmetric top, when it rotates about the sharp point at the origin of this coordinate system.
Paper 4, Section I,
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Describe Diffie-Hellman key exchange. Why is it believed to be a secure system?
(b) Consider the following authentication procedure. Alice chooses public key for the Rabin-Williams cryptosystem. To be sure we are in communication with Alice we send her a 'random item' . On receiving , Alice proceeds to decode using her knowledge of the factorisation of and finds a square root of . She returns to us and we check . Is this authentication procedure secure? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section I, G
Part II, 2019 commentWhat does it mean to transmit reliably at rate through a binary symmetric channel with error probability ?
Assuming Shannon's second coding theorem (also known as Shannon's noisy coding theorem), compute the supremum of all possible reliable transmission rates of a BSC. Describe qualitatively the behaviour of the capacity as varies. Your answer should address the following cases,
(i) is small,
(ii) ,
(iii) .
Paper 2, Section I, G
Part II, 2019 commentDefine the binary Hamming code of length for . Define a perfect code. Show that a binary Hamming code is perfect.
What is the weight of the dual code of a binary Hamming code when
Paper 1, Section I, G
Part II, 2019 commentLet and be discrete random variables taking finitely many values. Define the conditional entropy . Suppose is another discrete random variable taking values in a finite alphabet, and prove that
[You may use the equality and the inequality
State and prove Fano's inequality.
Paper 1, Section II, G
Part II, 2019 commentWhat does it mean to say that is a binary linear code of length , rank and minimum distance ? Let be such a code.
(a) Prove that .
Let be a codeword with exactly non-zero digits.
(b) Prove that puncturing on the non-zero digits of produces a code of length and minimum distance for some .
(c) Deduce that .
Paper 2, Section II, G
Part II, 2019 commentDescribe the Huffman coding scheme and prove that Huffman codes are optimal.
Are the following statements true or false? Justify your answers.
(i) Given messages with probabilities a Huffman coding will assign a unique set of word lengths.
(ii) An optimal code must be Huffman.
(iii) Suppose the words of a Huffman code have word lengths . Then
[Throughout this question you may assume that a decipherable code with prescribed word lengths exists if and only if there is a prefix-free code with the same word lengths.]
Paper 3, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a simplicial complex, and a subcomplex. As usual, denotes the group of -chains of , and denotes the group of -chains of .
(a) Let
for each integer . Prove that the boundary map of descends to give the structure of a chain complex.
(b) The homology groups of relative to , denoted by , are defined to be the homology groups of the chain complex . Prove that there is a long exact sequence that relates the homology groups of relative to to the homology groups of and the homology groups of .
(c) Let be the closed -dimensional disc, and be the -dimensional sphere. Exhibit simplicial complexes and subcomplexes such that in such a way that is identified with .
(d) Compute the relative homology groups , for all integers and where and are as in (c).
Paper 3, Section I, B
Part II, 2019 commentConsider a spherically symmetric distribution of mass with density at distance from the centre. Derive the pressure support equation that the pressure has to satisfy for the system to be in static equilibrium.
Assume now that the mass density obeys , for some positive constant A. Determine whether or not the system has a stable solution corresponding to a star of finite radius.
Paper 4, Section I, B
Part II, 2019 commentDerive the relation between the neutrino temperature and the photon temperature at a time long after electrons and positrons have become non-relativistic.
[In this question you may work in units of the speed of light, so that . You may also use without derivation the following formulae. The energy density and pressure for a single relativistic species a with a number of degenerate states at temperature are given by
where is Boltzmann's constant, is Planck's constant, and the minus or plus depends on whether the particle is a boson or a fermion respectively. For each species a, the entropy density at temperature is given by,
The effective total number of relativistic species is defined in terms of the numbers of bosonic and fermionic particles in the theory as,
with the specific values for photons, positrons and electrons.]
Paper 1, Section I, B
Part II, 2019 comment[You may work in units of the speed of light, so that .]
By considering a spherical distribution of matter with total mass and radius and an infinitesimal mass located somewhere on its surface, derive the Friedmann equation describing the evolution of the scale factor appearing in the relation for a spatially-flat FLRW spacetime.
Consider now a spatially-flat, contracting universe filled by a single component with energy density , which evolves with time as . Solve the Friedmann equation for with .
Paper 2, Section I, B
Part II, 2019 comment[You may work in units of the speed of light, so that .]
(a) Combining the Friedmann and continuity equations
derive the Raychaudhuri equation (also known as the acceleration equation) which expresses in terms of the energy density and the pressure .
(b) Assuming an equation of state with constant , for what is the expansion of the universe accelerated or decelerated?
(c) Consider an expanding, spatially-flat FLRW universe with both a cosmological constant and non-relativistic matter (also known as dust) with energy densities and respectively. At some time corresponding to , the energy densities of these two components are equal . Is the expansion of the universe accelerated or decelerated at this time?
(d) For what numerical value of does the universe transition from deceleration to acceleration?
