Part II, 2016, Paper 2
Part II, 2016, Paper 2
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Paper 2, Section II, H
commentIn this question we work over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Let and let be the closure of in
(a) Show that is a non-singular curve.
(b) Show that is a regular differential on .
(c) Compute the divisor of . What is the genus of ?
Paper 2, Section II, G
comment(a) Let be simplicial complexes, and a continuous map. What does it mean to say that is a simplicial approximation to
(b) Define the barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex , and state the Simplicial Approximation Theorem.
(c) Show that if is a simplicial approximation to then .
(d) Show that the natural inclusion induces a surjective map on fundamental groups.
Paper 2, Section II, A
commentA particle of mass moves in three dimensions subject to a potential localised near the origin. The wavefunction for a scattering process with incident particle of wavevector is denoted . With reference to the asymptotic form of , define the scattering amplitude , where is the wavevector of the outgoing particle with .
By recasting the Schrödinger equation for as an integral equation, show that
[You may assume that
is the Green's function for which obeys the appropriate boundary conditions for a scattering solution.]
Now suppose , where is a dimensionless constant. Determine the first two non-zero terms in the expansion of in powers of , giving each term explicitly as an integral over one or more position variables
Evaluate the contribution to of order in the case , expressing the answer as a function of and the scattering angle (defined so that .
Paper 2, Section II, J
comment(a) Define an queue and write without proof its stationary distribution. State Burke's theorem for an queue.
(b) Let be an queue with arrival rate and service rate started from the stationary distribution. For each , denote by the last time before that a customer departed the queue and the first time after that a customer departed the queue. If there is no arrival before time , then we set . What is the limit as of ? Explain.
(c) Consider a system of queues serving a finite number of customers in the following way: at station , customers are served immediately and the service times are independent exponentially distributed with parameter ; after service, each customer goes to station with probability . We assume here that the system is closed, i.e., for all .
Let be the state space of the Markov chain. Write down its -matrix. Also write down the -matrix corresponding to the position in the network of one customer (that is, when ). Show that there is a unique distribution such that . Show that
defines an invariant measure for the chain. Are the queue lengths independent at equilibrium?
Paper 2, Section II, C
commentWhat is meant by the asymptotic relation
Show that
and find the corresponding result in the sector .
What is meant by the asymptotic expansion
Show that the coefficients are determined uniquely by . Show that if is analytic at , then its Taylor series is an asymptotic expansion for as for any .
Show that
defines a solution of the equation for any smooth and rapidly decreasing function . Use the method of stationary phase to calculate the leading-order behaviour of as , for fixed .
Paper 2, Section ,
comment(a) Which of the following are regular languages? Justify your answers.
(i) is a nonempty string of alternating 's and 's .
(ii) .
(b) Write down a nondeterministic finite-state automaton with -transitions which accepts the language given by the regular expression . Describe in words what this language is.
(c) Is the following language regular? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I, E
commentConsider the Lagrangian
where are positive constants and is a positive integer. Find three conserved quantities and show that satisfies
where is a polynomial of degree which should be determined.
Paper 2, Section II, E
commentDefine what it means for the transformation given by
to be canonical. Show that a transformation is canonical if and only if
Show that the transformation given by
is canonical for any real constant . Find the corresponding generating function.
Paper 2, Section I, G
commentShow that the binary channel with channel matrix
has capacity .
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentDefine a code of length , where is odd, over the field of 2 elements with design distance . Show that the minimum weight of such a code is at least . [Results about the Vandermonde determinant may be quoted without proof, provided they are stated clearly.]
Let be a root of . Let be the code of length 15 with defining set . Find the generator polynomial of and the rank of . Determine the error positions of the following received words:
(i) ,
(ii) .
Paper 2, Section I, C
commentA spherical cloud of mass has radius and initial radius . It contains material with uniform mass density , and zero pressure. Ignoring the cosmological constant, show that if it is initially at rest at and the subsequent gravitational collapse is governed by Newton's law , then
Suppose is given parametrically by
where at . Derive a relation between and and hence show that the cloud collapses to radius at
where is the initial mass density of the cloud.
