Part IB, 2021
Part IB, 2021
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Paper 1, Section II, F
commentLet be a map between metric spaces. Prove that the following two statements are equivalent:
(i) is open whenever is open.
(ii) for any sequence .
For as above, determine which of the following statements are always true and which may be false, giving a proof or a counterexample as appropriate.
(a) If is compact and is continuous, then is uniformly continuous.
(b) If is compact and is continuous, then is compact.
(c) If is connected, is continuous and is dense in , then is connected.
(d) If the set is closed in and is compact, then is continuous.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentLet be a continuous function and let denote the set of continuous real-valued functions on . Given , define the function by the expression
(a) Prove that is a continuous map with the uniform metric on .
(b) Let be the metric on given by
Is continuous with respect to
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentLet be a sequence of functions satisfying the following properties:
for all and and there is such that vanishes outside for all
each is continuous and
- given and , there exists a positive integer such that if , then
Let be a bounded continuous function and set
Show that converges uniformly to on any compact subset of .
Let be a continuous function with . Show that there is a sequence of polynomials such that converges uniformly to on . Hint: consider the functions
where is a suitably chosen constant.]
Paper 3, Section II, F
commentDefine the terms connected and path-connected for a topological space. Prove that the interval is connected and that if a topological space is path-connected, then it is connected.
Let be an open subset of Euclidean space . Show that is connected if and only if is path-connected.
Let be a topological space with the property that every point has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to an open set in . Assume is connected; must be also pathconnected? Briefly justify your answer.
Consider the following subsets of :
Let
with the subspace topology. Is path-connected? Is connected? Justify your answers.
Paper 4, Section I,
commentLet be a topological space with an equivalence relation, the set of equivalence classes, , the quotient map taking a point in to its equivalence class.
(a) Define the quotient topology on and check it is a topology.
(b) Prove that if is a topological space, a map is continuous if and only if is continuous.
(c) If is Hausdorff, is it true that is also Hausdorff? Justify your answer.
Paper 4, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be a continuous function such that for each , the partial derivatives of exist and are continuous on . Define by
Show that has continuous partial derivatives given by
for .
(b) Let be an infinitely differentiable function, that is, partial derivatives exist and are continuous for all and . Show that for any ,
where is an infinitely differentiable function.
[Hint: You may use the fact that if is infinitely differentiable, then
Paper 3, Section II, G
commentLet be a curve (not necessarily closed) in and let denote the image of . Let be a continuous function and define
for . Show that has a power series expansion about every .
Using Cauchy's Integral Formula, show that a holomorphic function has complex derivatives of all orders. [Properties of power series may be assumed without proof.] Let be a holomorphic function on an open set that contains the closed disc . Obtain an integral formula for the derivative of on the open disc in terms of the values of on the boundary of the disc.
Show that if holomorphic functions on an open set converge locally uniformly to a holomorphic function on , then converges locally uniformly to .
Let and be two overlapping closed discs. Let be a holomorphic function on some open neighbourhood of . Show that there exist open neighbourhoods of and holomorphic functions on , such that on .
Paper 4, Section I,
commentLet be a holomorphic function on a neighbourhood of . Assume that has a zero of order at with . Show that there exist and such that for any with there are exactly distinct values of with .
Paper 1, Section I, B
commentLet , and let denote the positively oriented circle of radius centred at the origin. Define
Evaluate for .
Paper 1, Section II, G
comment(a) State a theorem establishing Laurent series of analytic functions on suitable domains. Give a formula for the Laurent coefficient.
Define the notion of isolated singularity. State the classification of an isolated singularity in terms of Laurent coefficients.
Compute the Laurent series of
on the annuli and . Using this example, comment on the statement that Laurent coefficients are unique. Classify the singularity of at 0 .
(b) Let be an open subset of the complex plane, let and let . Assume that is an analytic function on with as . By considering the Laurent series of at , classify the singularity of at in terms of the Laurent coefficients. [You may assume that a continuous function on that is analytic on is analytic on .]
Now let be an entire function with as . By considering Laurent series at 0 of and of , show that is a polynomial.
(c) Classify, giving reasons, the singularity at the origin of each of the following functions and in each case compute the residue:
Paper 2, Section II, B
comment(a) Let be an entire function and let be constants. Show that if
for all , where is a positive odd integer, then must be a polynomial with degree not exceeding (closest integer part rounding down).