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part II, 2019 comment[You may work in units of the speed of light, so that ]
Consider the process where protons and electrons combine to form neutral hydrogen atoms;
Let and denote the number densities for protons, electrons and hydrogen atoms respectively. The ionization energy of hydrogen is denoted . State and derive 's equation for the ratio , clearly describing the steps required.
[You may use without proof the following formula for the equilibrium number density of a non-relativistic species with degenerate states of mass at temperature such that ,
where is the chemical potential and and are the Boltzmann and Planck constants respectively.]
The photon number density is given as
where . Consider now the fractional ionization . In our universe where is the baryon-to-photon number ratio. Find an expression for the ratio
in terms of and the particle masses. One might expect neutral hydrogen to form at a temperature given by , but instead in our universe it forms at the much lower temperature . Briefly explain why this happens. Estimate the temperature at which neutral hydrogen would form in a hypothetical universe with . Briefly explain your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, 15B
Part II, 2019 comment[You may work in units of the speed of light, so that .]
Consider a spatially-flat FLRW universe with a single, canonical, homogeneous scalar field with a potential . Recall the Friedmann equation and the Raychaudhuri equation (also known as the acceleration equation)
(a) Assuming , derive the equations of motion for , i.e.
(b) Assuming the special case , find , for some initial value in the slow-roll approximation, i.e. assuming that and .
(c) The number of efoldings is defined by . Using the chain rule, express first in terms of and then in terms of . Write the resulting relation between and in terms of and only, using the slow-roll approximation.
(d) Compute the number of efoldings of expansion between some initial value and a final value (so that throughout).
(e) Discuss qualitatively the horizon and flatness problems in the old hot big bang model (i.e. without inflation) and how inflation addresses them.
Paper 4, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a regular curve without self-intersection given by with for and let be the surface of revolution defined globally by the parametrisation
where , i.e. . Compute its mean curvature and its Gaussian curvature .
(b) Define what it means for a regular surface to be minimal. Give an example of a minimal surface which is not locally isometric to a cone, cylinder or plane. Justify your answer.
(c) Let be a regular surface such that . Is it necessarily the case that given any , there exists an open neighbourhood of such that lies on some sphere in ? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a regular curve without self intersection given by with for .
Consider the local parametrisation given by
where .
(i) Show that the image defines a regular surface in .
(ii) If is a geodesic in parametrised by arc length, then show that is constant in . If denotes the angle that the geodesic makes with the parallel , then show that is constant in .
(b) Now assume that extends to a smooth curve such that . Let be the closure of in .
(i) State a necessary and sufficient condition on for to be a compact regular surface. Justify your answer.
(ii) If is a compact regular surface, and is a geodesic, show that there exists a non-empty open subset such that .
Paper 2, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a smooth regular curve parametrised by arclength. For , define the curvature and (where defined) the torsion of . What condition must be satisfied in order for the torsion to be defined? Derive the Frenet equations.
(b) If is defined and equal to 0 for all , show that lies in a plane.
(c) State the fundamental theorem for regular curves in , giving necessary and sufficient conditions for when curves and are related by a proper Euclidean motion.
(d) Now suppose that is another smooth regular curve parametrised by arclength, and that and are its curvature and torsion. Determine whether the following statements are true or false. Justify your answer in each case.
(i) If whenever it is defined, then lies in a plane.
(ii) If is defined and equal to 0 for all but one value of in , then lies in a plane.
(iii) If for all and are defined for all , and for all , then and are related by a rigid motion.
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 commentLet be an integer.
(a) Show that defines a submanifold of and identify explicitly its tangent space for any .
(b) Show that the matrix group defines a submanifold. Identify explicitly the tangent space for any .
(c) Given , show that the set defines a submanifold and compute its dimension. For , is it ever the case that and are transversal?
[You may use standard theorems from the course concerning regular values and transversality.]
Paper 4, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentState the Lefschetz fixed point theorem.
Let be an integer, and a choice of base point. Define a space
where is discrete and is the smallest equivalence relation such that for all . Let be a homeomorphism without fixed points. Use the Lefschetz fixed point theorem to prove the following facts.
(i) If then is divisible by 3 .
(ii) If then is even.
Paper 4, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentConsider the dynamical system
for .
Find all fixed points of this system. Find the three different values of at which bifurcations appear. For each such value give the location of all bifurcations. For each of these, what types of bifurcation are suggested from this analysis?
Use centre manifold theory to analyse these bifurcations. In particular, for each bifurcation derive an equation for the dynamics on the extended centre manifold and hence classify the bifurcation.
Paper 3, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentConsider a dynamical system of the form
on and , where and are real constants and .
(a) For , by considering a function of the form , show that all trajectories in are either periodic orbits or a fixed point.
(b) Using the same , show that no periodic orbits in persist for small and if .
[Hint: for on the periodic orbits with period , show that and hence that .]
(c) By considering Dulac's criterion with , show that there are no periodic orbits in if .