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentIf an embedded surface contains a line , show that the Gaussian curvature is non-positive at each point of . Give an example where the Gaussian curvature is zero at each point of .
Consider the helicoid given as the image of in under the map
What is the image of the corresponding Gauss map? Show that the Gaussian curvature at a point is given by , and hence is strictly negative everywhere. Show moreover that there is a line in passing through any point of .
[General results concerning the first and second fundamental forms on an oriented embedded surface and the Gauss map may be used without proof in this question.]
Paper 2, Section II, E
commentConsider the nonlinear oscillator
(a) Use the Hamiltonian for to find a constraint on the size of the domain of stability of the origin when .
(b) Assume that given there exists an such that all trajectories eventually remain within the region . Show that there must be a limit cycle, stating carefully any result that you use. [You need not show that there is only one periodic orbit.]
(c) Use the energy-balance method to find the approximate amplitude of the limit cycle for .
(d) Find the approximate shape of the limit cycle for , and calculate the leading-order approximation to its period.
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentFor a two-dimensional flow in plane polar coordinates , state the relationship between the streamfunction and the flow components and . Show that the vorticity is given by , and deduce that the streamfunction for a steady two-dimensional Stokes flow satisfies the biharmonic equation
A rigid stationary circular disk of radius occupies the region . The flow far from the disk tends to a steady straining flow , where is a constant. Inertial forces may be neglected. Calculate the streamfunction, , for the far-field flow.
By making an appropriate assumption about its dependence on , find the streamfunction for the flow around the disk, and deduce the flow components, and .
Calculate the tangential surface stress, , acting on the boundary of the disk.
Hints: In plane polar coordinates ,
Paper 2, Section I, A
commentThe Euler product formula for the Gamma function is
Use this to show that
where is a constant, independent of . Find the value of .
Paper 2, Section II, A
commentThe Hurwitz zeta function is defined for by
State without proof the complex values of for which this series converges.
Consider the integral
where is the Hankel contour. Show that provides an analytic continuation of the Hurwitz zeta function for all . Include in your account a careful discussion of removable singularities. [Hint: .]
Show that has a simple pole at and find its residue.
Paper 2, Section II, H
comment(a) Let be a finite separable field extension. Show that there exist only finitely many intermediate fields .
(b) Define what is meant by a normal extension. Is a normal extension? Justify your answer.
(c) Prove Artin's lemma, which states: if is a field extension, is a finite subgroup of , and is the fixed field of , then is a Galois extension with .
Paper 2, Section II, D
commentThe Kasner (vacuum) cosmological model is defined by the line element
where are constants with and . Show that .
Write down four equations that determine the null geodesics of the Kasner model.
If is the tangent vector to the trajectory of a photon and is the four-velocity of a comoving observer (i.e., an observer at rest in the coordinate system above), what is the physical interpretation of ?
Let be a comoving observer at the origin, , and let be a comoving source of photons located on one of the spatial coordinate axes.
(i) Show that photons emitted by and observed by can be either redshifted or blue-shifted, depending on the location of .
(ii) Given any fixed time , show that there are locations for on each coordinate axis from which no photons reach for .
Now suppose that and . Does the property in (ii) still hold?
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentDefine the Turán graph , where and are positive integers with . For which and is regular? For which and does contain as a subgraph?
State and prove Turán's theorem.
Let be unit vectors in the plane. Prove that the number of pairs for which has length less than 1 is at most .
Paper 2, Section II, D
commentWhat does it mean for to describe a 1-parameter group of transformations? Explain how to compute the vector field
that generates such a 1-parameter group of transformations.
Suppose now . Define the th prolongation, , of and the vector field which generates it. If is defined by show that
where and are functions to be determined.
The curvature of the curve in the -plane is given by
Rotations in the -plane are generated by the vector field
Show that the curvature at a point along a plane curve is invariant under such rotations. Find two further transformations that leave invariant.
