Part II, 2004
Jump to course
B2.10
commentFor each of the following curves
(i) (ii)
compute the points at infinity of (i.e. describe ), and find the singular points of the projective curve .
At which points of is the rational map , given by , not defined? Justify your answer.
B3.10
comment(i) Let be a morphism of smooth projective curves. Define the divisor if is a divisor on , and state the "finiteness theorem".
(ii) Suppose is a morphism of degree 2 , that is smooth projective, and that . Let be distinct ramification points for . Show that, as elements of , we have , but .
B4.9
commentLet be an irreducible homogeneous polynomial of degree , and write for the curve it defines in . Suppose is smooth. Show that the degree of its canonical class is .
Hence, or otherwise, show that a smooth curve of genus 2 does not embed in .
B2.8
commentLet and be finite simplicial complexes. Define the -th chain group and the boundary homomorphism . Prove that and define the homology groups of . Explain briefly how a simplicial map induces a homomorphism of homology groups.
Suppose now that consists of the proper faces of a 3-dimensional simplex. Calculate from first principles the homology groups of . If a simplicial map gives a homeomorphism of the underlying polyhedron , is the induced homology map necessarily the identity?
B3.7
commentA finite simplicial complex is the union of subcomplexes and . Describe the Mayer-Vietoris exact sequence that relates the homology groups of to those of , and . Define all the homomorphisms in the sequence, proving that they are well-defined (a proof of exactness is not required).
A surface is constructed by identifying together (by means of a homeomorphism) the boundaries of two Möbius strips and . Assuming relevant triangulations exist, determine the homology groups of .
B4.5
commentWrite down the definition of a covering space and a covering map. State and prove the path lifting property for covering spaces and state, without proof, the homotopy lifting property.
Suppose that a group is a group of homeomorphisms of a space . Prove that, under conditions to be stated, the quotient map is a covering map and that is isomorphic to . Give two examples in which this last result can be used to determine the fundamental group of a space.
A2.10
comment(i) Define the minimum path and the maximum tension problems for a network with span intervals specified for each arc. State without proof the connection between the two problems, and describe the Max Tension Min Path algorithm of solving them.
(ii) Find the minimum path between nodes and in the network below. The span intervals are displayed alongside the arcs.
Part II 2004
A3.10
comment(i) Consider the problem
where and . State the Lagrange Sufficiency Theorem for problem . What is meant by saying that this problem is strong Lagrangian? How is this related to the Lagrange Sufficiency Theorem? Define a supporting hyperplane and state a condition guaranteeing that problem is strong Lagrangian.
(ii) Define the terms flow, divergence, circulation, potential and differential for a network with nodes and .
State the feasible differential problem for a network with span intervals
State, without proof, the Feasible Differential Theorem.
[You must carefully define all quantities used in your statements.]
Show that the network below does not support a feasible differential.
Part II 2004
A4.11
comment(i) Consider an unrestricted geometric programming problem
where is given by
with and positive coefficients . State the dual problem of and show that if is a dual optimum then any positive solution to the system
gives an optimum for primal problem . Here is the dual objective function.
(ii) An amount of ore has to be moved from a pit in an open rectangular skip which is to be ordered from a supplier.
The skip cost is per for the bottom and two side walls and per for the front and the back walls. The cost of loading ore into the skip is per , the cost of lifting is per , and the cost of unloading is per . The cost of moving an empty skip is negligible.
Write down an unconstrained geometric programming problem for the optimal size (length, width, height) of skip minimizing the cost of moving of ore. By considering the dual problem, or otherwise, find the optimal cost and the optimal size of the skip.
B1.23
commentThe operator corresponding to a rotation through an angle about an axis , where is a unit vector, is
If is unitary show that must be hermitian. Let be a vector operator such that
Work out the commutators . Calculate
for each component of .
If are standard angular momentum states determine for any and also determine .
Hint
B2.23
commentThe wave function for a single particle with a potential has the asymptotic form for large
How is related to observable quantities? Show how can be expressed in terms of phase shifts for ..