(d) Purely by consideration of the existence of fixed points in and their Poincaré indices, determine those for which the possibility of periodic orbits can be excluded.
(e) Combining the results above, sketch the plane showing where periodic orbits in might still be possible.
Paper 2, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentFor a map give the definitions of chaos according to (i) Devaney (Dchaos) and (ii) Glendinning (G-chaos).
Consider the dynamical system
on , for (note that is not necessarily an integer). For both definitions of chaos, show that this system is chaotic.
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentFor a dynamical system of the form , give the definition of the alpha-limit set and the omega-limit set of a point .
Consider the dynamical system
where and is a real constant. Answer the following for all values of , taking care over boundary cases (both in and in ).
(i) What symmetries does this system have?
(ii) Find and classify the fixed points of this system.
(iii) Does this system have any periodic orbits?
(iv) Give and (considering all ).
(v) For , give the orbit of (considering all ). You should give your answer in the form , and specify the range of .
Paper 4, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentConsider a medium in which the electric displacement and magnetising field are linearly related to the electric and magnetic fields respectively with corresponding polarisation constants and ;
Write down Maxwell's equations for and in the absence of free charges and currents.
Consider EM waves of the form,
Find conditions on the electric and magnetic polarisation vectors and , wave-vector and angular frequency such that these fields satisfy Maxwell's equations for the medium described above. At what speed do the waves propagate?
Consider two media, filling the regions and in three dimensional space, and having two different values and of the electric polarisation constant. Suppose an electromagnetic wave is incident from the region resulting in a transmitted wave in the region and also a reflected wave for . The angles of incidence, reflection and transmission are denoted and respectively. By constructing a corresponding solution of Maxwell's equations, derive the law of reflection and Snell's law of refraction, where are the indices of refraction of the two media.
Consider the special case in which the electric polarisation vectors and of the incident, reflected and transmitted waves are all normal to the plane of incidence (i.e. the plane containing the corresponding wave-vectors). By imposing appropriate boundary conditions for and at , show that,
Paper 3, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentA time-dependent charge distribution localised in some region of size near the origin varies periodically in time with characteristic angular frequency . Explain briefly the circumstances under which the dipole approximation for the fields sourced by the charge distribution is valid.
Far from the origin, for , the vector potential sourced by the charge distribution is given by the approximate expression
where is the corresponding current density. Show that, in the dipole approximation, the large-distance behaviour of the magnetic field is given by,
where is the electric dipole moment of the charge distribution. Assuming that, in the same approximation, the corresponding electric field is given as , evaluate the flux of energy through the surface element of a large sphere of radius centred at the origin. Hence show that the total power radiated by the charge distribution is given by
A particle of charge and mass undergoes simple harmonic motion in the -direction with time period and amplitude such that
Here is a unit vector in the -direction. Calculate the total power radiated through a large sphere centred at the origin in the dipole approximation and determine its time averaged value,
For what values of the parameters and is the dipole approximation valid?
Now suppose that the energy of the particle with trajectory is given by the usual non-relativistic formula for a harmonic oscillator i.e. , and that the particle loses energy due to the emission of radiation at a rate corresponding to the time-averaged power . Work out the half-life of this system (i.e. the time such that . Explain why the non-relativistic approximation for the motion of the particle is reliable as long as the dipole approximation is valid.
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part II, 2019 commentA relativistic particle of charge and mass moves in a background electromagnetic field. The four-velocity of the particle at proper time is determined by the equation of motion,
Here , where is the electromagnetic field strength tensor and Lorentz indices are raised and lowered with the metric tensor . In the case of a constant, homogeneous field, write down the solution of this equation giving in terms of its initial value .
[In the following you may use the relation, given below, between the components of the field strength tensor , for , and those of the electric and magnetic fields and ,
for
Suppose that, in some inertial frame with spacetime coordinates and , the electric and magnetic fields are parallel to the -axis with magnitudes and respectively. At time the 3 -velocity of the particle has initial value . Find the subsequent trajectory of the particle in this frame, giving coordinates and as functions of the proper time .
Find the motion in the -direction explicitly, giving as a function of coordinate time . Comment on the form of the solution at early and late times. Show that, when projected onto the plane, the particle undergoes circular motion which is periodic in proper time. Find the radius of the circle and proper time period of the motion in terms of and . The resulting trajectory therefore has the form of a helix with varying pitch where is the distance in the -direction travelled by the particle during the 'th period of its motion in the plane. Show that, for ,
where is a constant which you should determine.
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Show that the Stokes flow around a rigid moving sphere has the minimum viscous dissipation rate of all incompressible flows which satisfy the no-slip boundary conditions on the sphere.
(b) Let , where and are solutions of Laplace's equation, i.e. and .
(i) Show that is incompressible.
(ii) Show that satisfies Stokes equation if the pressure .
(c) Consider a rigid sphere moving with velocity . The Stokes flow around the sphere is given by
where the origin is chosen to be at the centre of the sphere. Find the values for and which ensure no-slip conditions are satisfied on the sphere.
