Part II, 2006
Part II, 2006
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1.II.21H
commentCompute the homology groups of the "pinched torus" obtained by identifying a meridian circle on the torus to a point, for some point .
2.II.21H
commentState the simplicial approximation theorem. Compute the number of 0 -simplices (vertices) in the barycentric subdivision of an -simplex and also compute the number of -simplices. Finally, show that there are at most countably many homotopy classes of continuous maps from the 2-sphere to itself.
3.II.20H
commentLet be the union of two circles identified at a point: the "figure eight". Classify all the connected double covering spaces of . If we view these double coverings just as topological spaces, determine which of them are homeomorphic to each other and which are not.
4.II.21H
commentFix a point in the torus . Let be the group of homeomorphisms from the torus to itself such that . Determine a non-trivial homomorphism from to the group .
[The group consists of matrices with integer coefficients that have an inverse which also has integer coefficients.]
Establish whether each in the kernel of is homotopic to the identity map.
1.II.33A
commentConsider a particle of mass and momentum moving under the influence of a spherically symmetric potential such that for . Define the scattering amplitude and the phase shift . Here is the scattering angle. How is related to the differential cross section?
Obtain the partial-wave expansion
Let be a solution of the radial Schrödinger equation, regular at , for energy and angular momentum . Let
Obtain the relation
Suppose that
for some , with all other small for . What does this imply for the differential cross section when ?
[For , the two independent solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation are and with
Note that the Wronskian is independent of
2.II.33D
commentState and prove Bloch's theorem for the electron wave functions for a periodic potential where is a lattice vector.
What is the reciprocal lattice? Explain why the Bloch wave-vector is arbitrary up to , where is a reciprocal lattice vector.
Describe in outline why one can expect energy bands . Explain how may be restricted to a Brillouin zone and show that the number of states in volume is
Assuming that the velocity of an electron in the energy band with Bloch wave-vector is
show that the contribution to the electric current from a full energy band is zero. Given that for each occupied energy level, show that the contribution to the current density is then
where is the electron charge.
3.II.33A
commentConsider a one-dimensional crystal of lattice space , with atoms having positions and momenta , such that the classical Hamiltonian is
where we identify . Show how this may be quantized to give the energy eigenstates consisting of a ground state together with free phonons with energy where for suitable integers . Obtain the following expression for the quantum operator
where are annihilation and creation operators, respectively.
An interaction involves the matrix element
Calculate this and show that has its largest value when for integer .
Disregard the case .
[You may use the relations
and if commutes with and with
4.II.33D
commentFor the one-dimensional potential
solve the Schrödinger equation for negative energy and obtain an equation that determines possible energy bands. Show that the results agree with the tight-binding model in appropriate limits.
[It may be useful to note that
1.II.26J
comment(a) What is a -matrix? What is the relationship between the transition matrix of a continuous time Markov process and its generator ?
(b) A pond has three lily pads, labelled 1, 2, and 3. The pond is also the home of a frog that hops from pad to pad in a random fashion. The position of the frog is a continuous time Markov process on with generator
Sketch an arrow diagram corresponding to and determine the communicating classes. Find the probability that the frog is on pad 2 in equilibrium. Find the probability that the frog is on pad 2 at time given that the frog is on pad 1 at time 0 .
2.II.26J
comment(a) Define a renewal process with independent, identically-distributed holding times State without proof the strong law of large numbers for . State without proof the elementary renewal theorem for the mean value .
(b) A circular bus route consists of ten bus stops. At exactly 5am, the bus starts letting passengers in at the main bus station (stop 1). It then proceeds to stop 2 where it stops to let passengers in and out. It continues in this fashion, stopping at stops 3 to 10 in sequence. After leaving stop 10, the bus heads to stop 1 and the cycle repeats. The travel times between stops are exponentially distributed with mean 4 minutes, and the time required to let passengers in and out at each stop are exponentially distributed with mean 1 minute. Calculate approximately the average number of times the bus has gone round its route by .
When the driver's shift finishes, at exactly , he immediately throws all the passengers off the bus if the bus is already stopped, or otherwise, he drives to the next stop and then throws the passengers off. He then drives as fast as he can round the rest of the route to the main bus station. Giving reasons but not proofs, calculate approximately the average number of stops he will drive past at the end of his shift while on his way back to the main bus station, not including either the stop at which he throws off the passengers or the station itself.
3.II.25J
commentA passenger plane with numbered seats is about to take off; seats have already been taken, and now the last passenger enters the cabin. The first passengers were advised by the crew, rather imprudently, to take their seats completely at random, but the last passenger is determined to sit in the place indicated on his ticket. If his place is free, he takes it, and the plane is ready to fly. However, if his seat is taken, he insists that the occupier vacates it. In this case the occupier decides to follow the same rule: if the free seat is his, he takes it, otherwise he insists on his place being vacated. The same policy is then adopted by the next unfortunate passenger, and so on. Each move takes a random time which is exponentially distributed with mean . What is the expected duration of the plane delay caused by these displacements?
4.II.26J
comment(a) Let be a Poisson process of rate . Let be a number between 0 and 1 and suppose that each jump in is counted as type one with probability and type two with probability , independently for different jumps and independently of the Poisson process. Let be the number of type-one jumps and the number of type-two jumps by time . What can you say about the pair of processes and ? What if we fix probabilities with and consider types instead of two?
(b) A person collects coupons one at a time, at jump times of a Poisson process of rate . There are types of coupons, and each time a coupon of type is obtained with probability , independently of the previously collected coupons and independently of the Poisson process. Let be the first time when a complete set of coupon types is collected. Show that
Let be the total number of coupons collected by the time the complete set of coupon types is obtained. Show that . Hence, or otherwise, deduce that does not depend on .
1.II
commentTwo real functions of a real variable are given on an interval , where . Suppose that attains its minimum precisely at , with , and that . For a real argument , define
Explain how to obtain the leading asymptotic behaviour of as (Laplace's method).
The modified Bessel function is defined for by:
Show that
as with fixed.
3.II B
commentThe Airy function is defined by
where the contour begins at infinity along the ray and ends at infinity along the ray . Restricting attention to the case where is real and positive, use the method of steepest descent to obtain the leading term in the asymptotic expansion for as :
Hint: put
4.II
comment(a) Outline the Liouville-Green approximation to solutions of the ordinary differential equation
in a neighbourhood of infinity, in the case that, near infinity, has the convergent series expansion
with .
In the case
explain why you expect a basis of two asymptotic solutions , with
as , and show that .
(b) Determine, at leading order in the large positive real parameter , an approximation to the solution of the eigenvalue problem:
where is greater than a positive constant for .
1.I.9C
commentHamilton's equations for a system with degrees of freedom can be written in vector form as
where is a -vector and the matrix takes the form
where 1 is the identity matrix. Derive the condition for a transformation of the form to be canonical. For a system with a single degree of freedom, show that the following transformation is canonical for all nonzero values of :
1.II.15C
comment(a) In the Hamiltonian framework, the action is defined as
Derive Hamilton's equations from the principle of least action. Briefly explain how the functional variations in this derivation differ from those in the derivation of Lagrange's equations from the principle of least action. Show that is a constant of the motion whenever .
(b) What is the invariant quantity arising in Liouville's theorem? Does the theorem depend on assuming ? State and prove Liouville's theorem for a system with a single degree of freedom.
(c) A particle of mass bounces elastically along a perpendicular between two parallel walls a distance apart. Sketch the path of a single cycle in phase space, assuming that the velocity changes discontinuously at the wall. Compute the action as a function of the energy and the constants . Verify that the period of oscillation is given by . Suppose now that the distance changes slowly. What is the relevant adiabatic invariant? How does change as a function of ?