Assume that for , and let denote the solution of the radial Schrödinger equation, regular at , with energy and angular momentum . Let . Show that
Assuming that is a smooth function for , determine the expected behaviour of as . Show that for then , with a constant, and determine in terms of .
[For the two independent solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation are and with
B3.23
commentFor a periodic potential , where is a lattice vector, show that we may write
where the set of should be defined.
Show how to construct general wave functions satisfying in terms of free plane-wave wave-functions.
Show that the nearly free electron model gives an energy gap when .
Explain why, for a periodic potential, the allowed energies form bands where may be restricted to a single Brillouin zone. Show that if and belong to the Brillouin zone.
How are bands related to whether a material is a conductor or an insulator?
B4.24
commentDescribe briefly the variational approach to determining approximate energy eigenvalues for a Hamiltonian .
Consider a Hamiltonian and two states such that
Show that, by considering a linear combination , the variational method gives
as approximate energy eigenvalues.
Consider the Hamiltonian for an electron in the presence of two protons at and ,
Let be the ground state hydrogen atom wave function which satisfies
It is given that
and, for large , that
Consider the trial wave function . Show that the variational estimate for the ground state energy for large is
Explain why there is an attractive force between the two protons for large .
B2.13
commentLet be a Poisson random measure of intensity on the plane . Denote by the circle of radius in centred at the origin and let be the largest radius such that contains precisely points of . [Thus is the largest circle about the origin containing no points of is the largest circle about the origin containing a single point of , and so on.] Calculate and .
Now let be a Poisson random measure of intensity on the line . Let be the length of the largest open interval that covers the origin and contains precisely points of . [Thus gives the length of the largest interval containing the origin but no points of gives the length of the largest interval containing the origin and a single point of , and so on.] Calculate and .
B3.13
commentLet be a renewal process with holding times and be a renewal-reward process over with a sequence of rewards . Under assumptions on and which you should state clearly, prove that the ratios
converge as . You should specify the form of convergence guaranteed by your assumptions. The law of large numbers, in the appropriate form, for sums and can be used without proof.
In a mountain resort, when you rent skiing equipment you are given two options. (1) You buy an insurance waiver that costs where is the daily equipment rent. Under this option, the shop will immediately replace, at no cost to you, any piece of equipment you break during the day, no matter how many breaks you had. (2) If you don't buy the waiver, you'll pay in the case of any break.
To find out which option is better for me, I decided to set up two models of renewalreward process . In the first model, (Option 1), all of the holding times are equal to 6 . In the second model, given that there is no break on day (an event of probability , we have , but given that there is a break on day , we have that is uniformly distributed on , and . (In the second model, I would not continue skiing after a break, whereas in the first I would.)
Calculate in each of these models the limit
representing the long-term average cost of a unit of my skiing time.
B4.12
commentConsider an queue with . Here is the arrival rate and is the mean service time. Prove that in equilibrium, the customer's waiting time has the moment-generating function given by
where is the moment-generating function of service time .
[You may assume that in equilibrium, the queue size at the time immediately after the customer's departure has the probability generating function
Deduce that when the service times are exponential of rate then
Further, deduce that takes value 0 with probability and that
Sketch the graph of as a function of .
Now consider the queue in the heavy traffic approximation, when the service-time distribution is kept fixed and the arrival rate , so that . Assuming that the second moment , check that the limiting distribution of the re-scaled waiting time is exponential, with rate .
A1.10
comment(i) What is a linear code? What does it mean to say that a linear code has length and minimum weight ? When is a linear code perfect? Show that, if , there exists a perfect linear code of length and minimum weight 3 .
(ii) Describe the construction of a Reed-Muller code. Establish its information rate and minimum weight.
A2.9
comment(i) Describe how a stream cypher operates. What is a one-time pad?
A one-time pad is used to send the message which is encoded as 0101011. By mistake, it is reused to send the message which is encoded as 0100010. Show that is one of two possible messages, and find the two possibilities.
(ii) Describe the RSA system associated with a public key , a private key and the product of two large primes.
Give a simple example of how the system is vulnerable to a homomorphism attack. Explain how a signature system prevents such an attack. [You are not asked to give an explicit signature system.]