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentA viscous fluid is contained in a channel between rigid planes and . The fluid in the upper region (with ) has dynamic viscosity while the fluid in the lower region has dynamic viscosity . The plane at moves with velocity and the plane at moves with velocity , both in the direction. You may ignore the effect of gravity.
(a) Find the steady, unidirectional solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in which the interface between the two fluids remains at .
(b) Using the solution from part (a):
(i) calculate the stress exerted by the fluids on the two boundaries;
(ii) calculate the total viscous dissipation rate in the fluids;
(iii) demonstrate that the rate of working by boundaries balances the viscous dissipation rate in the fluids.
(c) Consider the situation where . Defining the volume flux in the upper region as and the volume flux in the lower region as , show that their ratio is independent of and satisfies
Paper 3, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentFor a fluid with kinematic viscosity , the steady axisymmetric boundary-layer equations for flow primarily in the -direction are
where is the fluid velocity in the -direction and is the fluid velocity in the -direction. A thin, steady, axisymmetric jet emerges from a point at the origin and flows along the -axis in a fluid which is at rest far from the -axis.
(a) Show that the momentum flux
is independent of the position along the jet. Deduce that the thickness of the jet increases linearly with . Determine the scaling dependence on of the centre-line velocity . Hence show that the jet entrains fluid.
(b) A similarity solution for the streamfunction,
exists if satisfies the second order differential equation
Using appropriate boundary and normalisation conditions (which you should state clearly) to solve this equation, show that
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentLet and . Let be the natural inclusion maps. Consider the space ; that is,
where is the smallest equivalence relation such that for all .
(a) Prove that is homeomorphic to the 3 -sphere .
[Hint: It may help to think of as contained in .]
(b) Identify as a quotient of the square in the usual way. Let be the circle in given by the equation is illustrated in the figure below.
Compute a presentation for , where is the complement of in , and deduce that is non-abelian.
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentA disc of radius and weight hovers at a height on a cushion of air above a horizontal air table - a fine porous plate through which air of density and dynamic viscosity is pumped upward at constant speed . You may assume that the air flow is axisymmetric with no flow in the azimuthal direction, and that the effect of gravity on the air may be ignored.
(a) Write down the relevant components of the Navier-Stokes equations. By estimating the size of the individual terms, simplify these equations when and .
(b) Explain briefly why it is reasonable to expect that the vertical velocity of the air below the disc is a function of distance above the air table alone, and thus find the steady pressure distribution below the disc. Hence show that
Paper 4, Section I, A
Part II, 2019 commentA single-valued function can be defined, for , by means of an integral as:
(a) Choose a suitable branch-cut with the integrand taking a value at the origin on the upper side of the cut, i.e. at , and describe suitable paths of integration in the two cases and .
(b) Construct the multivalued function by analytic continuation.
(c) Express arcsin in terms of and deduce the periodicity property of .
Paper 3, Section I, A
Part II, 2019 commentThe equation
has solutions of the form
for suitably chosen contours and some suitable function .
(a) Find and determine the required condition on , which you should express in terms of and .
(b) Use the result of part (a) to specify a possible contour with the help of a clearly labelled diagram.
Paper 2, Section I, A
Part II, 2019 commentAssume that as and that is analytic in the upper half-plane (including the real axis). Evaluate
where is a positive real number.
[You must state clearly any standard results involving contour integrals that you use.]
Paper 1, Section I, A
Part II, 2019 commentThe Beta function is defined by
where , and is the Gamma function.
(a) By using a suitable substitution and properties of Beta and Gamma functions, show that
(b) Deduce that
where is the complete elliptic integral, defined as
[Hint: You might find the change of variable helpful in part (b).]
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 commentThe Riemann zeta function is defined as
for , and by analytic continuation to the rest of except at singular points. The integral representation of ( ) for is given by
where is the Gamma function.
(a) The Hankel representation is defined as
Explain briefly why this representation gives an analytic continuation of as defined in ( ) to all other than , using a diagram to illustrate what is meant by the upper limit of the integral in .
[You may assume .]
(b) Find
where is an integer and the poles are simple.
(c) By considering
where is a suitably modified Hankel contour and using the result of part (b), derive the reflection formula:
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Consider the Papperitz symbol (or P-symbol):
Explain in general terms what this -symbol represents.
[You need not write down any differential equations explicitly, but should provide an explanation of the meaning of and
(b) Prove that the action of on results in the exponential shifting,
[Hint: It may prove useful to start by considering the relationship between two solutions, and , which satisfy the -equations described by the respective -symbols ( ) and ( -]
(c) Explain what is meant by a Möbius transformation of a second order differential equation. By using suitable transformations acting on , show how to obtain the symbol
which corresponds to the hypergeometric equation.