2.I.9C
commentTwo point masses, each of mass , are constrained to lie on a straight line and are connected to each other by a spring of force constant . The left-hand mass is also connected to a wall on the left by a spring of force constant . The right-hand mass is similarly connected to a wall on the right, by a spring of force constant , so that the potential energy is
where is the distance from equilibrium of the mass. Derive the equations of motion. Find the frequencies of the normal modes.
3.I.9C
commentA pendulum of length oscillates in the plane, making an angle with the vertical axis. The pivot is attached to a moving lift that descends with constant acceleration , so that the position of the bob is
Given that the Lagrangian for an unconstrained particle is
determine the Lagrangian for the pendulum in terms of the generalized coordinate . Derive the equation of motion in terms of . What is the motion when ?
Find the equilibrium configurations for arbitrary . Determine which configuration is stable when
and when
3.II.15C
commentA particle of mass is constrained to move on the surface of a sphere of radius .
The Lagrangian is given in spherical polar coordinates by
where gravity is constant. Find the two constants of the motion.
The particle is projected horizontally with velocity from a point whose depth below the centre is . Find such that the particle trajectory
(i) just grazes the horizontal equatorial plane ;
(ii) remains at depth for all time .
4.I.9C
commentCalculate the principal moments of inertia for a uniform cylinder, of mass , radius and height , about its centre of mass. For what height-to-radius ratio does the cylinder spin like a sphere?
1.I.4G
commentDefine a linear feedback shift register. Explain the Berlekamp-Massey method for "breaking" a key stream produced by a linear feedback shift register of unknown length. Use it to find the feedback polynomial of a linear feedback shift register with output sequence
2.I.4G
commentLet and be alphabets of sizes and . What does it mean to say that an -ary code is decipherable? Show that if is decipherable then the word lengths satisfy
Find a decipherable binary code consisting of codewords 011, 0111, 01111, 11111, and three further codewords of length 2. How do you know the example you have given is decipherable?
2.II.12G
commentDefine a cyclic code. Show that there is a bijection between the cyclic codes of length , and the factors of in .
If is an odd integer then we can find a finite extension of that contains a primitive th root of unity . Show that a cyclic code of length with defining set has minimum distance at least . Show that if and then we obtain Hamming's original code.
[You may quote a formula for the Vandermonde determinant without proof.]
3.I.4G
commentWhat does it mean to say that a binary code has length , size and minimum distance ? Let be the largest value of for which there exists an -code. Prove that
where .
3.II.12G
commentDescribe the RSA system with public key and private key . Briefly discuss the possible advantages or disadvantages of taking (i) or (ii) .
Explain how to factor when both the private key and public key are known.
Describe the bit commitment problem, and briefly indicate how RSA can be used to solve it.
4.I.4G
commentA binary erasure channel with erasure probability is a discrete memoryless channel with channel matrix
State Shannon's second coding theorem, and use it to compute the capacity of this channel.
1.I.10D
comment(a) Introduce the concept of comoving co-ordinates in a homogeneous and isotropic universe and explain how the velocity of a galaxy is determined by the scale factor . Express the Hubble parameter today in terms of the scale factor.
(b) The Raychaudhuri equation states that the acceleration of the universe is determined by the mass density and the pressure as
Now assume that the matter constituents of the universe satisfy . In this case explain clearly why the Hubble time sets an upper limit on the age of the universe; equivalently, that the scale factor must vanish at some time with .
The observed Hubble time is years. Discuss two reasons why the above upper limit does not seem to apply to our universe.
2.I.10D
commentThe total energy of a gas can be expressed in terms of a momentum integral
where is the particle momentum, is the particle energy and is the average number of particles in the momentum range . Consider particles in a cubic box of side with . Explain why the momentum varies as
Consider the overall change in energy due to the volume change . Given that the volume varies slowly, use the thermodynamic result (at fixed particle number and entropy ) to find the pressure
Use this expression to derive the equation of state for an ultrarelativistic gas.
During the radiation-dominated era, photons remain in equilibrium with energy density and number density . Briefly explain why the photon temperature falls inversely with the scale factor, . Discuss the implications for photon number and entropy conservation.
2.II.15D
comment(a) Consider a homogeneous and isotropic universe filled with relativistic matter of mass density and scale factor . Consider the energy of a small fluid element in a comoving volume where . Show that for slow (adiabatic) changes in volume, the density will satisfy the fluid conservation equation
where is the pressure.
(b) Suppose that a flat universe is filled with two matter components:
(i) radiation with an equation of state .
(ii) a gas of cosmic strings with an equation of state .
Use the fluid conservation equation to show that the total relativistic mass density behaves as
where and are respectively the radiation and string densities today (that is, at when ). Assuming that both the Hubble parameter today and the ratio are known, show that the Friedmann equation can be rewritten as
Solve this equation to find the following solution for the scale factor
Show that the scale factor has the expected asymptotic behaviour at early times .
Hence show that the age of this universe today is
and that the time of equal radiation and string densities is
3.I.10D
comment(a) Consider a spherically symmetric star with outer radius , density and pressure . By balancing the gravitational force on a shell at radius against the force due to the pressure gradient, derive the pressure support equation
where . Show that this implies
Suggest appropriate boundary conditions at and , together with a brief justification.
(b) Describe qualitatively the endpoint of stellar evolution for our sun when all its nuclear fuel is spent. Your discussion should briefly cover electron degeneracy pressure and the relevance of stability against inverse beta-decay.
[Note that , where are the masses of the neutron, proton and electron respectively.]
4.I.10D
commentThe number density of fermions of mass at equilibrium in the early universe with temperature , is given by the integral
where , and is the chemical potential. Assuming that the fermions remain in equilibrium when they become non-relativistic , show that the number density can be expressed as
[Hint: You may assume
Suppose that the fermions decouple at a temperature given by where . Assume also that . By comparing with the photon number density at , where , show that the ratio of number densities at decoupling is given by
Now assume that , (which implies ), and that the fermion mass , where is the proton mass. Explain clearly why this new fermion would be a good candidate for solving the dark matter problem of the standard cosmology.
4.II.15D
commentThe perturbed motion of cold dark matter particles (pressure-free, ) in an expanding universe can be parametrized by the trajectories
where is the scale factor of the universe, is the unperturbed comoving trajectory and is the comoving displacement. The particle equation of motion is , where the Newtonian potential satisfies the Poisson equation with mass density .
(a) Discuss how matter conservation in a small volume ensures that the perturbed density and the unperturbed background density are related by
By changing co-ordinates with the Jacobian
show that the fractional density perturbation can be written to leading order as
where .
Use this result to integrate the Poisson equation once. Hence, express the particle equation of motion in terms of the comoving displacement as
Infer that the density perturbation evolution equation is
[Hint: You may assume that the integral of is . Note also that the Raychaudhuri equation (for ) is .]
(b) Find the general solution of equation in a flat universe dominated by cold dark matter . Discuss the effect of late-time or dark energy domination on the growth of density perturbations.
1.II.24H
comment(a) State and prove the inverse function theorem for a smooth map between manifolds without boundary.
[You may assume the inverse function theorem for functions in Euclidean space.]
(b) Let be a real polynomial in variables such that for some integer ,
for all real and all . Prove that the set of points where is a -dimensional submanifold of , provided it is not empty and .
[You may use the pre-image theorem provided that it is clearly stated.]
(c) Show that the manifolds with are all diffeomorphic. Is with necessarily diffeomorphic to with ?
2.II
commentLet be a surface.
(a) Define the exponential map at a point . Assuming that exp is smooth, show that is a diffeomorphism in a neighbourhood of the origin in .
(b) Given a parametrization around , define the Christoffel symbols and show that they only depend on the coefficients of the first fundamental form.
(c) Consider a system of normal co-ordinates centred at , that is, Cartesian coordinates in and parametrization given by , where is an orthonormal basis of . Show that all of the Christoffel symbols are zero at .
3.II.23H
commentLet be a connected oriented surface.
(a) Define the Gauss map of . Given , show that the derivative of ,
is self-adjoint.