Does there exist a function , analytic in , such that for all nonzero Justify your answer.
(b) State Liouville's Theorem and use it to show the following.
(i) If is a positive harmonic function on , then is a constant function.
(ii) Let be a line in where . If is an entire function such that , then is a constant function.
Paper 3, Section I, B
commentFind the value of for which the function
satisfies Laplace's equation. For this value of , find a complex analytic function of which is the real part.
Paper 4, Section II, B
commentLet be defined for . Define the Laplace transform of . Find an expression for the Laplace transform of in terms of .
Three radioactive nuclei decay sequentially, so that the numbers of the three types obey the equations
where are constants. Initially, at and . Using Laplace transforms, find .
By taking an appropriate limit, find when and .
Paper 1, Section II, 15D
comment(a) Show that the magnetic flux passing through a simple, closed curve can be written as
where is the magnetic vector potential. Explain why this integral is independent of the choice of gauge.
(b) Show that the magnetic vector potential due to a static electric current density , in the Coulomb gauge, satisfies Poisson's equation
Hence obtain an expression for the magnetic vector potential due to a static, thin wire, in the form of a simple, closed curve , that carries an electric current . [You may assume that the electric current density of the wire can be written as
where is the three-dimensional Dirac delta function.]
(c) Consider two thin wires, in the form of simple, closed curves and , that carry electric currents and , respectively. Let (where ) be the magnetic flux passing through the curve due to the current flowing around . The inductances are defined by . By combining the results of parts (a) and (b), or otherwise, derive Neumann's formula for the mutual inductance,
Suppose that is a circular loop of radius , centred at and lying in the plane , and that is a different circular loop of radius , centred at and lying in the plane . Show that the mutual inductance of the two loops is
where
and the function is defined, for , by the integral
Paper 2, Section I,
commentState Gauss's Law in the context of electrostatics.
A simple coaxial cable consists of an inner conductor in the form of a perfectly conducting, solid cylinder of radius , surrounded by an outer conductor in the form of a perfectly conducting, cylindrical shell of inner radius and outer radius . The cylinders are coaxial and the gap between them is filled with a perfectly insulating material. The cable may be assumed to be straight and arbitrarily long.
In a steady state, the inner conductor carries an electric charge per unit length, and the outer conductor carries an electric charge per unit length. The charges are distributed in a cylindrically symmetric way and no current flows through the cable.
Determine the electrostatic potential and the electric field as functions of the cylindrical radius , for . Calculate the capacitance of the cable per unit length and the electrostatic energy per unit length, and verify that these are related by
Paper 2, Section II,
comment(a) Show that, for ,
(b) A particle with electric charge has position vector , where . An earthed conductor (held at zero potential) occupies the plane . Explain why the boundary conditions can be satisfied by introducing a fictitious 'image' particle of appropriate charge and position. Hence determine the electrostatic potential and the electric field in the region . Find the leading-order approximation to the potential for and compare with that of an electric dipole. Directly calculate the total flux of the electric field through the plane and comment on the result. Find the induced charge distribution on the surface of the conductor, and the total induced surface charge. Sketch the electric field lines in the plane .
(c) Now consider instead a particle with charge at position , where and , with earthed conductors occupying the planes and . Find the leading-order approximation to the potential in the region for and state what type of multipole potential this is.
Paper 3, Section II, 15D
comment(a) The energy density stored in the electric and magnetic fields and is given by
Show that, in regions where no electric current flows,
for some vector field that you should determine.
(b) The coordinates in an inertial frame are related to the coordinates in an inertial frame by a Lorentz transformation , where
with . Here is the relative velocity of with respect to in the x-direction.
In frame , there is a static electric field with , and no magnetic field. Calculate the electric field and magnetic field in frame . Show that the energy density in frame is given in terms of the components of by
Use the fact that to show that
where is the unit vector in the -direction.
Paper 4, Section I,
commentWrite down Maxwell's equations in a vacuum. Show that they admit wave solutions with
where and must obey certain conditions that you should determine. Find the corresponding electric field .
A light wave, travelling in the -direction and linearly polarised so that the magnetic field points in the -direction, is incident upon a conductor that occupies the half-space . The electric and magnetic fields obey the boundary conditions and on the surface of the conductor, where is the unit normal vector. Determine the contributions to the magnetic field from the incident and reflected waves in the region . Compute the magnetic field tangential to the surface of the conductor.