(d) The hypergeometric function is defined to be the solution of the differential equation corresponding to that is analytic at with , which corresponds to the exponent zero. Use exponential shifting to show that the second solution, which corresponds to the exponent , is
Paper 1, Section II, 18F
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Suppose are fields and are distinct embeddings of into . Prove that there do not exist elements of (not all zero) such that
(b) For a finite field extension of a field and for distinct automorphisms of , show that . In particular, if is a finite group of field automorphisms of a field with the fixed field, deduce that .
(c) If with independent transcendentals over , consider the group generated by automorphisms and of , where
Prove that and that .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentFor any prime , explain briefly why the Galois group of over is cyclic of order , where if if , and if
Show that the splitting field of over is an extension of degree 20 .
For any prime , prove that does not have an irreducible cubic as a factor. For or , show that is the product of a linear factor and an irreducible quartic over . For , show that either is irreducible over or it splits completely.
[You may assume the reduction mod p criterion for finding cycle types in the Galois group of a monic polynomial over and standard facts about finite fields.]
Paper 3, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a field. For a positive integer, consider , where either char , or char with not dividing ; explain why the polynomial has distinct roots in a splitting field.
For a positive integer, define the th cyclotomic polynomial and show that it is a monic polynomial in . Prove that is irreducible over for all . [Hint: If , with and monic irreducible with , and is a root of , show first that is a root of for any prime not dividing .]
Let ; by considering the product , or otherwise, show that is irreducible over .
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part II, 2019 commentIn this question, and are path-connected, locally simply connected spaces.
(a) Let be a continuous map, and a path-connected covering space of . State and prove a uniqueness statement for lifts of to .
(b) Let be a covering map. A covering transformation of is a homeomorphism such that . For each integer , give an example of a space and an -sheeted covering map such that the only covering transformation of is the identity map. Justify your answer. [Hint: Take to be a wedge of two circles.]
(c) Is there a space and a 2-sheeted covering map for which the only covering transformation of is the identity? Justify your answer briefly.
Paper 4, Section II,
Part II, 2019 commentState (without proof) a result concerning uniqueness of splitting fields of a polynomial.
Given a polynomial with distinct roots, what is meant by its Galois group ? Show that is irreducible over if and only if acts transitively on the roots of .
Now consider an irreducible quartic of the form . If denotes a root of , show that the splitting field is . Give an explicit description of in the cases:
(i) , and
(ii) .
If is a square in , deduce that . Conversely, if Gal , show that is invariant under at least two elements of order two in the Galois group, and deduce that is a square in .
Paper 4, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Consider the spherically symmetric spacetime metric
where and are functions of and . Use the Euler-Lagrange equations for the geodesics of the spacetime to compute all non-vanishing Christoffel symbols for this metric.
(b) Consider the static limit of the line element where and are functions of the radius only, and let the matter coupled to gravity be a spherically symmetric fluid with energy momentum tensor
where the pressure and energy density are also functions of the radius . For these Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff stellar models, the Einstein and matter equations and reduce to
Consider now a constant density solution to the above Einstein and matter equations, where takes the non-zero constant value out to a radius and for . Show that for such a star,
and that the pressure at the centre of the star is
Show that diverges if [Hint: at the surface of the star the pressure vanishes:
Paper 2, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentConsider the spacetime metric
where and are constants.
(a) Write down the Lagrangian for geodesics in this spacetime, determine three independent constants of motion and show that geodesics obey the equation
where is constant, the overdot denotes differentiation with respect to an affine parameter and is a potential function to be determined.
(b) Sketch the potential for the case of null geodesics, find any circular null geodesics of this spacetime, and determine whether they are stable or unstable.
(c) Show that has two positive roots and if and that these satisfy the relation .
(d) Describe in one sentence the physical significance of those points where .
Paper 3, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a manifold with coordinates . The commutator of two vector fields and is defined as
(i) Show that transforms like a vector field under a change of coordinates from to .
(ii) Show that the commutator of any two basis vectors vanishes, i.e.
(iii) Show that if and are linear combinations (not necessarily with constant coefficients) of vector fields that all commute with one another, then the commutator is a linear combination of the same fields .
[You may use without proof the following relations which hold for any vector fields and any function :
but you should clearly indicate each time relation , or (3) is used.]
(b) Consider the 2-dimensional manifold with Cartesian coordinates carrying the Euclidean metric .
(i) Express the coordinate basis vectors and , where and denote the usual polar coordinates, in terms of their Cartesian counterparts.
(ii) Define the unit vectors
and show that are not a coordinate basis, i.e. there exist no coordinates such that and .
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a spacetime and the Levi-Civita connection of the metric . The Riemann tensor of this spacetime is given in terms of the connection by
The contracted Bianchi identities ensure that the Einstein tensor satisfies
(a) Show that the Riemann tensor obeys the symmetry
(b) Show that a vector field satisfies the Ricci identity
Calculate the analogous expression for a rank tensor , i.e. calculate in terms of the Riemann tensor.
(c) Let be a vector that satisfies the Killing equation
Use the symmetry relation of part (a) to show that
where is the Ricci tensor.