(b) Show that if is a diffeomorphism, then the Gaussian curvature is positive everywhere. Is the converse true?
4.II.24H
comment(a) Let be an oriented surface and let be a real number. Given a point and a vector with unit norm, show that there exist and a unique curve parametrized by arc-length and with constant geodesic curvature such that and .
[You may use the theorem on existence and uniqueness of solutions of ordinary differential equations.]
(b) Let be an oriented surface with positive Gaussian curvature and diffeomorphic to . Show that two simple closed geodesics in must intersect. Is it true that two smooth simple closed curves in with constant geodesic curvature must intersect?
1.I.7E
commentFind the fixed points of the system
Local linearization shows that all the fixed points with are saddle points. Why can you be certain that this remains true when nonlinear terms are taken into account? Classify the fixed point with by its local linearization. Show that the equation has Hamiltonian form, and thus that your classification is correct even when the nonlinear effects are included.
Sketch the phase plane.
1.II.14E
comment(a) An autonomous dynamical system in has a periodic orbit with period . The linearized evolution of a small perturbation is given by . Obtain the differential equation and initial condition satisfied by the matrix .
Define the Floquet multipliers of the orbit. Explain why one of the multipliers is always unity and show that the other is given by
(b) Use the 'energy-balance' method for nearly Hamiltonian systems to find a leadingorder approximation to the amplitude of the limit cycle of the equation
where and .
Compute a leading-order approximation to the nontrivial Floquet multiplier of the limit cycle and hence determine its stability.
[You may assume that and .]
2.I.7E
commentExplain what is meant by a strict Lyapunov function on a domain containing the origin for a dynamical system in . Define the domain of stability of a fixed point .
By considering the function show that the origin is an asymptotically stable fixed point of
Show also that its domain of stability includes and is contained in .
2.II.14E
commentLet be a continuous one-dimensional map of an interval . Explain what is meant by saying (a) that has a horseshoe, (b) that is chaotic (Glendinning's definition).
Consider the tent map defined on the interval by
with .
Find the non-zero fixed point and the points that satisfy
Sketch a graph of and showing the points corresponding to and . Hence show that has a horseshoe if .
Explain briefly why has a horseshoe when and why there are periodic points arbitrarily close to for , but no such points for .
3.I.7E
commentState the normal-form equations for (a) a saddle-node bifurcation, (b) a transcritical bifurcation, and (c) a pitchfork bifurcation, for a dynamical system .
Consider the system
Compute the extended centre manifold near , and the evolution equation on the centre manifold, both correct to second order in and . Deduce the type of bifurcation and show that the equation can be put in normal form, to the same order, by a change of variables of the form for suitably chosen and .
4.I.7E
commentConsider the logistic map for . Show that there is a period-doubling bifurcation of the nontrivial fixed point at . Show further that the bifurcating 2 -cycle is given by the roots of
Show that there is a second period-doubling bifurcation at .
commentA particle of rest mass and charge is moving along a trajectory , where is the particle's proper time, in a given external electromagnetic field with 4-potential . Consider the action principle where the action is and
and variations are taken with fixed endpoints.
Show first that the action is invariant both under reparametrizations where and are constants and also under a change of electromagnetic gauge. Next define the generalized momentum , and obtain the equation of motion
where the tensor should be defined and you may assume that . Then verify from that indeed .
How does differ from the momentum of an uncharged particle? Comment briefly on the principle of minimal coupling.
1.II
commentand are two reference frames with moving with constant speed in the -direction relative to . The co-ordinates and are related by where
and . What is the transformation rule for the scalar potential and vector potential A between the two frames?
As seen in there is an infinite uniform stationary distribution of charge along the -axis with uniform line density . Determine the electric and magnetic fields and B both in and . Check your answer by verifying explicitly the invariance of the two quadratic Lorentz invariants.
Comment briefly on the limit .
4.II
commentThe retarded scalar potential produced by a charge distribution is
where and . By use of an appropriate delta function rewrite the integral as an integral over both and involving .
Now specialize to a point charge moving on a path so that we may set
By performing the volume integral first obtain the Liénard-Wiechert potential
where and should be specified.
Obtain the corresponding result for the magnetic potential.
1.II.36B
commentWrite down the boundary conditions that are satisfied at the interface between two viscous fluids in motion. Briefly discuss the physical meaning of these boundary conditions.
A layer of incompressible fluid of density and viscosity flows steadily down a plane inclined at an angle to the horizontal. The layer is of uniform thickness measured perpendicular to the plane and the viscosity of the overlying air can be neglected. Using co-ordinates parallel and perpendicular to the plane, write down the equations of motion, and the boundary conditions on the plane and on the free top surface. Determine the pressure and velocity fields. Show that the volume flux down the plane is per unit cross-slope width.
Consider now the case where a second layer of fluid, of uniform thickness , viscosity , and density flows steadily on top of the first layer. Determine the pressure and velocity fields in each layer. Why does the velocity profile in the bottom layer depend on but not on ?
2.II.36B
commentA very long cylinder of radius a translates steadily at speed in a direction perpendicular to its axis and parallel to a plane boundary. The centre of the cylinder remains a distance above the plane, where , and the motion takes place through an incompressible fluid of viscosity .
Consider the force per unit length parallel to the plane that must be applied to the cylinder to maintain the motion. Explain why scales according to .
Approximating the lower cylindrical surface by a parabola, or otherwise, determine the velocity and pressure gradient fields in the space between the cylinder and the plane. Hence, by considering the shear stress on the plane, or otherwise, calculate explicitly.
[You may use
3.II.36B
commentDefine the rate of strain tensor in terms of the velocity components .
Write down the relation between , the pressure and the stress tensor in an incompressible Newtonian fluid of viscosity .
Prove that is the local rate of dissipation per unit volume in the fluid.
Incompressible fluid of density and viscosity occupies the semi-infinite domain above a rigid plane boundary that oscillates with velocity , where and are constants. The fluid is at rest at . Determine the velocity field produced by the boundary motion after any transients have decayed.
Evaluate the time-averaged rate of dissipation in the fluid, per unit area of boundary.
4.II.37B
commentA line force of magnitude is applied in the positive -direction to an unbounded fluid, generating a thin two-dimensional jet along the positive -axis. The fluid is at rest at and there is negligible motion in . Write down the pressure gradient within the boundary layer. Deduce that the function defined by
is independent of for . Interpret this result, and explain why . Use scaling arguments to deduce that there is a similarity solution having stream function
Hence show that satisfies
Show that a solution of is
where is a constant to be determined by requiring that is independent of . Find the volume flux, , in the jet. Briefly indicate why increases as increases.
[Hint: You may use
1.I.8E
commentThe function satisfies for and
where is the Heaviside step function. By taking Laplace transforms, show that, for ,
and verify directly from the inversion integral that your solution satisfies for .
2.I.8E
commentThe function is defined, for , by
and by analytic continuation elsewhere in the complex -plane. By considering the integral of a suitable function round a Hankel contour, obtain the analytic continuation of and hence show that singularities of can occur only at .
3.I.8E
commentShow that, for ,
where denotes the Cauchy principal value.
3.II.14E
commentIt is given that the hypergeometric function is the solution of the hypergeometric equation determined by the Papperitz symbol
that is analytic at and satisfies , and that for
[You may assume that are such that exists.]
(a) Show, by manipulating Papperitz symbols, that
(b) Let , where . Show that satisfies the hypergeometric equation determined by .
(c) By considering the limit in parts (a) and (b) above, deduce that, for ,
4.I.8E
commentBy means of the change of variable in a suitable double integral, or otherwise, show that for
Deduce that, if for some with , then for any positive integer .
Prove that for any .
4.II.14E
commentLet
(a) Express in terms of an integral of the form , where the path of integration is a large circle. You should explain carefully which branch of you choose, by using polar co-ordinates with respect to the branch points. Hence show that .