Paper 1, Section II, A
commentA two-dimensional flow is given by a velocity potential
where is a constant.
(a) Find the corresponding velocity field . Determine .
(b) The time-average of a quantity is defined as
Show that the time-average of this velocity field is zero everywhere. Write down an expression for the acceleration of fluid particles, and find the time-average of this expression at a fixed point .
(c) Now assume that . The material particle at at is marked with dye. Write down equations for its subsequent motion. Verify that its position for is given (correct to terms of order ) by
Deduce the time-average velocity of the dyed particle correct to this order.
Paper 2, Section I, A
commentConsider an axisymmetric container, initially filled with water to a depth . A small circular hole of radius is opened in the base of the container at .
(a) Determine how the radius of the container should vary with so that the depth of the water will decrease at a constant rate.
(b) For such a container, determine how the cross-sectional area of the free surface should decrease with time.
[You may assume that the flow rate through the opening is sufficiently small that Bernoulli's theorem for steady flows can be applied.]
Paper 3, Section I, A
commentA two-dimensional flow has a velocity field given by
(a) Show explicitly that this flow is incompressible and irrotational away from the origin.
(b) Find the stream function for this flow.
(c) Find the velocity potential for this flow.
Paper 3, Section II, A
commentA two-dimensional layer of viscous fluid lies between two rigid boundaries at . The boundary at oscillates in its own plane with velocity , while the boundary at oscillates in its own plane with velocity . Assume that there is no pressure gradient and that the fluid flows parallel to the boundary with velocity , where can be written as .
(a) By exploiting the symmetry of the system or otherwise, show that
(b) Hence or otherwise, show that
where .
(c) Show that, for ,
and briefly interpret this result physically.
Paper 4, Section II, A
commentConsider the spherically symmetric motion induced by the collapse of a spherical cavity of radius , centred on the origin. For , there is a vacuum, while for , there is an inviscid incompressible fluid with constant density . At time , and the fluid is at rest and at constant pressure .
(a) Consider the radial volume transport in the fluid , defined as
where is the radial velocity, and is an infinitesimal element of the surface of a sphere of radius . Use the incompressibility condition to establish that is a function of time alone.
(b) Using the expression for pressure in potential flow or otherwise, establish that
where is the radial velocity of the cavity boundary.
(c) By expressing in terms of and , show that
[Hint: You may find it useful to assume is an explicit function of a from the outset.]
(d) Hence write down an integral expression for the implosion time , i.e. the time for the radius of the cavity . [Do not attempt to evaluate the integral.]
Paper 1, Section I, F
commentLet be a smooth function and let (assumed not empty). Show that if the differential for all , then is a smooth surface in .
Is a smooth surface? Is every surface of the form for some smooth ? Justify your answers.
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentLet be an oriented surface. Define the Gauss map and show that the differential of the Gauss map at any point is a self-adjoint linear map. Define the Gauss curvature and compute in a given parametrisation.
A point is called umbilic if has a repeated eigenvalue. Let be a surface such that every point is umbilic and there is a parametrisation such that . Prove that is part of a plane or part of a sphere. Hint: consider the symmetry of the mixed partial derivatives , where for
Paper 2, Section II, E
commentDefine , the upper half plane model for the hyperbolic plane, and show that acts on by isometries, and that these isometries preserve the orientation of .
Show that every orientation preserving isometry of is in , and hence the full group of isometries of is , where .
Let be a hyperbolic line. Define the reflection in . Now let be two hyperbolic lines which meet at a point at an angle . What are the possibilities for the group generated by and ? Carefully justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section I, E
commentState the local Gauss-Bonnet theorem for geodesic triangles on a surface. Deduce the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for closed surfaces. [Existence of a geodesic triangulation can be assumed.]
Let denote the sphere with radius centred at the origin. Show that the Gauss curvature of is . An octant is any of the eight regions in bounded by arcs of great circles arising from the planes . Verify directly that the local Gauss-Bonnet theorem holds for an octant. [You may assume that the great circles on are geodesics.]