Paper 2, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be a topological space and let denote the normed vector space of bounded continuous real-valued functions on with the norm . Define the terms uniformly bounded, equicontinuous and relatively compact as applied to subsets .
(b) The Arzela-Ascoli theorem [which you need not prove] states in particular that if is compact and is uniformly bounded and equicontinuous, then is relatively compact. Show by examples that each of the compactness of , uniform boundedness of , and equicontinuity of are necessary conditions for this conclusion.
(c) Let be a topological space. Assume that there exists a sequence of compact subsets of such that and . Suppose is uniformly bounded and equicontinuous and moreover satisfies the condition that, for every , there exists such that for every and for every . Show that is relatively compact.
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentDefine the von Neumann hierarchy of sets , and show that each is a transitive set. Explain what is meant by saying that a binary relation on a set is well-founded and extensional. State Mostowski's Theorem.
Let be the binary relation on defined by: if and only if appears in the base-2 expansion of (i.e., the unique expression for as a sum of distinct powers of 2 ). Show that is well-founded and extensional. To which transitive set is isomorphic? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I, B
comment(a) The populations of two competing species satisfy
where and . Sketch the phase diagram (limiting attention to .
The relative abundance of species 1 is defined by . Show that
where is a constant that should be determined.
(b) Consider the spatial system
and consider a travelling-wave solution of the form representing one species invading territory previously occupied by another species . By linearising near the front of the invasion, show that the wave speed is given by .
[You may assume that the solution to the full nonlinear system will settle to the slowest possible linear wave speed.]
Paper 2, Section II, F
comment(a) Prove that is a fundamental unit in . [You may not assume the continued fraction algorithm.]
(b) Determine the ideal class group of .
Paper 2, Section I, I
commentDefine the Legendre symbol and the Jacobi symbol. Compute the Jacobi symbols and , stating clearly any properties of these symbols that you use.
Paper 2, Section II, B
comment(a) The advection equation
is discretised using an equidistant grid with stepsizes and . The spatial derivatives are approximated with central differences and the resulting ODEs are approximated with the trapezoidal rule. Write down the relevant difference equation for determining from . What is the name of this scheme? What is the local truncation error?
The boundary condition is periodic, . Explain briefly how to write the discretised scheme in the form , where the matrices and , to be identified, have a circulant form. Using matrix analysis, find the range of for which the scheme is stable. [Standard results may be used without proof if quoted carefully.]
[Hint: An circulant matrix has the form
All such matrices have the same set of eigenvectors , where , and the corresponding eigenvalues are .]
(b) Consider the advection equation on the unit square
where satisfies doubly periodic boundary conditions, , and and are given doubly periodic functions. The system is discretised with the Crank-Nicolson scheme, with central differences for the space derivatives, using an equidistant grid with stepsizes and . Write down the relevant difference equation, and show how to write the scheme in the form
where the matrix should be identified. Describe how (*) can be approximated by Strang splitting, and explain the advantages of doing so.
[Hint: Inversion of the matrix in part (a) has a similar computational cost to that of a tridiagonal matrix.]
Paper 2, Section II, K
commentConsider a Markov decision problem with finite state space , value function and dynamic programming equation , where
Suppose , and for all . Prove there exists a deterministic stationary Markov policy that is optimal, explaining what the italicised words mean.
Let , where , and . Prove that
Deduce that the value iteration algorithm converges to an optimal policy in a finite number of iterations.
Paper 2, Section II, A
comment(a) Let be standard, normalised angular momentum eigenstates with labels specifying eigenvalues for and . Taking units in which ,
Check the coefficients above by computing norms of states, quoting any angular momentum commutation relations that you require.
(b) Two particles, each of spin , have combined spin states . Find expressions for all such states with in terms of product states.
(c) Suppose that the particles in part (b) move about their centre of mass with a spatial wavefunction that is a spherically symmetric function of relative position. If the particles are identical, what spin states are allowed? Justify your answer.
(d) Now consider two particles of spin 1 that are not identical and are both at rest. If the 3-component of the spin of each particle is zero, what is the probability that their total, combined spin is zero?