(b) Give an alternative method of evaluating , by making a suitable change of variable and expressing in terms of a beta function.
1.II.18H
commentLet be a field and a separable polynomial over of degree . Explain what is meant by the Galois group of over . Show that is a transitive subgroup of if and only if is irreducible. Deduce that if is prime, then is irreducible if and only if contains an -cycle.
Let be a polynomial with integer coefficients, and a prime such that , the reduction of modulo , is separable. State a theorem relating the Galois group of over to that of over .
Determine the Galois group of the polynomial over .
2.II.18H
commentWrite an essay on ruler and compass construction.
3.II.18H
commentLet be a field and a positive integer, not divisible by the characteristic of . Let be the splitting field of the polynomial over . Show that is isomorphic to a subgroup of .
Now assume that is a finite field with elements. Show that is equal to the order of the residue class of in the group . Hence or otherwise show that the splitting field of over has degree 5 .
4.II.18H
commentLet be a field of characteristic different from 2 .
Show that if is an extension of degree 2 , then for some such that . Show also that if with then and are isomorphic (as extensions of ) if and only is a square in .
Now suppose that where . Show that is a Galois extension, with Galois group isomorphic to for some . By considering the subgroups of , show that if and , then where for some subset .
1.II.35A
commentLet be a scalar field and denote the Levi-Civita covariant derivative operator of a metric tensor . Show that
If the Ricci tensor, , of the metric satisfies
find the energy momentum tensor and use the contracted Bianchi identity to show that, if , then
Show further that implies
2.II.35A
commentThe Schwarzschild metric is
Writing , obtain the equation
determining the spatial orbit of a null (massless) particle moving in the equatorial plane .
Verify that two solutions of are
What is the significance of solution (i)? Sketch solution (ii) and describe its relation to solution (i).
Show that, near , one may approximate the solution (ii) by
and hence obtain the impact parameter.
4.II.36A
commentWhat are local inertial co-ordinates? What is their physical significance and how are they related to the equivalence principle?
If are the components of a covariant vector field, show that
are the components of an anti-symmetric second rank covariant tensor field.
If are the components of a contravariant vector field and the components of a metric tensor, let
Show that
where , and is the Levi-Civita covariant derivative operator of the metric .
In a particular co-ordinate system , it is given that , . Deduce that, in this co-ordinate system, the metric tensor is independent of the co-ordinate . Hence show that
and that
is constant along every geodesic in every co-ordinate system.
What further conditions must one impose on and to ensure that the metric is stationary and that is proportional to the energy of a particle moving along the geodesic?
1.I
commentSuppose is a similarity with contraction factor for . Let be the unique non-empty compact invariant set for the 's. State a formula for the Hausdorff dimension of , under an assumption on the 's you should state. Hence compute the Hausdorff dimension of the subset of the square defined by dividing the square into a array of squares, removing the open middle square , then removing the middle th of each of the remaining 24 squares, and so on.
1.II.12F
commentCompute the area of the ball of radius around a point in the hyperbolic plane. Deduce that, for any tessellation of the hyperbolic plane by congruent, compact tiles, the number of tiles which are at most "steps" away from a given tile grows exponentially in . Give an explicit example of a tessellation of the hyperbolic plane.
2.I.3F
commentDetermine whether the following elements of are elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic. Justify your answers.
In the case of the first of these transformations find the fixed points.
3.I.3F
commentLet be a discrete subgroup of the Möbius group. Define the limit set of in . If contains two loxodromic elements whose fixed point sets in are different, show that the limit set of contains no isolated points.
4.I.3F
commentWhat is a crystallographic group in the Euclidean plane? Prove that, if is crystallographic and is a nontrivial rotation in , then has order , or 6 .
4.II.12F
commentLet be a discrete subgroup of . Show that is countable. Let be some enumeration of the elements of . Show that for any point in hyperbolic 3-space , the distance tends to infinity. Deduce that a subgroup of is discrete if and only if it acts properly discontinuously on .
1.II .17F
commentState and prove Euler's formula relating the number of vertices, edges and faces of a connected plane graph
Deduce that a planar graph of order has size at most . What bound can be given if the planar graph contains no triangles?
Without invoking the four colour theorem, prove that a planar graph that contains no triangles is 4-colourable.
2.II.17F
commentLet be a bipartite graph with vertex classes and . State Hall's necessary condition for to have a matching from to , and prove that it is sufficient.
Deduce a necessary and sufficient condition for to have independent edges, where is a natural number.
Show that the maximum size of a set of independent edges in is equal to the minimum size of a subset such that every edge of has an end vertex in .
3.II.17F
commentLet be the least integer such that every colouring of the edges of with two colours contains a monochromatic . Prove that exists.
Prove that a connected graph of maximum degree and order contains two vertices distance at least apart.
Let be the least integer such that every connected graph of order contains, as an induced subgraph, either a complete graph , a star or a path of length . Show that .
4.II.17F
commentWhat is meant by a graph of order being strongly regular with parameters Show that, if such a graph exists and , then
is an integer.
Let be a graph containing no triangles, in which every pair of non-adjacent vertices has exactly three common neighbours. Show that must be -regular and for some . Show that such a graph exists for .
1.II.31E
comment(a) Let satisfy the heat equation
Find the function , which depends linearly on , such that the heat equation can be written in the form
Use this equation to construct a Lax pair for the heat equation.
(b) Use the above result, as well as the Cole-Hopf transformation, to construct a Lax pair for the Burgers equation
(c) Find the second-order ordinary differential equation satisfied by the similarity solution of the so-called cylindrical equation:
2.II.31E
commentLet satisfy the singular integral equation
where denotes the circle of radius 2 centred on the origin, denotes the principal value integral and is a constant. Derive the associated Riemann-Hilbert problem, and compute the canonical solution of the corresponding homogeneous problem.
Find the value of such that exists, and compute the unique solution if takes this value.
3.II.31E
commentThe solution of the initial value problem of the equation is given by
where the scalar function can be obtained by solving the following RiemannHilbert problem:
and are the boundary values of functions of that are analytic for and tend to unity as . The functions and can be determined from the initial condition .
Assume that can be written in the form
where as a function of is analytic for and tends to unity as and are constants and .
(a) By solving the above Riemann-Hilbert problem find a linear equation relating and .
(b) By solving this equation explicitly in the case that and letting , compute the one-soliton solution.
(c) Assume that is such that has a simple zero at . Discuss the dominant form of the solution as and .
1.II.22G
commentLet be a vector space. Define what it means for two norms and on to be Lipschitz equivalent. Give an example of a vector space and two norms which are not Lipschitz equivalent.
Show that, if is finite dimensional, all norms on are Lipschitz equivalent. Deduce that a finite dimensional subspace of a normed vector space is closed.
Show that a normed vector space is finite dimensional if and only if contains a non-empty open set with compact closure.
2.II.22G
commentLet be a metric space. Define what it means for a subset to be of first or second category. State and prove a version of the Baire category theorem. For , show that the set is of first category in the normed space when and is given its standard norm. What about ?
3.II.21G
commentLet be a complex Banach space. We say a sequence converges to weakly if for all . Let be bounded and linear. Show that if converges to weakly, then converges to weakly.
Now let . Show that for a sequence , with , there exists a subsequence such that converges weakly to some with .
Now let , and show that converges to weakly if and only if in the usual sense.
Define what it means for a linear operator to be compact, and deduce from the above that any bounded linear is compact.
4.II.22G
commentLet be a complex Hilbert space. Define what it means for a linear operator to be self-adjoint. State a version of the spectral theorem for compact selfadjoint operators on a Hilbert space. Give an example of a Hilbert space and a compact self-adjoint operator on with infinite dimensional range. Define the notions spectrum, point spectrum, and resolvent set, and describe these in the case of the operator you wrote down. Justify your answers.