(d) Show that
and use the result of part (b) to show that the right hand side evaluates to zero, hence showing that .
Paper 4, Section II, G
Part II, 2019 commentState and prove Hall's theorem.
Let be an even positive integer. Let be the power set of . For , let . Let be the graph with vertex set where are adjacent if and only if . [Here, denotes the symmetric difference of and , given by
Let . Why is the induced subgraph bipartite? Show that it contains a matching from to .
A chain in is a subset such that whenever we have or . What is the least positive integer such that can be partitioned into pairwise disjoint chains? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, G
Part II, 2019 comment(a) What does it mean to say that a graph is bipartite?
(b) Show that is bipartite if and only if it contains no cycles of odd length.
(c) Show that if is bipartite then
as .
[You may use without proof the Erdós-Stone theorem provided it is stated precisely.]
(d) Let be a graph of order with edges. Let be a random subset of containing each vertex of independently with probability . Let be the number of edges with precisely one vertex in . Find, with justification, , and deduce that contains a bipartite subgraph with at least edges.
By using another method of choosing a random subset of , or otherwise, show that if is even then contains a bipartite subgraph with at least edges.
Paper 2, Section II, 17G
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Suppose that the edges of the complete graph are coloured blue and yellow. Show that it must contain a monochromatic triangle. Does this remain true if is replaced by ?
(b) Let . Suppose that the edges of the complete graph are coloured blue and yellow. Show that it must contain edges of the same colour with no two sharing a vertex. Is there any for which this remains true if is replaced by ?
(c) Now let . Suppose that the edges of the complete graph are coloured blue and yellow in such a way that there are a blue triangle and a yellow triangle with no vertices in common. Show that there are also a blue triangle and a yellow triangle that do have a vertex in common. Hence, or otherwise, show that whenever the edges of the complete graph are coloured blue and yellow it must contain monochromatic triangles, all of the same colour, with no two sharing a vertex. Is there any for which this remains true if is replaced by ? [You may assume that whenever the edges of the complete graph are coloured blue and yellow it must contain two monochromatic triangles of the same colour with no vertices in common.]
Paper 1, Section II, 17G
Part II, 2019 commentLet be a connected -regular graph.
(a) Show that is an eigenvalue of with multiplicity 1 and eigenvector
(b) Suppose that is strongly regular. Show that has at most three distinct eigenvalues.
(c) Conversely, suppose that has precisely three distinct eigenvalues and . Let be the adjacency matrix of and let
Show that if is an eigenvector of that is not a scalar multiple of then . Deduce that is a scalar multiple of the matrix whose entries are all equal to one. Hence show that, for depends only on whether or not vertices and are adjacent, and so is strongly regular.
(d) Which connected -regular graphs have precisely two eigenvalues? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentSuppose is a smooth one-parameter group of transformations acting on , with infinitesimal generator
(a) Define the prolongation of , and show that
where you should give an explicit formula to determine the recursively in terms of and .
(b) Find the prolongation of each of the following generators:
(c) Given a smooth, real-valued, function , the Schwarzian derivative is defined by,
Show that,
for where are real functions which you should determine. What can you deduce about the symmetries of the equations: (i) , (ii) , (iii) ?
Paper 3, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Prove that in a finite-dimensional normed vector space the weak and strong topologies coincide.
(b) Prove that in a normed vector space , a weakly convergent sequence is bounded. [Any form of the Banach-Steinhaus theorem may be used, as long as you state it clearly.]
(c) Let be the space of real-valued absolutely summable sequences. Suppose is a weakly convergent sequence in which does not converge strongly. Show there is a constant and a sequence in which satisfies and for all .
With as above, show there is some and a subsequence of with for all . Deduce that every weakly convergent sequence in is strongly convergent.
[Hint: Define so that for , where the sequence of integers should be defined inductively along with
(d) Is the conclusion of part (c) still true if we replace by
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentSuppose is a smooth, real-valued, function of which satisfies for all and as . Consider the Sturm-Liouville operator:
which acts on smooth, complex-valued, functions . You may assume that for any there exists a unique function which satisfies:
and has the asymptotic behaviour:
(a) By analogy with the standard Schrödinger scattering problem, define the reflection and transmission coefficients: . Show that . [Hint: You may wish to consider for suitable functions and
(b) Show that, if , there exists no non-trivial normalizable solution to the equation
Assume now that , such that and 0 as . You are given that the operator defined by:
satisfies:
(c) Show that form a Lax pair if the Harry Dym equation,
is satisfied. [You may assume .]
(d) Assuming that solves the Harry Dym equation, find how the transmission and reflection amplitudes evolve as functions of .
Paper 1, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentLet be equipped with its standard Poisson bracket.
(a) Given a Hamiltonian function , write down Hamilton's equations for . Define a first integral of the system and state what it means that the system is integrable.
(b) Show that if then every Hamiltonian system is integrable whenever
Let be another phase space, equipped with its standard Poisson bracket. Suppose that is a Hamiltonian function for . Define and let the combined phase space be equipped with the standard Poisson bracket.