Explain how to factorise when and are known.
B1.5
commentState and prove Menger's theorem (vertex form).
Let be a graph of connectivity and let be disjoint subsets of with . Show that there exist vertex disjoint paths from to .
The graph is said to be -linked if, for every sequence of distinct vertices, there exist paths, , that are vertex disjoint. By removing an edge from , or otherwise, show that, for , need not be -linked even if .
Prove that if and then is -linked.
B2.5
commentState and prove Sperner's lemma on antichains.
The family is said to split if, for all distinct , there exists with but . Prove that if splits then , where .
Show moreover that, if splits and no element of is in more than members of , then .
B4.1
commentWrite an essay on Ramsey's theorem. You should include the finite and infinite versions, together with some discussion of bounds in the finite case, and give at least one application.
A1.13
comment(i) Assume that the -dimensional vector may be written as , where is a given matrix of is an unknown vector, and
Let . Find , the least-squares estimator of , and state without proof the joint distribution of and .
(ii) Now suppose that we have observations and consider the model
where are fixed parameters with , and may be assumed independent normal variables, with , where is unknown.
(a) Find , the least-squares estimators of .
(b) Find the least-squares estimators of under the hypothesis for all .
(c) Quoting any general theorems required, explain carefully how to test , assuming is true.
(d) What would be the effect of fitting the model , where now are all fixed unknown parameters, and has the distribution given above?
A2.12
comment(i) Suppose we have independent observations , and we assume that for is Poisson with mean , and , where are given covariate vectors each of dimension , where is an unknown vector of dimension , and . Assuming that span , find the equation for , the maximum likelihood estimator of , and write down the large-sample distribution of .
(ii) A long-term agricultural experiment had 90 grassland plots, each , differing in biomass, soil pH, and species richness (the count of species in the whole plot). While it was well-known that species richness declines with increasing biomass, it was not known how this relationship depends on soil pH, which for the given study has possible values "low", "medium" or "high", each taken 30 times. Explain the commands input, and interpret the resulting output in the (slightly edited) output below, in which "species" represents the species count.
(The first and last 2 lines of the data are reproduced here as an aid. You may assume that the factor pH has been correctly set up.)
A4.14
commentSuppose that are independent observations, with having probability density function of the following form
where and . You should assume that is a known function, and are unknown parameters, with , and also are given linearly independent covariate vectors. Show that
where is the log-likelihood and .
Discuss carefully the (slightly edited) output given below, and briefly suggest another possible method of analysis using the function ( ).
1:
7:
Read 6 items
1: 327172565065248688773520
Read 6 items
gender <-
1: b b b g g g
Read 6 items
age <-
1: 13&under 14-18 19&over
4: 13&under 14-18 19&over
7 :
Read 6 items
gender <- factor (gender) ; age <- factor (age)
gender age, binomial, weights
Coefficients:
Null deviance: on 5 degrees of freedom
Residual deviance: on 2 degrees of freedom
Number of Fisher Scoring iterations: 3
B1.8
commentWhat is a smooth vector bundle over a manifold ?
Assuming the existence of "bump functions", prove that every compact manifold embeds in some Euclidean space .
By choosing an inner product on , or otherwise, deduce that for any compact manifold there exists some vector bundle such that the direct sum is isomorphic to a trivial vector bundle.
B2 7
commentFor each of the following assertions, either provide a proof or give and justify a counterexample.
[You may use, without proof, your knowledge of the de Rham cohomology of surfaces.]
(a) A smooth map must have degree zero.
(b) An embedding extends to an embedding if and only if the map
is the zero map.
(c) is orientable.
(d) The surface admits the structure of a Lie group if and only if .
B4.4
commentDefine what it means for a manifold to be oriented, and define a volume form on an oriented manifold.
Prove carefully that, for a closed connected oriented manifold of dimension , .
[You may assume the existence of volume forms on an oriented manifold.]
If and are closed, connected, oriented manifolds of the same dimension, define the degree of a map .
If has degree and , can be
(i) infinite? (ii) a single point? (iii) empty?