1.II.16H
commentExplain what it means for a poset to be chain-complete. State Zorn's Lemma, and use it to prove that, for any two elements and of a distributive lattice with , there exists a lattice homomorphism with and . Explain briefly how this result implies the completeness theorem for propositional logic.
2.II.16H
commentWhich of the following statements are true, and which false? Justify your answers.
(a) For any ordinals and with , there exist ordinals and with such that .
(b) For any ordinals and with , there exist ordinals and with such that .
(c) for all .
(d) for all .
(e) Any ordinal of the form is a limit ordinal.
(f) Any limit ordinal is of the form .
3.II.16H
commentExplain what is meant by a structure for a first-order signature , and describe how first-order formulae over are interpreted in a given structure. Show that if is a substructure of , and is a quantifier-free formula (with free variables), then
A first-order theory is said to be inductive if its axioms all have the form
where is quantifier-free (and either of the strings or may be empty). If is an inductive theory, and is a structure for the appropriate signature, show that the poset of those substructures of which are -models is chain-complete.
Which of the following can be expressed as inductive theories over the signature with one binary predicate symbol ? Justify your answers.
(a) The theory of totally ordered sets without greatest or least elements.
(b) The theory of totally ordered sets with greatest and least elements.
4.II.16H
commentExplain carefully what is meant by a well-founded relation on a set. State the recursion theorem, and use it to prove that a binary relation on a set is well-founded if and only if there exists a function from to some ordinal such that implies .
Deduce, using the axiom of choice, that any well-founded relation on a set may be extended to a well-ordering.
1.I.6B
commentA large population of some species has probability of taking the value at time . Explain the use of the generating function , and give expressions for and in terms of .
A particular population is subject to a birth-death process, so that the probability of an increase from to in unit time is , while the probability of a decrease from to is , with . Show that the master equation for is
Derive the equation satisfied by , and show that in the statistically steady state, when and are independent of time, takes the form
Using the equation for , or otherwise, find .
2.I.6B
commentTwo interacting populations of prey and predators, with populations respectively, obey the evolution equations (with all parameters positive)
Give an explanation in terms of population dynamics of each of the terms in these equations.
Show that if there are two non-trivial fixed points with , provided is sufficiently small. Find the trace and determinant of the Jacobian in terms of and show that, when and are very small, the fixed point with , is always unstable.
2.II.13B
commentConsider the discrete predator-prey model for two populations of prey and predators, respectively:
where are constants, all assumed to be positive.
(a) Give plausible explanations of the meanings of .
(b) Nondimensionalize equations to show that with appropriate rescaling they may be reduced to the form
(c) Now assume that . Show that the origin is unstable, and that there is a nontrivial fixed point . Investigate the stability of this point by writing and linearizing. Express the linearized equations as a second order recurrence relation for , and hence show that satisfies an equation of the form
where the quantities satisfy and are constants. Give a similar expression for for the same values of .
Show that when is just greater than unity the are real and both less than unity, while if is just greater than unity then the are complex with modulus greater than one. Show also that increases monotonically with and that if the roots are real neither of them can be unity.
Deduce that the fixed point is stable for sufficiently small but loses stability for a value of that depends on but is certainly less than . Give an equation that determines the value of where stability is lost, and an equation that gives the argument of the eigenvalue at this point. Sketch the behaviour of the moduli of the eigenvalues as functions of .
3.I.6B
commentThe SIR epidemic model for an infectious disease divides the population into three categories of susceptible , infected and recovered (non-infectious) . It is supposed that the disease is non-lethal, so that the population does not change in time.
Explain the reasons for the terms in the following model equations:
At time while .
(a) Show that if no epidemic occurs.
(b) Now suppose that and there is an epidemic. Show that the system has a nontrivial fixed point, and that it is stable to small disturbances. Show also that for both small and large both the trace and the determinant of the Jacobian matrix are , and deduce that the matrix has complex eigenvalues for sufficiently small , and real eigenvalues for sufficiently large .
3.II.13B
commentA chemical system with concentrations obeys the coupled reactiondiffusion equations
where are constants with positive.
(a) Find conditions on such that there is a steady homogeneous solution , which is stable to spatially homogeneous perturbations.
(b) Investigate the stability of this homogeneous solution to disturbances proportional to . Assuming that a solution satisfying the conditions of part (a) exists, find the region of parameter space in which the solution is stable to space-dependent disturbances, and show in particular that one boundary of this region for fixed is given by
Sketch the various regions of existence and stability of steady, spatially homogeneous solutions in the plane for the case .
(c) Show that the critical wavenumber for the onset of the instability satisfies the relation
Explain carefully what happens when and when .
4.I.6B
commentA nonlinear model of insect dispersal with exponential death rate takes the form (for insect population )
At time the total insect population is , and all the insects are at the origin. A solution is sought in the form
(a) Verify that , provided decays sufficiently rapidly as .
(b) Show, by substituting the form of given in equation into equation , that is satisfied, for nonzero , when
Hence find the complete solution and show that the insect population is always confined to a finite region that never exceeds the range
1.II.20G
commentLet denote the zeros of the polynomial , where is an integer. The discriminant of the polynomial is defined as
Prove that, if is square-free, then is an integral basis for .
By verifying that
and further that the field norm of the expression on the left is , or otherwise, show that . Hence prove that, when and , an integral basis for is .
2.II.20G
commentLet and let . By Dedekind's theorem, or otherwise, show that the ideal equations
hold in . Deduce that has class number 2 .
Show that is the fundamental unit in . Hence verify that all solutions in integers of the equation are given by
[It may be assumed that the Minkowski constant for is .]
4.II.20G
commentLet and let . Show that the discriminant of is 125 . Hence prove that the ideals in are all principal.
Verify that is a unit in for each integer with . Deduce that is a unit in . Hence show that the ideal is prime and totally ramified in . Indicate briefly why there are no other ramified prime ideals in .
[It can be assumed that is an integral basis for and that the Minkowski constant for is .]
1.I.1H
commentState the theorem of the primitive root for an odd prime power modulus.
Prove that 3 is a primitive root modulo for all integers . Is 2 a primitive root modulo for all integers ?
Prove that there is no primitive root modulo 8 .
2.I.1H
commentProve that all binary quadratic forms of discriminant are equivalent to
Determine which prime numbers are represented by .
3.I.1H
commentLet be a product of distinct primes, and let be the least common multiple of . Prove that
Now take , and prove that
3.II.11H
commentState the prime number theorem, and Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progression.
If is an odd prime number, prove that is a quadratic residue modulo if and only if .
Let be distinct prime numbers, and define
Prove that has at least one prime factor which is congruent to , and that every prime factor of must be congruent to .
Deduce that there are infinitely many primes which are congruent to , and infinitely many primes which are congruent to .
4.I.1H
commentLet be a real number greater than or equal to 2 , and define
where the product is taken over all primes which are less than or equal to . Prove that as , and deduce that diverges when the summation is taken over all primes .
4.II.11H
commentDefine the notion of a Fermat, Euler, and strong pseudo-prime to the base , where is an integer greater than
Let be an odd integer greater than 1. Prove that:
(a) If is a prime number, then is a strong pseudo-prime for every base with .
(b) If there exists a base with and for which is not a pseudo-prime, then in fact is not a pseudo-prime for at least half of all bases with and .
Prove that 341 is a Fermat pseudo-prime, but not an Euler pseudo-prime, to the base
1.II.38C
comment(a) Define the Jacobi method with relaxation for solving the linear system .
(b) Let be a symmetric positive definite matrix with diagonal part such that the matrix is also positive definite. Prove that the iteration always converges if the relaxation parameter is equal to 1 .
(c) Let be the tridiagonal matrix with diagonal elements and off-diagonal elements . Prove that convergence occurs if satisfies . Explain briefly why the choice is optimal.
[You may quote without proof any relevant result about the convergence of iterative methods and about the eigenvalues of matrices.]