(c) Show that if and are both integrable, then so is , where the combined Hamiltonian is given by:
(d) Consider the -dimensional simple harmonic oscillator with phase space and Hamiltonian given by:
where . Using the results above, or otherwise, show that is integrable for .
(e) Is it true that every bounded orbit of an integrable system is necessarily periodic? You should justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a Banach space and consider the open unit ball . Let be a bounded operator. Prove that .
(b) Let be the vector space of all polynomials in one variable with real coefficients. Let be any norm on . Show that is not complete.
(c) Let be entire, and assume that for every there is such that where is the -th derivative of . Prove that is a polynomial.
[You may use that an entire function vanishing on an open subset of must vanish everywhere.]
(d) A Banach space is said to be uniformly convex if for every there is such that for all such that and , one has . Prove that is uniformly convex.
Paper 4, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State and prove the Riesz representation theorem for a real Hilbert space .
[You may use that if is a real Hilbert space and is a closed subspace, then
(b) Let be a real Hilbert space and a bounded linear operator. Show that is invertible if and only if both and are bounded below. [Recall that an operator is bounded below if there is such that for all .]
(c) Consider the complex Hilbert space of two-sided sequences,
with norm . Define by . Show that is unitary and find the point spectrum and the approximate point spectrum of .
Paper 2, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) State the real version of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem and state the UrysohnTietze extension theorem.
(b) In this part, you may assume that there is a sequence of polynomials such that as .
Let be a continuous piecewise linear function which is linear on and on . Using the polynomials mentioned above (but not assuming any form of the Stone-Weierstrass theorem), prove that there are polynomials such that as .
(d) Which of the following families of functions are relatively compact in with the supremum norm? Justify your answer.
[In this question denotes the set of positive integers.]
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 commentLet be the space of real-valued sequences with only finitely many nonzero terms.
(a) For any , show that is dense in . Is dense in Justify your answer.
(b) Let , and let be an operator that is bounded in the -norm, i.e., there exists a such that for all . Show that there is a unique bounded operator satisfying , and that .
(c) For each and for each determine if there is a bounded operator from to (in the norm) whose restriction to is given by :
(d) Let be a normed vector space such that the closed unit ball is compact. Prove that is finite dimensional.
Paper 4, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentDefine the cardinals , and explain briefly why every infinite set has cardinality
Show that if is an infinite cardinal then .
Let be infinite sets. Show that must have the same cardinality as for some .
Let be infinite sets, no two of the same cardinality. Is it possible that has the same cardinality as some ? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentDefine the von Neumann hierarchy of sets . Show that each is transitive, and explain why whenever . Prove that every set is a member of some .
Which of the following are true and which are false? Give proofs or counterexamples as appropriate. [You may assume standard properties of rank.]
(i) If the rank of a set is a (non-zero) limit then is infinite.
(ii) If the rank of a set is countable then is countable.
(iii) If every finite subset of a set has rank at most then has rank at most .
(iv) For every ordinal there exists a set of .
Paper 2, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentGive the inductive and synthetic definitions of ordinal addition, and prove that they are equivalent.
Which of the following assertions about ordinals and are always true, and which can be false? Give proofs or counterexamples as appropriate.
(i) .
(ii) If and are uncountable then .
(iii) .
(iv) If and are infinite and then .
Paper 1, Section II, I
Part II, 2019 commentState the completeness theorem for propositional logic. Explain briefly how the proof of this theorem changes from the usual proof in the case when the set of primitive propositions may be uncountable.
State the compactness theorem and the decidability theorem, and deduce them from the completeness theorem.
A poset is called two-dimensional if there exist total orders and on such that if and only if and . By applying the compactness theorem for propositional logic, show that if every finite subset of a poset is two-dimensional then so is the poset itself.
[Hint: Take primitive propositions and , for each distinct , with the intended interpretation that is true if and only if and is true if and only if
Paper 4, Section II, H
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a real Hilbert space and let be a bilinear map. If is continuous prove that there is an such that for all . [You may use any form of the Banach-Steinhaus theorem as long as you state it clearly.]
(b) Now suppose that defined as above is bilinear and continuous, and assume also that it is coercive: i.e. there is a such that for all . Prove that for any , there exists a unique such that for all .
[Hint: show that there is a bounded invertible linear operator with bounded inverse so that for all . You may use any form of the Riesz representation theorem as long as you state it clearly.]
(c) Define the Sobolev space , where is open and bounded.
(d) Suppose and with , where is the Euclidean norm on . Consider the Dirichlet problem
Using the result of part (b), prove there is a unique weak solution .
(e) Now assume that is the open unit disk in and is a smooth function on . Sketch how you would solve the following variant:
[Hint: Reduce to the result of part (d).]
Paper 4, Section I, C
Part II, 2019 comment(a) A variant of the classic logistic population model is given by:
where .
Show that for small , the constant solution is stable.
Allow to increase. Express in terms of the value of at which the constant solution loses stability.