Paper 3, Section II, E
commentLet be an embedded smooth surface and a parameterised smooth curve on . What is the energy of ? By applying the Euler-Lagrange equations for stationary curves to the energy function, determine the differential equations for geodesics on explicitly in terms of a parameterisation of .
If contains a straight line , prove from first principles that each segment (with some parameterisation) is a geodesic on .
Let be the hyperboloid defined by the equation and let . By considering appropriate isometries, or otherwise, display explicitly three distinct (as subsets of ) geodesics through in the case when and four distinct geodesics through in the case when . Justify your answer.
Let be a geodesic, with coordinates . Clairaut's relation asserts is constant, where and is the angle between and the plane through the point and the -axis. Deduce from Clairaut's relation that there exist infinitely many geodesics on which stay in the half-space for all .
[You may assume that if satisfies the geodesic equations on then is defined for all and the Euclidean norm is constant. If you use a version of the geodesic equations for a surface of revolution, then that should be proved.]
Paper 4, Section II, F
commentDefine an abstract smooth surface and explain what it means for the surface to be orientable. Given two smooth surfaces and and a map , explain what it means for to be smooth
For the cylinder
let be the orientation reversing diffeomorphism . Let be the quotient of by the equivalence relation and let be the canonical projection map. Show that can be made into an abstract smooth surface so that is smooth. Is orientable? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, G
commentShow that a ring is Noetherian if and only if every ideal of is finitely generated. Show that if is a surjective ring homomorphism and is Noetherian, then is Noetherian.
State and prove Hilbert's Basis Theorem.
Let . Is Noetherian? Justify your answer.
Give, with proof, an example of a Unique Factorization Domain that is not Noetherian.
Let be the ring of continuous functions . Is Noetherian? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentLet be a module over a Principal Ideal Domain and let be a submodule of . Show that is finitely generated if and only if and are finitely generated.
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentLet be a module over a ring and let . Define what it means that freely generates . Show that this happens if and only if for every -module , every function extends uniquely to a homomorphism .
Let be a free module over a (non-trivial) ring that is generated (not necessarily freely) by a subset of size . Show that if is a basis of , then is finite with . Hence, or otherwise, deduce that any two bases of have the same number of elements. Denoting this number and by quoting any result you need, show that if is a Euclidean Domain and is a submodule of , then is free with .
State the Primary Decomposition Theorem for a finitely generated module over a Euclidean Domain . Deduce that any finite subgroup of the multiplicative group of a field is cyclic.
Paper 3, Section I, G
commentLet be a finite group, and let be a proper subgroup of of index .
Show that there is a normal subgroup of such that divides ! and .
Show that if is non-abelian and simple, then is isomorphic to a subgroup of .
Paper 3, Section II, 10G
commentLet be a non-zero element of a Principal Ideal Domain . Show that the following are equivalent:
(i) is prime;
(ii) is irreducible;
(iii) is a maximal ideal of ;
(iv) is a field;
(v) is an Integral Domain.
Let be a Principal Ideal Domain, an Integral Domain and a surjective ring homomorphism. Show that either is an isomorphism or is a field.
Show that if is a commutative ring and is a Principal Ideal Domain, then is a field.
Let be an Integral Domain in which every two non-zero elements have a highest common factor. Show that in every irreducible element is prime.
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentLet and be subgroups of a finite group . Show that the sets , partition . By considering the action of on the set of left cosets of in by left multiplication, or otherwise, show that
for any . Deduce that if has a Sylow -subgroup, then so does .
Let with a prime. Write down the order of the group . Identify in a Sylow -subgroup and a subgroup isomorphic to the symmetric group . Deduce that every finite group has a Sylow -subgroup.
State Sylow's theorem on the number of Sylow -subgroups of a finite group.
Let be a group of order , where are prime numbers. Show that if is non-abelian, then .
Paper 1, Section I,
commentLet be a vector space over , and let , symmetric bilinear form on .
Let . Show that is of dimension and . Show that if is a subspace with , then the restriction of , is nondegenerate.
Conclude that the dimension of is even.
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentLet , and let .
(a) (i) Compute , for all .
(ii) Hence, or otherwise, compute , for all .
(b) Let be a finite-dimensional vector space over , and let . Suppose for some .
(i) Determine the possible eigenvalues of .
(ii) What are the possible Jordan blocks of ?
(iii) Show that if , there exists a decomposition
where , and .