2.II.38C
commentIn the unit square the Poisson equation , with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions, is being solved by the five-point formula using a square grid of mesh size ,
Let be the exact solution, and let be the error of the five-point formula at the th grid point. Justifying each step, prove that
where is some constant.
3.II.38C
comment(a) For the equation , consider the following multistep method with steps,
where is the step size and are specified constants with . Prove that this method is of order if and only if
for any polynomial of degree . Deduce that there is no -step method of order .
[You may use the fact that, for any , the Hermite interpolation problem
is uniquely solvable in the space of polynomials of degree
(b) State the Dahlquist equivalence theorem regarding the convergence of a multistep method. Determine all the values of the real parameter for which the multistep method
is convergent, and determine the order of convergence.
4.II.39C
commentThe difference equation
where , is used to approximate a solution of the diffusion equation .
(a) Prove that, as with constant , the local error of the method is .
(b) Applying the Fourier stability test, show that the method is stable if and only if .
2.II.29I
commentA policy is to be chosen to maximize
where . Assuming that , prove that is optimal if satisfies the optimality equation.
An investor receives at time an income of of which he spends , subject to . The reward is , and his income evolves as
where is a sequence of independent random variables with common mean . If , show that the optimal policy is to take for all .
What can you say about the problem if
3.II.28I
commentA discrete-time controlled Markov process evolves according to
where the are independent zero-mean random variables with common variance , and is a known constant.
Consider the problem of minimizing
where and . Show that the optimal control at time takes the form for certain constants . Show also that the minimized value for is of the form
for certain constants . Explain how these constants are to be calculated. Prove that the equation
has a unique positive solution , and that the sequence converges monotonically to .
Prove that the sequence converges, to the limit
Finally, prove that .
4.II.29I
commentAn investor has a (possibly negative) bank balance at time . For given positive and , he wishes to choose his spending rate so as to maximize
where . Find the investor's optimal choice of control .
Let denote the optimally-controlled bank balance. By considering next how depends on , show that there is a unique positive such that . If the original problem is modified by setting , but requiring that , show that the optimal control for this modified problem is .
1.II.29A
comment(a) State a local existence theorem for solving first order quasi-linear partial differential equations with data specified on a smooth hypersurface.
(b) Solve the equation
with boundary condition where , making clear the domain on which your solution is . Comment on this domain with reference to the noncharacteristic condition for an initial hypersurface (including a definition of this concept).
(c) Solve the equation
with boundary condition and show that your solution is on some open set containing the initial hypersurface . Comment on the significance of this, again with reference to the non-characteristic condition.
2.II.30A
commentDefine a fundamental solution of a constant-coefficient linear partial differential operator, and prove that the distribution defined by the function
is a fundamental solution of the operator on .
State and prove the mean value property for harmonic functions on and deduce that any two smooth solutions of
which satisfy the condition
are in fact equal
3.II.29A
commentWrite down the formula for the solution for of the initial value problem for the -dimensional heat equation
for a given smooth bounded function.
State and prove the Duhamel principle giving the solution for to the inhomogeneous initial value problem
for a given smooth bounded function.
For the case and when is a fixed Schwartz function (independent of , find and show that is a solution of
[Hint: you may use without proof the fact that the fundamental solution of the Laplacian on is
4.II.30A
comment(a) State the Fourier inversion theorem for Schwartz functions on the real line. Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution and compute the Fourier transform of the distribution defined by the function for and otherwise. (Here is any positive number.)
Use the Fourier transform in the variable to deduce a formula for the solution to the one dimensional wave equation
for a Schwartz function. Explain what is meant by "finite propagation speed" and briefly explain why the formula you have derived is in fact valid for arbitrary smooth .
(b) State a theorem on the representation of a smooth -periodic function as a Fourier series
and derive a representation for solutions to as Fourier series in .
(c) Verify that the formulae obtained in (a) and (b) agree for the case of smooth periodic .
1.II.32D
commentA particle in one dimension has position and momentum operators and . Explain how to introduce the position-space wavefunction for a quantum state and use this to derive a formula for . Find the wavefunctions for and in terms of , stating clearly any standard properties of position and momentum eigenstates which you require.
Define annihilation and creation operators and for a harmonic oscillator of unit mass and frequency and write the Hamiltonian
in terms of them. Let be a normalized eigenstate of with eigenvalue , a complex number. Show that cannot be an eigenstate of unless , and that is an eigenstate of with the lowest possible energy. Find a normalized wavefunction for for any . Do there exist normalizable eigenstates of ? Justify your answer.
2.II.32A
commentLet and denote the eigenstates of for a particle of spin . Show that
are eigenstates of for any . Show also that the composite state
for two spin- particles, is unchanged under a transformation
applied to all one-particle states. Hence, by considering the action of certain components of the spin operator for the composite system, show that is a state of total spin zero.
Two spin- particles A and B have combined spin zero (as in the state above) but are widely separated in space. A magnetic field is applied to particle B in such a way that its spin states are transformed according to , for a certain value of , while the spin states of particle A are unaffected. Once this has been done, a measurement is made of for particle A, followed by a measurement of for particle B. List the possible results for this pair of measurements and find the total probability, in terms of , for each pair of outcomes to occur. For which outcomes is the two-particle system left in an eigenstate of the combined total spin operator, , and what is the eigenvalue for each such outcome?
3.II.32D
commentConsider a Hamiltonian with known eigenstates and eigenvalues (possibly degenerate). Derive a general method for calculating the energies of a new Hamiltonian to first order in the parameter . Apply this method to find approximate expressions for the new energies close to an eigenvalue of , given that there are just two orthonormal eigenstates and corresponding to and that
A charged particle of mass moves in two-dimensional space but is confined to a square box . In the absence of any potential within this region the allowed wavefunctions are
inside the box, and zero outside. A weak electric field is now applied, modifying the Hamiltonian by a term , where is small. Show that the three lowest new energy levels for the particle are approximately
[It may help to recall that .]
4.II.32A
commentDefine the Heisenberg picture of quantum mechanics in relation to the Schrödinger picture and explain how these formulations give rise to identical physical predictions. Derive an equation of motion for an operator in the Heisenberg picture, assuming the operator is independent of time in the Schrödinger picture.
State clearly the form of the unitary operator corresponding to a rotation through an angle about an axis (a unit vector) for a general quantum system. Verify your statement for the case in which the system is a single particle by considering the effect of an infinitesimal rotation on the particle's position and on its spin .
Show that if the Hamiltonian for a particle is of the form
then all components of the total angular momentum are independent of time in the Heisenberg picture. Is the same true for either orbital or spin angular momentum?
[You may quote commutation relations involving components of and .]
1.II
comment(a) What is a loss function? What is a decision rule? What is the risk function of a decision rule? What is the Bayes risk of a decision rule with respect to a prior ?
(b) Let denote the risk function of decision rule , and let denote the Bayes risk of decision rule with respect to prior . Suppose that is a decision rule and is a prior over the parameter space with the two properties
(i)
(ii) .
Prove that is minimax.
(c) Suppose now that , where is the space of possible actions, and that the loss function is
where is a positive constant. If the law of the observation given parameter is , where is known, show (using (b) or otherwise) that the rule
is minimax.
2.II.27J
commentLet be a parametric family of densities for observation . What does it mean to say that the statistic is sufficient for ? What does it mean to say that is minimal sufficient?
State the Rao-Blackwell theorem. State the Cramér-Rao lower bound for the variance of an unbiased estimator of a (scalar) parameter, taking care to specify any assumptions needed.
Let be a sample from a distribution, where the positive parameter is unknown. Find a minimal sufficient statistic for . If is an unbiased estimator for , find the form of , and deduce that this estimator is minimum-variance unbiased. Would it be possible to reach this conclusion using the Cramér-Rao lower bound?
