Part II, 2005, Paper 3
Part II, 2005, Paper 3
Jump to course
3.II.20H
commentLet be a space that is triangulable as a simplicial complex with no -simplices. Show that any continuous map from to is homotopic to a constant map.
[General theorems from the course may be used without proof, provided they are clearly stated.]
3.II.33B
commentLet be the set of lattice vectors of some lattice. Define the reciprocal lattice. What is meant by a Bravais lattice?
Let be mutually orthogonal unit vectors. A crystal has identical atoms at positions given by the vectors
where are arbitrary integers and is a constant. Show that these vectors define a Bravais lattice with basis vectors
Verify that a basis for the reciprocal lattice is
In Bragg scattering, an incoming plane wave of wave-vector is scattered to an outgoing wave of wave-vector . Explain why for some reciprocal lattice vector g. Given that is the scattering angle, show that
For the above lattice, explain why you would expect scattering through angles and such that
3.II.25I
commentConsider an loss system with arrival rate and service-time distribution . Thus, arrivals form a Poisson process of rate , service times are independent with common distribution , there are servers and there is no space for waiting. Use Little's Lemma to obtain a relation between the long-run average occupancy and the stationary probability that the system is full.
Cafe-Bar Duo has 23 serving tables. Each table can be occupied either by one person or two. Customers arrive either singly or in a pair; if a table is empty they are seated and served immediately, otherwise, they leave. The times between arrivals are independent exponential random variables of mean . Each arrival is twice as likely to be a single person as a pair. A single customer stays for an exponential time of mean 20 , whereas a pair stays for an exponential time of mean 30 ; all these times are independent of each other and of the process of arrivals. The value of orders taken at each table is a constant multiple of the time that it is occupied.
Express the long-run rate of revenue of the cafe as a function of the probability that an arriving customer or pair of customers finds the cafe full.
By imagining a cafe with infinitely many tables, show that where is a Poisson random variable of parameter . Deduce that is very small. [Credit will be given for any useful numerical estimate, an upper bound of being sufficient for full credit.]
3.II
commentExplain, without proof, how to obtain an asymptotic expansion, as , of
if it is known that possesses an asymptotic power series as .
Indicate the modification required to obtain an asymptotic expansion, under suitable conditions, of
Find an asymptotic expansion as of the function defined by
and its analytic continuation to . Where are the Stokes lines, that is, the critical lines separating the Stokes regions?
3.I.9C
commentDefine the Poisson bracket between two functions and on phase space. If has no explicit time dependence, and there is a Hamiltonian , show that Hamilton's equations imply
A particle with position vector and momentum has angular momentum . Compute and .
3.II.15C
comment(i) A point mass with position and momentum undergoes one-dimensional periodic motion. Define the action variable in terms of and . Prove that an orbit of energy has period
(ii) Such a system has Hamiltonian
where is a positive constant and during the motion. Sketch the orbits in phase space both for energies and . Show that the action variable is given in terms of the energy by
Hence show that for the period of the orbit is , where is the greatest value of the momentum during the orbit.
3.I.4J
commentBriefly explain how and why a signature scheme is used. Describe the el Gamal scheme.
3.II.12J
commentDefine a cyclic code. Define the generator and check polynomials of a cyclic code and show that they exist.
Show that Hamming's original code is a cyclic code with check polynomial . What is its generator polynomial? Does Hamming's original code contain a subcode equivalent to its dual?
3.I.10D
comment(a) Define and discuss the concept of the cosmological horizon and the Hubble radius for a homogeneous isotropic universe. Illustrate your discussion with the specific examples of the Einstein-de Sitter universe for and a de Sitter universe with constant, .
(b) Explain the horizon problem for a decelerating universe in which with . How can inflation cure the horizon problem?
(c) Consider a Tolman (radiation-filled) universe ) beginning at and lasting until today at . Estimate the horizon size today and project this lengthscale backwards in time to show that it had a physical size of about 1 metre at .
Prior to , assume an inflationary (de Sitter) epoch with constant Hubble parameter given by its value at for the Tolman universe. How much expansion during inflation is required for the observable universe today to have begun inside one Hubble radius?
3.II.23H
comment(i) Define geodesic curvature and state the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.
(ii) Let be a closed regular curve parametrized by arc-length, and assume that has non-zero curvature everywhere. Let be the curve given by the normal vector to . Let be the arc-length of the curve on . Show that the geodesic curvature of is given by
where and are the curvature and torsion of .
(iii) Suppose now that is a simple curve (i.e. it has no self-intersections). Show that divides into two regions of equal area.
3.I.7B
commentDefine the stable and unstable invariant subspaces of the linearisation of a dynamical system at a saddle point located at the origin in . How, according to the Stable Manifold Theorem, are the stable and unstable manifolds related to the invariant subspaces?