Paper 2, Section II, E
comment(a) Compute the characteristic polynomial and minimal polynomial of
Write down the Jordan normal form for .
(b) Let be a finite-dimensional vector space over be a linear map, and for , write
(i) Given , construct a non-zero eigenvector for in terms of .
(ii) Show that if are non-zero eigenvectors for with eigenvalues , and for all , then are linearly independent.
(iii) Show that if are all non-zero, and for all , then are linearly independent.
Paper 3, Section II, 9E
comment(a) (i) State the rank-nullity theorem.
Let and be vector spaces. Write down the definition of their direct sum and the inclusions .
Now let and be subspaces of a vector space . Define by
Describe the quotient space as a subspace of .
(ii) Let , and let be the subspace of spanned by the vectors
and the subspace of spanned by the vectors
Determine the dimension of .
(b) Let be complex by matrices with .
Show that is a polynomial in of degree at most .
Show that if the polynomial is of degree precisely .
Give an example where but this polynomial is zero.
Paper 4, Section I,
commentLet be the vector space of by complex matrices.
Given , define the linear ,
(i) Compute a basis of eigenvectors, and their associated eigenvalues, when is the diagonal matrix
What is the rank of ?
(ii) Now let . Write down the matrix of the linear transformation with respect to the standard basis of .
What is its Jordan normal form?
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(a) Let be a complex vector space of dimension .
What is a Hermitian form on ?
Given a Hermitian form, define the matrix of the form with respect to the basis of , and describe in terms of the value of the Hermitian form on two elements of .
Now let be another basis of . Suppose , and let . Write down the matrix of the form with respect to this new basis in terms of and .
Let . Describe the dimension of in terms of the matrix .
(b) Write down the matrix of the real quadratic form
Using the Gram-Schmidt algorithm, find a basis which diagonalises the form. What are its rank and signature?
(c) Let be a real vector space, and , be the matrix of this form in some basis.
Prove that the signature of , minus the number of negative eigenvalues.
Explain, using an example, why the eigenvalues themselves depend on the choice of a basis.
Paper 1, Section II, 19H
commentLet be a Markov chain with transition matrix . What is a stopping time of ? What is the strong Markov property?
The exciting game of 'Unopoly' is played by a single player on a board of 4 squares. The player starts with (where ). During each turn, the player tosses a fair coin and moves one or two places in a clockwise direction according to whether the coin lands heads or tails respectively. The player collects each time they pass (or land on) square 1. If the player lands on square 3 however, they immediately lose and go back to square 2. The game continues indefinitely unless the player is on square 2 with , in which case the player loses the game and the game ends.
(a) By setting up an appropriate Markov chain, show that if the player is at square 2 with , where , the probability that they are ever at square 2 with is
(b) Find the probability of losing the game when the player starts on square 1 with , where .
[Hint: Take the state space of your Markov chain to be .]
Paper 2, Section II, 18H
commentLet be a transition matrix on state space . What does it mean for a distribution to be an invariant distribution? What does it mean for and to be in detailed balance? Show that if and are in detailed balance, then is an invariant distribution.
(a) Assuming that an invariant distribution exists, state the relationship between this and
(i) the expected return time to a state ;
(ii) the expected time spent in a state between visits to a state .
(b) Let be a Markov chain with transition matrix where . The transition probabilities are given for by
where . For let . Compute the following, justifying your answers:
(i) The expected time spent in states between visits to state 1 ;
(ii) The expected time taken to return to state 1 , starting from 1 ;
(iii) The expected time taken to hit state 0 starting from
Paper 3 , Section I, H
commentConsider a Markov chain on a state space .
(a) Define the notion of a communicating class. What does it mean for a communicating class to be closed?
(b) Taking , find the communicating classes associated with the transition matrix given by
and identify which are closed.
(c) Find the expected time for the Markov chain with transition matrix above to reach 6 starting from 1 .
Paper 4, Section I, H
commentShow that the simple symmetric random walk on is recurrent.
Three particles perform independent simple symmetric random walks on . What is the probability that they are all simultaneously at 0 infinitely often? Justify your answer.
[You may assume without proof that there exist constants such that for all positive integers
Paper 1, Section II, C
comment(a) By introducing the variables and (where is a constant), derive d'Alembert's solution of the initial value problem for the wave equation:
where and and are given functions (and subscripts denote partial derivatives).