3.II.26J
commentWrite an essay on the rôle of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm in computational Bayesian inference on a parametric model. You may for simplicity assume that the parameter space is finite. Your essay should:
(a) explain what problem in Bayesian inference the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm is used to tackle;
(b) fully justify that the algorithm does indeed deliver the required information about the model;
(c) discuss any implementational issues that need care.
4.II.27J
comment(a) State the strong law of large numbers. State the central limit theorem.
(b) Assuming whatever regularity conditions you require, show that if is the maximum-likelihood estimator of the unknown parameter based on an independent identically distributed sample of size , then under
as , where is a matrix which you should identify. A rigorous derivation is not required.
(c) Suppose that are independent binomial random variables. It is required to test against the alternative . Show that the construction of a likelihood-ratio test leads us to the statistic
where . Stating clearly any result to which you appeal, for large , what approximately is the distribution of under ? Writing , and assuming that is small, show that
Using this and the central limit theorem, briefly justify the approximate distribution of given by asymptotic maximum-likelihood theory. What could you say if the assumption that is small failed?
commentLet be a real-valued random variable. Define the characteristic function . Show that for all if and only if and have the same distribution.
For parts (a) and (b) below, let and be independent and identically distributed random variables.
(a) Show that almost surely implies that is almost surely constant.
(b) Suppose that there exists such that for all . Calculate to show that for all , and conclude that is almost surely constant.
(c) Let , and be independent random variables. Calculate the characteristic function of , given that .
1.II
commentLet be a sequence of (real-valued, Borel-measurable) random variables on the probability space .
(a) Let be a sequence of events in .
What does it mean for the events to be independent?
What does it mean for the random variables to be independent?
(b) Define the tail -algebra for a sequence and state Kolmogorov's law.
(c) Consider the following events in ,
Which of them are tail events for ? Justify your answers.
(d) Let be independent random variables with
and define .
Show that a.s. for some , and determine .
[Standard results may be used without proof, but should be clearly stated.]
2.II
comment(a) What is meant by saying that is a measure space? Your answer should include clear definitions of any terms used.
(b) Consider the following sequence of Borel-measurable functions on the measure space , with the Lebesgue -algebra and Lebesgue measure :
For each , decide whether the sequence converges in as .
Does converge almost everywhere?
Does converge in measure?
Justify your answers.
For parts (c) and (d), let be a sequence of real-valued, Borel-measurable functions on a probability space .
(c) Prove that converges to a finite limit .
(d) Show that almost surely if and only if in probability.
4.II
commentLet be a measure space and a measurable function.
(a) Explain what is meant by saying that is integrable, and how the integral is defined, starting with integrals of -simple functions.
[Your answer should consist of clear definitions, including the ones for -simple functions and their integrals.]
(b) For give a specific sequence of -simple functions such that and for all . Justify your answer.
(c) Suppose that that and let be measurable functions such that for all . Prove that, if
then .
Give an example with such that for all , but , and justify your answer.
(d) State and prove Fatou's Lemma for a sequence of non-negative measurable functions.
[Standard results on measurability and integration may be used without proof.]
1.II.19F
comment(a) Let be a finite group and a finite set on which acts. Define the permutation representation and compute its character.
(b) Let and be the following subgroups of , where is a prime,
(i) Decompose into irreducible representations.
(ii) Let be a non-trivial, one-dimensional representation. Determine the character of the induced representation , and decompose into irreducible representations.
(iii) List all of the irreducible representations of and show that your list is complete.
2.II.19F
comment(a) Let be , the symmetric group on four letters. Determine the character table of .
[Begin by listing the conjugacy classes and their orders.]
(b) For each irreducible representation of , decompose into irreducible representations. You must justify your answer.
3.II.19F
comment(a) Let , and let be the space of homogeneous polynomials of degree in the variables and . Thus . Define the action of on and show that is an irreducible representation of .
(b) Decompose into irreducible representations. Decompose and into irreducible representations.
(c) Given any representation of a group , define the dual representation . Show that is isomorphic to as a representation of .
[You may use any results from the lectures provided that you state them clearly.]
4.II.19F
commentIn this question, all vector spaces will be complex.
(a) Let be a finite abelian group.
(i) Show directly from the definitions that any irreducible representation must be one-dimensional.
(ii) Show that has a faithful one-dimensional representation if and only if is cyclic.
(b) Now let be an arbitrary finite group and suppose that the centre of is nontrivial. Write for this centre.
(i) Let be an irreducible representation of . Show that , where is an irreducible representation of .
(ii) Show that every irreducible representation of occurs in this way.
(iii) Suppose that is not a cyclic group. Show that there does not exist an irreducible representation of such that every irreducible representation occurs as a summand of for some .
commentDefine the branching order at a point and the degree of a non-constant holomorphic map between compact Riemann surfaces. State the Riemann-Hurwitz formula.
Let be an affine curve defined by the equation , where is an integer. Show that the projective curve corresponding to is non-singular and identify the points of . Let be a continuous map from to the Riemann sphere , such that the restriction of to is given by . Show that is holomorphic on . Find the degree and the ramification points of on and their branching orders. Determine the genus of .
[Basic properties of the complex structure on an algebraic curve may be used without proof if accurately stated.]
1.II.23F
commentLet be a lattice in , where is a fixed complex number with positive imaginary part. The Weierstrass -function is the unique meromorphic -periodic function on such that is holomorphic on , and as .
Show that and find all the zeros of in .
Show that satisfies a differential equation
for some cubic polynomial . Further show that
and that the three roots of are distinct.
[Standard properties of meromorphic doubly-periodic functions may be used without proof provided these are accurately stated, but any properties of the -function that you use must be deduced from first principles.]
2.II.23F
commentDefine the terms Riemann surface, holomorphic map between Riemann surfaces, and biholomorphic map.
(a) Prove that if two holomorphic maps coincide on a non-empty open subset of a connected Riemann surface then everywhere on .
(b) Prove that if is a non-constant holomorphic map between Riemann surfaces and then there is a choice of co-ordinate charts near and near , such that , for some non-negative integer . Deduce that a holomorphic bijective map between Riemann surfaces is biholomorphic.
[The inverse function theorem for holomorphic functions on open domains in may be used without proof if accurately stated.]
4.II.23F
commentDefine what is meant by a divisor on a compact Riemann surface, the degree of a divisor, and a linear equivalence between divisors. For a divisor , define and show that if a divisor is linearly equivalent to then . Determine, without using the Riemann-Roch theorem, the value in the case when is a point on the Riemann sphere .
[You may use without proof any results about holomorphic maps on provided that these are accurately stated.]
State the Riemann-Roch theorem for a compact connected Riemann surface . (You are not required to give a definition of a canonical divisor.) Show, by considering an appropriate divisor, that if has genus then admits a non-constant meromorphic function (that is a holomorphic map ) of degree at most .
1.I.5I
commentAssume that observations satisfy the linear model
where is an matrix of known constants of full , where is unknown and . Write down a -level confidence set for .
Define Cook's distance for the observation , where is the th row of . Give its interpretation in terms of confidence sets for .
In the above model with and , you observe that one observation has Cook's distance 1.3. Would you be concerned about the influence of this observation?
[You may find some of the following facts useful:
(i) If , then and .
(ii) If , then and .
(iii) If , then and . ]
1.II.13I
commentThe table below gives a year-by-year summary of the career batting record of the baseball player Babe Ruth. The first column gives his age at the start of each season and the second gives the number of 'At Bats' (AB) he had during the season. For each At Bat, it is recorded whether or not he scored a 'Hit'. The third column gives the total number of Hits he scored in the season, and the final column gives his 'Average' for the season, defined as the number of Hits divided by the number of At Bats.
Explain and interpret the commands below. In particular, you should explain the model that is being fitted, the approximation leading to the given standard errors and the test that is being performed in the last line of output.
Assuming that any required packages are loaded, draw a careful sketch of the graph that you would expect to see on entering the following lines of code:
2.I.5I
commentLet be independent Poisson random variables with means , for , where , for some known constants and an unknown parameter . Find the log-likelihood for .