(b) Another variant of the logistic model is given by this equation:
where . When is the constant solution stable for this model?
Paper 3, Section I,
Part II, 2019 commentA model of wound healing in one spatial dimension is given by
where gives the density of healthy tissue at spatial position at time and and are positive constants.
By setting where , seek a steady travelling wave solution where tends to one for large negative and tends to zero for large positive . By linearising around the leading edge, where , find the possible wave speeds of the system. Assuming that the full nonlinear system will settle to the slowest possible speed, express the wave speed as a function of and .
Consider now a situation where the tissue is destroyed in some window of length , i.e. for for some constant and is equal to one elsewhere. Explain what will happen for subsequent times, illustrating your answer with sketches of . Determine approximately how long it will take for this wound to heal (in the sense that is close to one everywhere).
Paper 2, Section I, C
Part II, 2019 commentAn activator-inhibitor system for and is described by the equations
where .
Find the range of for which the spatially homogeneous system has a stable equilibrium solution with and .
For the case when the homogeneous system is stable, consider spatial perturbations proportional to to the equilibrium solution found above. Give a condition on in terms of for the system to have a Turing instability (a spatial instability).
Paper 1, Section ,
Part II, 2019 commentAn animal population has annual dynamics, breeding in the summer and hibernating through the winter. At year , the number of individuals alive who were born a years ago is given by . Each individual of age gives birth to offspring, and after the summer has a probability of dying during the winter. [You may assume that individuals do not give birth during the year in which they are born.]
Explain carefully why the following equations, together with initial conditions, are appropriate to describe the system:
Seek a solution of the form where and , for , are constants. Show must satisfy where
Explain why, for any reasonable set of parameters and , the equation has a unique solution. Explain also how can be used to determine if the population will grow or shrink.
Paper 3, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 comment(a) A stochastic birth-death process has a master equation given by
where is the probability that there are individuals in the population at time for and for .
(i) Give a brief interpretation of and .
(ii) Derive an equation for , where is the generating function
(iii) Assuming that the generating function takes the form
find and hence show that, as , both the mean and variance of the population size tend to constant values, which you should determine.
(b) Now suppose an extra process is included: individuals are added to the population at rate .
(i) Write down the new master equation, and explain why, for , the approach used in part (a) will fail.
(ii) By working with the master equation directly, find a differential equation for the rate of change of the mean population size .
(iii) Now take for positive constants and . Show that for the mean population size tends to a constant, which you should determine. Briefly describe what happens for .
Paper 4, Section II, C
Part II, 2019 commentA model of an infectious disease in a plant population is given by
where is the density of healthy plants and is the density of diseased plants at time and is a positive constant.
(a) Give an interpretation of what each of the terms in equations (1) and (2) represents in terms of the dynamics of the plants. What does the coefficient represent? What can you deduce from the equations about the effect of the disease on the plants?
(b) By finding all fixed points for and and analysing their stability, explain what will happen to a healthy plant population if the disease is introduced. Sketch the phase diagram, treating the cases and separately.
(c) Define new variables for the total plant population density and for the proportion of the population that is diseased. Starting from equations (1) and (2) above, derive equations for and purely in terms of and . Without carrying out a full fixed point analysis, explain how this system can be used directly to show the same results you had in part (b). [Hint: start by considering the dynamics of alone.]
(d) Suppose now that in an attempt to control disease, plants are culled at a rate per capita, independently of whether the plants are healthy or diseased. Write down the modified versions of equations (1) and (2). Use these to build updated equations for and . Without carrying out a detailed fixed point analysis, what can you deduce about the effect of culling? Give the range of for which culling can effectively control the disease.
Paper 4, Section II, 20G
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a number field, and suppose there exists such that . Let denote the minimal polynomial of , and let be a prime. Let denote the reduction modulo of , and let
denote the factorisation of in as a product of powers of distinct monic irreducible polynomials , where are all positive integers.
For each , let be any polynomial with reduction modulo equal to , and let . Show that are distinct, non-zero prime ideals of , and that there is a factorisation
and that .
(b) Let be a number field of degree , and let be a prime. Suppose that there is a factorisation
where are distinct, non-zero prime ideals of with for each . Use the result of part (a) to show that if then there is no such that .
Paper 2, Section II, G
Part II, 2019 comment(a) Let be a number field. State Minkowski's upper bound for the norm of a representative for a given class of the ideal class group .
(b) Now let and . Using Dedekind's criterion, or otherwise, factorise the ideals and as products of non-zero prime ideals of .
(c) Show that is cyclic, and determine its order.
[You may assume that
Paper 1, Section II, 20G
Part II, 2019 commentLet .
(a) Write down the ring of integers .
(b) State Dirichlet's unit theorem, and use it to determine all elements of the group of units .
(c) Let denote the ideal generated by . Show that the group
is cyclic, and find a generator.
Paper 4, Section I, I
Part II, 2019 commentShow that the product
and the series
are both divergent.