(b) Consider the forced wave equation with homogeneous initial conditions:
where and is a given function. You may assume that the solution is given by
For the forced wave equation , now in the half space (and with as before), find (in terms of ) the solution for that satisfies the (inhomogeneous) initial conditions
and the boundary condition for .
Paper 2, Section I, C
commentConsider the differential operator
acting on real functions with .
(i) Recast the eigenvalue equation in Sturm-Liouville form , identifying and .
(ii) If boundary conditions are imposed, show that the eigenvalues form an infinite discrete set and find the corresponding eigenfunctions for . If on is expanded in terms of your eigenfunctions i.e. , give an expression for . The expression can be given in terms of integrals that you need not evaluate.
Paper 2, Section II, A
commentThe Fourier transform of a function and its inverse are given by
(a) Calculate the Fourier transform of the function defined by:
(b) Show that the inverse Fourier transform of , for a positive real constant, is given by
(c) Consider the problem in the quarter plane :
Use the answers from parts (a) and (b) to show that
(d) Hence solve the problem in the quarter plane :
[You may quote without proof any property of Fourier transforms.]
Paper 3, Section I, A
commentLet be a -periodic function with Fourier expansion
Find the Fourier coefficients and for
Hence, or otherwise, find the Fourier coefficients and for the -periodic function defined by
Use your answers to evaluate
Paper 3, Section II, A
commentLet be a solution of Legendre's equation with eigenvalue ,
such that and its derivatives , are regular at all points with .
(a) Show by induction that
for some constant . Find explicitly and show that its value is negative when is sufficiently large, for a fixed value of .
(b) Write the equation for in part (a) in self-adjoint form. Hence deduce that if is not identically zero, then .
[Hint: Establish a relation between integrals of the form and for certain functions and
(c) Use the results of parts (a) and (b) to show that if is a non-zero, regular solution of Legendre's equation on , then is a polynomial of degree and for some integer
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentThe function obeys the diffusion equation
Verify that
is a solution of , and by considering , find the solution having the initial form at .
Find, in terms of the error function, the solution of having the initial form
Sketch a graph of this solution at various times .
[The error function is
Paper 1, Section I, B
commentProve, from first principles, that there is an algorithm that can determine whether any real symmetric matrix is positive definite or not, with the computational cost (number of arithmetic operations) bounded by .
[Hint: Consider the LDL decomposition.]
Paper 1, Section II, B
commentFor the ordinary differential equation
where and the function is analytic, consider an explicit one-step method described as the mapping
Here and with time step , producing numerical approximations to the exact solution of equation , with being the initial value of the numerical solution.
(i) Define the local error of a one-step method.
(ii) Let be a norm on and suppose that
for all , where is some positive constant. Let be given and denote the initial error (potentially non-zero). Show that if the local error of the one-step method ( ) is , then
(iii) Let and consider equation where is time-independent satisfying for all , where is a positive constant. Consider the one-step method given by
Use part (ii) to show that for this method we have that equation (††) holds (with a potentially different constant ) for .
Paper 2, Section II, 17B
comment(a) Define Householder reflections and show that a real Householder reflection is symmetric and orthogonal. Moreover, show that if , where is a Householder reflection and is a full matrix, then the computational cost (number of arithmetic operations) of computing can be operations, as opposed to for standard matrix products.
(b) Show that for any there exists an orthogonal matrix such that
In particular, has zero entries below the first subdiagonal. Show that one can compute such a and (they may not be unique) using arithmetic operations.
[Hint: Multiply A from the left and right with Householder reflections.]
Paper 3, Section II, B
commentThe functions are generated by the formula
(a) Show that is a monic polynomial of degree . Write down the explicit forms of .
(b) Demonstrate the orthogonality of these polynomials with respect to the scalar product
i.e. that for , and show that
where .
(c) Assuming that a three-term recurrence relation in the form
holds, find the explicit expressions for and as functions of .
[Hint: you may use the fact that
Paper 4, Section I, B
comment(a) Given the data , find the interpolating cubic polynomial in the Newton form.
(b) We add to the data one more value, . Find the interpolating quartic polynomial for the extended data in the Newton form.
Paper 1, Section I,
comment(a) Let be a convex function for each . Show that
are both convex functions.