By first computing the first and second derivatives of the log-likelihood for , explain the algorithm you would use to find the maximum likelihood estimator, .
3.I.5I
commentConsider a generalized linear model for independent observations , with for . What is a linear predictor? What is meant by the link function? If has model function (or density) of the form
for , where is a known positive function, define the canonical link function.
Now suppose that are independent with for . Derive the canonical link function.
4.I.5I
commentThe table below summarises the yearly numbers of named storms in the Atlantic basin over the period 1944-2004, and also gives an index of average July ocean temperature in the northern hemisphere over the same period. To save space, only the data for the first four and last four years are shown.
Explain and interpret the commands and (slightly abbreviated) output below.
In 2005 , the ocean temperature index was 0.743. Explain how you would predict the number of named storms for that year.
4.II.13I
commentConsider a linear model for given by
where is a known matrix of full rank , where is an unknown vector and . Derive an expression for the maximum likelihood estimator of , and write down its distribution.
Find also the maximum likelihood estimator of , and derive its distribution.
[You may use Cochran's theorem, provided that it is stated carefully. You may also assume that the matrix has rank , and that has rank .]
2.II.34D
commentWhat is meant by the heat capacity of a thermodynamic system? By establishing a suitable Maxwell identity, show that
In a certain model of interacting particles in a volume and at temperature , the partition function is
where and are constants. Find the equation of state and the entropy for this gas of particles. Find the energy and hence the heat capacity of the gas, and verify that the relation is satisfied.
3.II.34D
commentWhat is meant by the chemical potential of a thermodynamic system? Derive the Gibbs distribution with variable particle number , for a system at temperature and chemical potential . (You may assume that the volume does not vary.)
Consider a non-interacting gas of fermions in a box of fixed volume, at temperature and chemical potential . Use the Gibbs distribution to find the mean occupation number of a one-particle quantum state of energy . Assuming that the density of states is , for some constant , deduce that the mean number of particles with energies between and is
Why can be identified with the Fermi energy when ? Estimate the number of particles with energies greater than when is small but non-zero.
4.II.34D
commentTwo examples of phenomenological temperature measurements are (i) the mark reached along the length of a liquid-in-glass thermometer; and (ii) the wavelength of the brightest colour of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a hot body (used, for example, to measure the surface temperature of a star).
Give the definition of temperature in statistical physics, and explain how the analysis of ideal gases and black body radiation is used to calibrate and improve phenomenological temperature measurements like those mentioned above. You should give brief derivations of any key results that you use.
1.II.28I
commentOver two periods a stock price moves on a binomial tree.
Assuming that the riskless rate is constant at , verify that all risk-neutral up-probabilities are given by one value . Find the time- 0 value of the following three put options all struck at , with expiry 2 :
(a) a European put;
(b) an American put;
(c) a European put modified by raising the strike to at time 1 if the stock went down in the first period.
2.II.28I
comment(a) In the context of a single-period financial market with traded assets and a single riskless asset earning interest at rate , what is an arbitrage? What is an equivalent martingale measure? Explain marginal utility pricing, and how it leads to an equivalent martingale measure.
(b) Consider the following single-period market with two assets. The first is a riskless bond, worth 1 at time 0 , and 1 at time 1 . The second is a share, worth 1 at time 0 and worth at time 1 , where is uniformly distributed on the interval , where . Under what condition on is this model arbitrage free? When it is, characterise the set of equivalent martingale measures.
An agent with utility and with wealth at time 0 aims to pick the number of shares to hold so as to maximise his expected utility of wealth at time 1 . Show that he will choose to be positive if and only if .
An option pays at time 1 . Assuming that , deduce that the agent's price for this option will be , and show that the range of possible prices for this option as the pricing measure varies in is the interval .
3.II.27I
commentLet denote the riskless rate and let be a fixed volatility parameter.
(a) Let be a Black-Scholes asset with zero dividends:
where is standard Brownian motion. Derive the Black-Scholes partial differential equation for the price of a European option on with bounded payoff at expiry :
[You may use the fact that for functions satisfying exponential growth conditions, and standard Brownian motion , the process
is a martingale.]
(b) Indicate the changes in your argument when the asset pays dividends continuously at rate . Find the corresponding Black-Scholes partial differential equation.
(c) Assume . Find a closed form solution for the time-0 price of a European power option with payoff .
4.II.28I
commentState the definitions of a martingale and a stopping time.
State and prove the optional sampling theorem.
If is a martingale, under what conditions is it true that converges with probability 1 as ? Show by an example that some condition is necessary.
A market consists of agents, each of whom is either optimistic or pessimistic. At each time , one of the agents is selected at random, and chooses to talk to one of the other agents (again selected at random), whose type he then adopts. If choices in different periods are independent, show that the proportion of pessimists is a martingale. What can you say about the limiting behaviour of the proportion of pessimists as time tends to infinity?
1.I.2G
commentState Brouwer's fixed-point theorem, and also an equivalent version of the theorem that concerns retractions of the disc. Prove that these two versions are equivalent.
1.II.11G
commentLet be the unit circle in , and let be a continuous function that never takes the value 0 . Define the degree (or winding number) of about 0 . [You need not prove that the degree is well-defined.]
Denote the degree of about 0 by . Prove the following facts.
(i) If and are two functions with the properties of above, then
(ii) If is any continuous function such that for every , then .
Using these facts, calculate the degree when is given by the formula
2.I.2G
comment(a) State Chebyshev's equal ripple criterion.
(b) Let be defined by
and let be a polynomial of degree 7 . Prove that there exists an such that .
2.II.11G
comment(a) Let be a closed subset of the unit disc in . Let be a rational function with all its poles of modulus strictly greater than 1 . Explain why can be approximated uniformly on by polynomials.
[Standard results from complex analysis may be assumed.]
(b) With as above, define to be the set of all such that the function can be uniformly approximated on by polynomials. If , prove that there is some such that whenever .
3.I.2G
commentLet be positive integers and, for each , let
with .
Obtain an expression for the matrix and use it to show that
4.I.2G
comment(a) State the Baire category theorem, in its closed-sets version.
(b) For every let be a continuous function from to , and let when is rational and 0 otherwise. For each , let
By applying the Baire category theorem, prove that the functions cannot converge pointwise to . (That is, it is not the case that for every .)
commentThe dispersion relation for waves in deep water is
At time the water is at rest and the elevation of its free surface is where is a positive constant. Use Fourier analysis to find an integral expression for when .
Use the method of stationary phase to find for fixed and .
commentAn acoustic waveguide consists of a long straight tube with square crosssection bounded by rigid walls. The sound speed of the gas in the tube is . Find the dispersion relation for the propagation of sound waves along the tube. Show that for every dispersive mode there is a cut-off frequency, and determine the lowest cut-off frequency .
An acoustic disturbance is excited at with a prescribed pressure perturbation with . Find the pressure perturbation at distances along the tube.
1.II
commentAn elastic solid occupies the region . The wave speeds in the solid are and . A P-wave with dilatational potential
is incident from on a rigid barrier at . Obtain the reflected waves.
Are there circumstances where the reflected S-wave is evanescent? Give reasons for your answer.
4.II
commentObtain an expression for the compressive energy per unit volume for adiabatic motion of a perfect gas, for which the pressure is given in terms of the density by a relation of the form
where and are positive constants.
For one-dimensional motion with speed write down expressions for the mass flux and the momentum flux. Deduce from the energy flux together with the mass flux that if the motion is steady then
A one-dimensional shock wave propagates at constant speed along a tube containing the gas. Ahead of the shock the gas is at rest with pressure and density . Behind the shock the pressure is maintained at the constant value with . Determine the density behind the shock, assuming that holds throughout the flow.
For small show that the changes in pressure and density across the shock satisfy the adiabatic relation approximately, correect to order .