Briefly justify your answers.
B2.4
comment(i) Define carefully what is meant by a Hopf bifurcation in a two-dimensional dynamical system. Write down the normal form for this bifurcation, correct to cubic order, and distinguish between bifurcations of supercritical and subcritical type. Describe, without detailed calculations, how a general two-dimensional system with a Hopf bifurcation at the origin can be reduced to normal form by a near-identity transformation.
(ii) A Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation of a fixed point of a two-dimensional system is characterised by a Jacobian with the canonical form
at the bifurcation point. Consider the system
Show that a near-identity transformation of the form
exists that reduces the system to the normal (canonical) form, correct up to quadratic terms,
It is known that the general form of the equations near the bifurcation point can be written (setting )
Find all the fixed points of this system, and the values of for which these fixed points have (a) steady state bifurcations and (b) Hopf bifurcations.
B3.4
comment(i) Describe the use of the stroboscopic method for obtaining approximate solutions to the second order equation
when . In particular, by writing , obtain expressions in terms of for the rate of change of and . Evaluate these expressions when .
(ii) In planetary orbit theory a crude model of an orbit subject to perturbation from a distant body is given by the equation
where are polar coordinates in the plane, and is a positive constant.
(a) Show that when all bounded orbits are closed.
(b) Now suppose , and look for almost circular orbits with , where is a constant. By writing , and by making a suitable choice of the constant , use the stroboscopic method to find equations for and . By writing and considering , or otherwise, determine and in the case . Hence describe the orbits of the system.
B1.21
commentThe Maxwell field tensor is
and the 4-current density is . Write down the 3-vector form of Maxwell's equations and the continuity equation, and obtain the equivalent 4-vector equations.
Consider a Lorentz transformation from a frame to a frame moving with relative (coordinate) velocity in the -direction
where . Obtain the transformation laws for and . Which quantities, quadratic in and , are Lorentz scalars?
B2.21
commentA particle of rest mass and charge moves along a path , where is the particle's proper time. The equation of motion is
where etc., is the Maxwell field tensor , where and are the -components of the electric and magnetic fields) and is the Minkowski metric tensor. Show that and interpret both the equation of motion and this equation in the classical limit.
The electromagnetic field is given in cartesian coordinates by and , where is constant and uniform. The particle starts from rest at the origin. Show that the orbit is given by
where .
B4.21
commentUsing Lorentz gauge, , Maxwell's equations for a current distribution can be reduced to . The retarded solution is
where . Explain, heuristically, the rôle of the -function and Heaviside step function in this formula.
The current distribution is produced by a point particle of charge moving on a world line , where is the particle's proper time, so that
where . Show that
where , and further that, setting ,
where should be defined. Verify that
Evaluating quantities at show that
where . Hence verify that and
Verify this formula for a stationary point charge at the origin.
[Hint: If has simple zeros at then
A B
comment(i) Show that the work done in assembling a localised charge distribution in a region with an associated potential is
and that this can be written as an integral over all space
where the electric field .
(ii) What is the force per unit area on an infinite plane conducting sheet with a charge density per unit area (a) if it is isolated in space and (b) if the electric field vanishes on one side of the sheet?
An infinite cylindrical capacitor consists of two concentric cylindrical conductors with radii , carrying charges per unit length respectively. Calculate the capacitance per unit length and the energy per unit length. Next determine the total force on each conductor, and calculate the rate of change of energy of the inner and outer conductors if they are moved radially inwards and outwards respectively with speed . What is the corresponding rate of change of the capacitance?
A2.5
comment(i) Write down the general solution of Poisson's equation. Derive from Maxwell's equations the Biot-Savart law for the magnetic field of a steady localised current distribution.
(ii) A plane rectangular loop with sides of length and lies in the plane and is centred on the origin. Show that when , the vector potential is given approximately by
where is the magnetic moment of the loop.
Hence show that the magnetic field at a great distance from an arbitrary small plane loop of area , situated in the -plane near the origin and carrying a current , is given by
A3.5 B3.3
comment(i) State Maxwell's equations and show that the electric field and the magnetic field can be expressed in terms of a scalar potential and a vector potential . Hence derive the inhomogeneous wave equations that are satisfied by and respectively.