Calculate the stable and unstable manifolds, correct to cubic order, for the system
3.II
commentA non-relativistic particle of rest mass and charge is moving slowly with velocity . The power radiated per unit solid angle in the direction of a unit vector is
Obtain Larmor's formula
The particle has energy and, starting from afar, makes a head-on collision with a fixed central force described by a potential , where for and for . Let be the total energy radiated by the particle. Given that , show that
3.I.8A
commentThe functions and have Laplace transforms and , and satisfy for . The convolution of and is defined by
and has Laplace transform . Prove (the convolution theorem) that .
Given that , deduce the Laplace transform of the function , where
3.II.14A
commentShow that the equation
where is constant, has solutions of the form
provided that the path is chosen so that .
(i) In the case Re , show that there is a choice of for which .
(ii) In the case , where is any integer, show that can be a finite contour and that the corresponding solution satisfies if .
3.II.18G
commentFind the Galois group of the polynomial
over and . Hence or otherwise determine the Galois group over .
[Standard general results from Galois theory may be assumed.]
3.I.3G
commentBy considering fixed points in , prove that any complex Möbius transformation is conjugate either to a map of the form for some or to . Deduce that two Möbius transformations (neither the identity) are conjugate if and only if .
Does every Möbius transformation also have a fixed point in ? Briefly justify your answer.
3.II.17F
commentLet and be disjoint sets of vertices each. Let be a bipartite graph formed by adding edges between and randomly and independently with probability . Let be the number of edges of between the subsets and . Let . Consider three events and , as follows.
Show that and . Hence show that and so show that, almost surely, none of or occur. Deduce that, almost surely, has a matching from to .
3.II.31A
commentLet be an off-diagonal matrix. The matrix NLS equation
admits the Lax pair
where is a matrix and denotes the matrix commutator.
Let be a matrix-valued function decaying as . Let satisfy the -matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem
(a) Find expressions for and , in terms of the coefficients in the large expansion of , so that solves
and
(b) Use the result of (a) to establish that
(c) Show that the above results provide a linearization of the matrix NLS equation. What is the disadvantage of this approach in comparison with the inverse scattering method?
3.II.21F
commentLet be a normed vector space. Define the dual of . Define the normed vector spaces for all . [You are not required to prove that the norms you have given are indeed norms.]
Now let be such that . Show that is isometrically isomorphic to as a normed vector space. [You may assume any standard inequalities.]
Show by a similar argument that is isomorphic to . Does your argument also show that is isomorphic to ? If not, where does it fail?
3.II.16F
commentState the Axiom of Foundation and the Principle of -Induction, and show that they are equivalent (in the presence of the other axioms of ZF). [You may assume the existence of transitive closures.]
Explain briefly how the Principle of -Induction implies that every set is a member of some .
For each natural number , find the cardinality of . For which ordinals is the cardinality of equal to that of the reals?
3.II.13E
commentProtein synthesis by RNA can be represented by the stochastic system
in which is an environmental variable corresponding to the number of RNA molecules per cell and is a system variable, with birth rate proportional to , corresponding to the number of protein molecules.
(a) Use the normalized stationary Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem (FDT) to calculate the (exact) normalized stationary variances and in terms of the averages and .
(b) Separate into an intrinsic and an extrinsic term by considering the limits when does not fluctuate (intrinsic), and when responds deterministically to changes in (extrinsic). Explain how the extrinsic term represents the magnitude of environmental fluctuations and time-averaging.
(c) Assume now that the birth rate of is changed from the "constitutive" mechanism in (1) to a "negative feedback" mechanism , where is a monotonically decreasing function of . Use the stationary FDT to approximate in terms of . Apply your answer to the case .
[Hint: To reduce the algebra introduce the elasticity , where and are the death and birth rates of respectively.]
(d) Explain the extrinsic term for the negative feedback system in terms of environmental fluctuations, time-averaging, and static susceptibility.
(e) Explain why the FDT is exact for the constitutive system but approximate for the feedback system. When, generally speaking, does the FDT approximation work well?
(f) Consider the following three experimental observations: (i) Large changes in have no effect on ; (ii) When is perturbed by from its stationary average, perturbations are corrected more rapidly in the feedback system than in the constitutive system; (iii) The feedback system displays lower values than the constitutive system.
What does (i) imply about the relative importance of the noise terms? Can (ii) be directly explained by (iii), i.e., does rapid adjustment reduce noise? Justify your answers.
3.I.1H
commentLet be the number of primes . State the Legendre formula, and prove that
[You may use the formula
without proof.]
3.II.11H
commentShow that there are exactly two reduced positive definite integer binary quadratic forms with discriminant ; write these forms down.
State a criterion for an odd integer to be properly represented by a positive definite integer binary quadratic form of given discriminant .
Describe, in terms of congruences modulo 20, which primes other than 2,5 are properly represented by the form , and justify your answer.
3.II.38A
commentConsider the Runge-Kutta method
for the solution of the scalar ordinary differential equation . Here is a real parameter.