(b) Fix . Show that if is convex, then given by is convex.
(c) Fix vectors . Let be given by
Show that is convex. [You may use any result from the course provided you state it.]
Paper 2, Section I, H
commentFind the solution to the following Optimization problem using the simplex algorithm:
Write down the dual problem and give its solution.
Paper 3, Section II, H
commentExplain what is meant by a two-person zero-sum game with payoff matrix , and define what is meant by an optimal strategy for each player. What are the relationships between the optimal strategies and the value of the game?
Suppose now that
Show that if strategy is optimal for player I, it must also be optimal for player II. What is the value of the game in this case? Justify your answer.
Explain why we must have for all . Hence or otherwise, find the optimal strategy and prove that it is unique.
Paper 4, Section II, H
comment(a) Consider the linear program
where and . What is meant by a basic feasible solution?
(b) Prove that if has a finite maximum, then there exists a solution that is a basic feasible solution.
(c) Now consider the optimization problem
subject to ,
where matrix and vectors are as in the problem , and . Suppose there exists a solution to . Further consider the linear program
(i) Suppose for all . Show that the maximum of is finite and at least as large as that of .
(ii) Suppose, in addition to the condition in part (i), that the entries of are strictly positive. Show that the maximum of is equal to that of .
(iii) Let be the set of basic feasible solutions of the linear program . Assuming the conditions in parts (i) and (ii) above, show that
[Hint: Argue that if is in the set of basic feasible solutions to , then
Paper 1, Section II, C
commentConsider a quantum mechanical particle of mass in a one-dimensional stepped potential well given by:
where and are constants.
(i) Show that all energy levels of the particle are non-negative. Show that any level with satisfies
where
(ii) Suppose that initially and the particle is in the ground state of the potential well. is then changed to a value (while the particle's wavefunction stays the same) and the energy of the particle is measured. For , give an expression in terms of for prob , the probability that the energy measurement will find the particle having energy . The expression may be left in terms of integrals that you need not evaluate.
Paper 2, Section II, C
comment(a) Write down the expressions for the probability density and associated current density of a quantum particle in one dimension with wavefunction . Show that if is a stationary state then the function is constant.
For the non-normalisable free particle wavefunction (where and are real constants and is a complex constant) compute the functions and , and briefly give a physical interpretation of the functions and in this case.
(b) A quantum particle of mass and energy moving in one dimension is incident from the left in the potential given by
where and are positive constants. Write down the form of the wavefunction in the regions and .
Suppose now that . Show that the probability of transmission of the particle into the region is given by
Paper 3, Section I, C
commentThe electron in a hydrogen-like atom moves in a spherically symmetric potential where is a positive constant and is the radial coordinate of spherical polar coordinates. The two lowest energy spherically symmetric normalised states of the electron are given by
where and is the mass of the electron. For any spherically symmetric function , the Laplacian is given by .
(i) Suppose that the electron is in the state and its energy is measured. Find the expectation value of the result.
(ii) Suppose now that the electron is in state (as above) at time . Let be the expectation value of a measurement of the electron's radial position at time . Show that the value of oscillates sinusoidally about a constant level and determine the frequency of the oscillation.
Paper 4, Section I, C
commentLet be the wavefunction for a particle of mass moving in one dimension in a potential . Show that, with suitable boundary conditions as ,
Why is this important for the interpretation of quantum mechanics?
Verify the result above by first calculating for the free particle solution
where and are real constants, and then considering the resulting integral.
Paper 4, Section II, C
comment(a) Consider the angular momentum operators and where
Use the standard commutation relations for these operators to show that
Deduce that if is a joint eigenstate of and with angular momentum quantum numbers and respectively, then are also joint eigenstates, provided they are non-zero, with quantum numbers and .
(b) A harmonic oscillator of mass in three dimensions has Hamiltonian
Find eigenstates of in terms of eigenstates for an oscillator in one dimension with and eigenvalues ; hence determine the eigenvalues of .
Verify that the ground state for is a joint eigenstate of and with . At the first excited energy level, find an eigenstate of with and construct from this two eigenstates of with .
Why should you expect to find joint eigenstates of and ?
[ The first two eigenstates for an oscillator in one dimension are and , where and are normalisation constants. ]
Paper 1, Section I, H
commentLet be i.i.d. Bernoulli random variables, where and is unknown.