(ii) The plane separates a vacuum in the half-space from a perfectly conducting medium occupying the half-space . Derive the boundary conditions on and at .
A plane electromagnetic wave with a magnetic field , travelling in the -plane at an angle to the -direction, is incident on the interface at . If the wave has frequency show that the total magnetic field is given by
where is a constant. Hence find the corresponding electric field , and obtain the surface charge density and the surface current at the interface.
A4.5
commentConsider a frame moving with velocity v relative to the laboratory frame where . The electric and magnetic fields in are and , while those measured in are and . Given that , show that
for any closed circuit and hence that .
Now consider a fluid with electrical conductivity and moving with velocity . Use Ohm's law in the moving frame to relate the current density to the electric field in the laboratory frame, and show that if remains finite in the limit then
The magnetic helicity in a volume is given by where is the vector potential. Show that if the normal components of and both vanish on the surface bounding then .
B1.25
commentConsider a uniform stream of inviscid incompressible fluid incident onto a twodimensional body (such as a circular cylinder). Sketch the flow in the region close to the stagnation point, , at the front of the body.
Let the fluid now have a small but non-zero viscosity. Using local co-ordinates along the boundary and normal to it, with the stagnation point as origin and in the fluid, explain why the local outer, inviscid flow is approximately of the form
for some positive constant .
Use scaling arguments to find the thickness of the boundary layer on the body near . Hence show that there is a solution of the boundary layer equations of the form
where is a suitable similarity variable and satisfies
What are the appropriate boundary conditions for and why? Explain briefly how you would obtain a numerical solution to subject to the appropriate boundary conditions.
Explain why it is neither possible nor appropriate to perform a similar analysis near the rear stagnation point of the inviscid flow.
B2.25
commentAn incompressible fluid with density and viscosity is forced by a pressure difference through the narrow gap between two parallel circular cylinders of radius with axes apart. Explaining any approximations made, show that, provided and , the volume flux (per unit length of cylinder) is
when the cylinders are stationary.
Show also that when the two cylinders rotate with angular velocities and respectively, the change in the volume flux is
For the case , find and sketch the function , where is the centreline velocity at position along the gap in the direction of flow. Comment on the values taken by .
B3.24
commentUsing the Milne-Thompson circle theorem, or otherwise, write down the complex potential describing inviscid incompressible two-dimensional flow past a circular cylinder of radius centred on the origin, with circulation and uniform velocity in the far field.
Hence, or otherwise, find an expression for the velocity field if the cylinder is replaced by a flat plate of length , centred on the origin and aligned with the -axis. Evaluate the velocity field on the two sides of the plate and confirm that the normal velocity is zero.
Explain the significance of the Kutta condition, and determine the value of the circulation that satisfies the Kutta condition when .
With this value of the circulation, calculate the difference in pressure between the upper and lower sides of the plate at position . Comment briefly on the value of the pressure at the leading edge and the force that this would produce if the plate had a small non-zero thickness.
Determine the force on the plate, explaining carefully the direction in which it acts.
[The Blasius formula , where is a closed contour lying just outside the body, may be used without proof.]
B4.26
commentWrite an essay on the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of a vortex sheet. Your essay should include a detailed linearised analysis, a physical interpretation of the instability, and an informal discussion of nonlinear effects and of the effects of viscosity.
A2.13 B2.22
comment(i) The creation and annihilation operators for a harmonic oscillator of angular frequency satisfy the commutation relation . Write down an expression for the Hamiltonian in terms of and .
There exists a unique ground state of such that . Explain how the space of eigenstates of is formed, and deduce the eigenenergies for these states. Show that
(ii) Write down the number operator of the harmonic oscillator in terms of and . Show that
The operator is defined to be
Show that commutes with . Show also that
By considering the action of on the state show that
A3.13 B3.21
(i) A quantum mechanical system consists of two identical non-interacting particles with associated single-particle wave functions and energies , where