(a) Determine the order of the method.
(b) Find the range of values of for which the method is A-stable.
3.II.28I
commentConsider the problem
where for ,
is the control variable, and is Gaussian white noise. Show that the problem can be rewritten as one of controlling the scalar variable , where
By guessing the form of the optimal value function and ensuring it satisfies an appropriate optimality equation, show that the optimal control is
Is this certainty equivalence control?
3.II.29C
commentWrite down a formula for the solution of the -dimensional heat equation
for a given Schwartz function; here and is taken in the variables . Show that
Consider the equation
where is a given Schwartz function. Show that has a solution of the form
where is a Schwartz function.
Prove that the solution of the initial value problem for with initial data satisfies
3.II.32D
commentThe angular momentum operators and refer to independent systems, each with total angular momentum one. The combination of these systems has a basis of states which are of product form where and are the eigenvalues of and respectively. Let denote the alternative basis states which are simultaneous eigenstates of and , where is the combined angular momentum. What are the possible values of and ? Find expressions for all states with in terms of product states. How do these states behave when the constituent systems are interchanged?
Two spin-one particles and have no mutual interaction but they each move in a potential which is independent of spin. The single-particle energy levels and the corresponding wavefunctions are the same for either or . Given that , explain how to construct the two-particle states of lowest energy and combined total spin for the cases that (i) and are identical, and (ii) and are not identical.
[You may assume and use the result
3.II.26I
commentIn the context of decision theory, explain the meaning of the following italicized terms: loss function, decision rule, the risk of a decision rule, a Bayes rule with respect to prior , and an admissible rule. Explain how a Bayes rule with respect to a prior can be constructed.
Suppose that are independent with common distribution, where is supposed to have a prior density . In a decision-theoretic approach to estimating , we take a quadratic loss: . Write and .
By considering decision rules (estimators) of the form , prove that if then the estimator is not Bayes, for any choice of prior .
By considering decision rules of the form , prove that if then the estimator is not Bayes, for any choice of prior .
[You may use without proof the fact that, if has a distribution, then .]
3.II.19G
commentLet be the group with 21 elements generated by and , subject to the relations and
(i) Find the conjugacy classes of .
(ii) Find three non-isomorphic one-dimensional representations of .
(iii) For a subgroup of a finite group , write down (without proof) the formula for the character of the -representation induced from a representation of .
(iv) By applying Part (iii) to the case when is the subgroup of , find the remaining irreducible characters of .
3.II.22H
commentExplain what is meant by a meromorphic differential on a compact connected Riemann surface . Show that if is a meromorphic function on then defines a meromorphic differential on . Show also that if and are two meromorphic differentials on which are not identically zero then for some meromorphic function . Show that zeros and poles of a meromorphic differential are well-defined and explain, without proof, how to obtain the genus of by counting zeros and poles of .
Let be the affine curve with equation and let be the corresponding projective curve. Show that is non-singular with two points at infinity, and that extends to a meromorphic differential on .
[You may assume without proof that that the map
is onto and extends to a biholomorphic map from onto .]
3.I.5I
commentConsider the model , where is an -dimensional observation vector, is an matrix of rank is an -dimensional vector with components , and are independently and normally distributed, each with mean 0 and variance
(a) Let be the least-squares estimator of . Show that
and find the distribution of .
(b) Define . Show that has distribution , where is a matrix that you should define.
[You may quote without proof any results you require about the multivariate normal distribution.]
3.II.34D
commentA free spinless particle moving in two dimensions is confined to a square box of side . By imposing periodic boundary conditions show that the number of states in the energy range is , where
If, instead, the particle is an electron with magnetic moment moving in a constant external magnetic field , show that
Let there be electrons in the box. Explain briefly how to construct the ground state of the system. Let be the Fermi energy. Show that when
Show also that the magnetic moment of the system in its ground state is given by
and that the ground state energy is
3.II.27J
commentSuppose that over two periods a stock price moves on a binomial tree:
(a) Find an arbitrage opportunity when the riskless rate equals . Give precise details of when and how much you buy, borrow and sell.
(b) From here on, assume instead that the riskless rate equals . Determine the equivalent martingale measure. [No proof is required.]
(c) Determine the time-zero price of an American put with strike 15 and expiry 2 . Assume you sell it at this price. Which hedge do you put on at time zero? Consider the scenario of two bad periods. How does your hedge work?
(d) The buyer of the American put turns out to be an unsophisticated investor who fails to use his early exercise right when he should. Assume the first period was bad. How much profit can you make out of this? You should detail your exact strategy.
3.II.37E
commentThe real function satisfies the equation
where is a constant. Find the dispersion relation for waves of wavenumber and deduce whether wave crests move faster or slower than a wave packet.
Suppose that is given by a Fourier transform as
Use the method of stationary phase to find as for fixed .
[You may use the result that if
What can be said if ? [Detailed calculation is not required in this case.]