(a) What does it mean for a statistic to be sufficient for ? Find such a sufficient statistic .
(b) State and prove the Rao-Blackwell theorem.
(c) By considering the estimator of , find an unbiased estimator of that is a function of the statistic found in part (a), and has variance strictly smaller than that of .
Paper 1, Section II, H
comment(a) Show that if are independent random variables with common distribution, then . [Hint: If then if and otherwise.]
(b) Show that if then .
(c) State the Neyman-Pearson lemma.
(d) Let be independent random variables with common density proportional to for . Find a most powerful test of size of against , giving the critical region in terms of a quantile of an appropriate gamma distribution. Find a uniformly most powerful test of size of against .
Paper 2, Section I,
commentThe efficacy of a new drug was tested as follows. Fifty patients were given the drug, and another fifty patients were given a placebo. A week later, the numbers of patients whose symptoms had gone entirely, improved, stayed the same and got worse were recorded, as summarised in the following table.
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|} \hline & Drug & Placebo \ \hline symptoms gone & 14 & 6 \ improved & 21 & 19 \ same & 10 & 10 \ worse & 5 & 15 \ \hline \end{tabular}
Conduct a significance level test of the null hypothesis that the medicine and placebo have the same effect, against the alternative that their effects differ.
[Hint: You may find some of the following values relevant:
\begin{tabular}{|c|cccccc|} \hline Distribution & & & & & & \ \hline 95 th percentile & & & & & & \ \hline \end{tabular}
Paper 3, Section II,
commentConsider the normal linear model where is a known design matrix with is an unknown vector of parameters, and is a vector of normal errors with each component having variance . Suppose has full column rank.
(i) Write down the maximum likelihood estimators, and , for and respectively. [You need not derive these.]
(ii) Show that is independent of .
(iii) Find the distributions of and .
(iv) Consider the following test statistic for testing the null hypothesis against the alternative :
Let be the eigenvalues of . Show that under has the same distribution as
where and are independent random variables, independent of .
[Hint: You may use the fact that where has orthonormal columns, is an orthogonal matrix and is a diagonal matrix with
(v) Find when . [Hint: If with , then .]
Paper 4, Section II,
commentSuppose we wish to estimate the probability that a potentially biased coin lands heads up when tossed. After independent tosses, we observe heads.
(a) Write down the maximum likelihood estimator of .
(b) Find the mean squared error of as a function of . Compute .
(c) Suppose a uniform prior is placed on . Find the Bayes estimator of under squared error loss .
(d) Now find the Bayes estimator under the , where . Show that
where and depend on and .
(e) Determine the mean squared error of as defined by .
(f) For what range of values of do we have ?
[Hint: The mean of a Beta distribution is and its density at is , where is a normalising constant.]
Paper 1, Section I, D
commentLet be a bounded region of , with boundary . Let be a smooth function defined on , subject to the boundary condition that on and the normalization condition that
Let be the functional
Show that has a stationary value, subject to the stated boundary and normalization conditions, when satisfies a partial differential equation of the form
in , where is a constant.
Determine how is related to the stationary value of the functional . Hint: Consider .]
Paper 2, Section II, D
commentA particle of unit mass moves in a smooth one-dimensional potential . Its path is such that the action integral
has a stationary value, where and are constants, a dot denotes differentiation with respect to time
is the Lagrangian function and the initial and final positions and are fixed.
By considering for suitably restricted functions , derive the differential equation governing the motion of the particle and obtain an integral expression for the second variation .
If is a solution of the equation of motion and is also a solution of the equation of motion in the limit , show that satisfies the equation
If satisfies this equation and is non-vanishing for , show that
Consider the simple harmonic oscillator, for which
where is the oscillation period. Show that the solution of the equation of motion is a local minimum of the action integral, provided that the time difference is less than half an oscillation period.
Paper 3, Section I, D
commentFind the function that gives a stationary value of the functional
subject to the boundary conditions and .
Paper 4 , Section II, 13D
comment(a) Consider the functional
where , and is subject to the requirement that and are some fixed constants. Derive the equation satisfied by when for all variations that respect the boundary conditions.
(b) Consider the function
Verify that, if describes an arc of a circle, with centre on the -axis, then .
(c) Consider the function
Find such that subject to the requirement that and , with . Sketch the curve .