Paper 2, Section II,
comment(a) State and prove the Cramér-Rao inequality in a parametric model , where . [Necessary regularity conditions on the model need not be specified.]
(b) Let be i.i.d. Poisson random variables with unknown parameter . For and define
Show that for all values of .
Now suppose is an estimator of with possibly nonzero bias . Suppose the function is monotone increasing on . Prove that the mean-squared errors satisfy
Paper 2, Section II, J
comment(a) State Jensen's inequality. Give the definition of and the space for . If , is it true that ? Justify your answer. State and prove Hölder's inequality using Jensen's inequality.
(b) Suppose that is a finite measure space. Show that if and then . Give the definition of and show that as .
(c) Suppose that . Show that if belongs to both and , then for any . If , must we have ? Give a proof or a counterexample.
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentShow that the 1-dimensional (complex) characters of a finite group form a group under pointwise multiplication. Denote this group by . Show that if , the map from to is a character of , hence an element of . What is the kernel of the ?
Show that if is abelian the map is an isomorphism. Deduce, from the structure theorem for finite abelian groups, that the groups and are isomorphic as abstract groups.
Paper 2, Section II, H
commentSuppose that is a holomorphic map of complex tori, and let denote the projection map for . Show that there is a holomorphic map such that
Prove that for some . Hence deduce that two complex tori and are conformally equivalent if and only if the lattices are related by for some .
Paper 2, Section I, K
commentDefine an exponential dispersion family. Prove that the range of the natural parameter, , is an open interval. Derive the mean and variance as a function of the log normalizing constant.
[Hint: Use the convexity of , i.e. for all
Paper 2, Section II, C
comment(a) What is meant by the canonical ensemble? Consider a system in the canonical ensemble that can be in states with energies . Write down the partition function for this system and the probability that the system is in state . Derive an expression for the average energy in terms of the partition function.
(b) Consider an anharmonic oscillator with energy levels
where is a positive constant and is a small constant. Let the oscillator be in contact with a reservoir at temperature . Show that, to linear order in , the partition function for the oscillator is given by
where and are constants to be determined. Also show that, to linear order in , the average energy of a system of uncoupled oscillators of this type is given by
where are constants to be determined.
Paper 2, Section II, K
commentIn the context of the Black-Scholes model, let be the initial price of the stock, and let be its volatility. Assume that the risk-free interest rate is zero and the stock pays no dividends. Let denote the initial price of a European call option with strike and maturity date .
(a) Show that the Black-Scholes formula can be written in the form
where and depend on and , and is the standard normal distribution function.
(b) Let be the initial price of a put option with strike and maturity . Show that
(c) Show that
(d) Consider a European contingent claim with maturity and payout
Assuming , show that its initial price can be written as for a volatility parameter which you should express in terms of and .
Paper 2, Section I, H
commentDefine what it means for a subset of to be convex. Which of the following statements about a convex set in (with the usual norm) are always true, and which are sometimes false? Give proofs or counterexamples as appropriate.
(i) The closure of is convex.
(ii) The interior of is convex.
(iii) If is linear, then is convex.
(iv) If is continuous, then is convex.
Paper 2, Section II, H
commentProve Bernstein's theorem, which states that if is continuous and
then uniformly on . [Theorems from probability theory may be used without proof provided they are clearly stated.]
Deduce Weierstrass's theorem on polynomial approximation for any closed interval.
Proving any results on Chebyshev polynomials that you need, show that, if is continuous and , then we can find an and , for , such that
for all . Deduce that as .
Paper 2, Section II, 37D
commentStarting from the equations for one-dimensional unsteady flow of a perfect gas at constant entropy, show that the Riemann invariants
are constant on characteristics given by , where is the speed of the gas, is the local speed of sound, is a constant and is the exponent in the adiabatic equation of state for .
At time the gas occupies and is at rest at uniform density , pressure and sound speed . For , a piston initially at has position , where
and and are positive constants. For the case , sketch the piston path and the characteristics in in the -plane, and find the time and place at which a shock first forms in the gas.
Do likewise for the case .