Part II, 2018
Part II, 2018
Jump to course
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be an uncountable field, a maximal ideal and
Show that every element of is algebraic over .
(b) Now assume that is algebraically closed. Suppose that is an ideal, and that vanishes on . Using the result of part (a) or otherwise, show that for some .
(c) Let be a morphism of affine algebraic varieties. Show if and only if the map is injective.
Suppose now that , and that and are irreducible. Define the dimension of , and show . [You may use whichever definition of you find most convenient.]
Paper 2, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be an affine algebraic variety defined over the field .
Define the tangent space for , and the dimension of in terms of .
Suppose that is an algebraically closed field with char . Show directly from your definition that if , where is irreducible, then .
[Any form of the Nullstellensatz may be used if you state it clearly.]
(b) Suppose that char , and let be the vector space of homogeneous polynomials of degree in 3 variables over . Show that
is a non-empty Zariski open subset of .
Paper 3, Section II, I
comment(a) State the Riemann-Roch theorem.
(b) Let be a smooth projective curve of genus 1 over an algebraically closed field , with char . Show that there exists an isomorphism from to the plane cubic in defined by the equation
for some distinct .
(c) Let be the point at infinity on . Show that the map is an isomorphism.
Describe how this defines a group structure on . Denote addition by . Determine all the points with in terms of the equation of the plane curve in part (b).
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentState a theorem which describes the canonical divisor of a smooth plane curve in terms of the divisor of a hyperplane section. Express the degree of the canonical divisor and the genus of in terms of the degree of . [You need not prove these statements.]
From now on, we work over . Consider the curve in defined by the equation
Let be its projective completion. Show that is smooth.
Compute the genus of by applying the Riemann-Hurwitz theorem to the morphism induced from the rational map . [You may assume that the discriminant of is .]
Paper 1, Section II, H
comment(a) Let be the vector space of 3-dimensional upper-triangular matrices with real entries:
Let be the set of elements of for which are integers. Notice that is a subgroup of ; let act on by left-multiplication and let . Show that the quotient is a covering map.
(b) Consider the unit circle , and let . Show that the map defined by
is a homeomorphism.
(c) Let , where is the smallest equivalence relation satisfying
for all . Prove that and are homeomorphic by exhibiting a homeomorphism . [You may assume without proof that is Hausdorff.]
(d) Prove that .
Paper 2, Section II, H
comment(a) Define the first barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex . Hence define the barycentric subdivision . [You do not need to prove that is a simplicial complex.]
(b) Define the mesh of a simplicial complex . State a result that describes the behaviour of as .
(c) Define a simplicial approximation to a continuous map of polyhedra
Prove that, if is a simplicial approximation to , then the realisation is homotopic to .
(d) State and prove the simplicial approximation theorem. [You may use the Lebesgue number lemma without proof, as long as you state it clearly.]
(e) Prove that every continuous map of spheres is homotopic to a constant map when .
Paper 3, Section II, H
comment(a) State a version of the Seifert-van Kampen theorem for a cell complex written as the union of two subcomplexes .
(b) Let
for , and take any . Write down a presentation for .
(c) By computing a homology group of a suitable four-sheeted covering space of , prove that is not homotopy equivalent to a compact, connected surface whenever .
Paper 4, Section II, H
comment(a) State the Mayer-Vietoris theorem for a union of simplicial complexes
with .
(b) Construct the map that appears in the statement of the theorem. [You do not need to prove that the map is well defined, or a homomorphism.]
(c) Let be a simplicial complex with homeomorphic to the -dimensional sphere , for . Let be a subcomplex with homeomorphic to . Suppose that , such that has polyhedron identified with . Prove that has two path components.
Paper 1, Section II, F
comment(a) Consider a measure space and a complex-valued measurable function on . Prove that for any differentiable and increasing such that , then
where is the Lebesgue measure.
(b) Consider a complex-valued measurable function and its maximal function . Prove that for there is a constant such that .
[Hint: Split with and and prove that . Then use the maximal inequality for some constant
(c) Consider with and such that . Define and prove .
[Hint: Split the integral into and for all , given some suitable
Paper 3, Section II,
comment(a) Let be a measure space. Define the spaces for . Prove that if then for all .
(b) Now let endowed with Borel sets and Lebesgue measure. Describe the dual spaces of for . Define reflexivity and say which are reflexive. Prove that is not the dual space of
(c) Now let be a Borel subset and consider the measure space induced from Borel sets and Lebesgue measure on .
(i) Given any , prove that any sequence in converging in to some admits a subsequence converging almost everywhere to .
(ii) Prove that if for then . [Hint: You might want to prove first that the inclusion is continuous with the help of one of the corollaries of Baire's category theorem.]
Paper 4, Section II, 23F
commentHere and below, is smooth such that and
denotes the set of continuously differentiable complex-valued functions with compact support on .
(a) Prove that there are constants and so that for any and :
[Hint: Denote , expand the square and integrate by parts.]
(b) Prove that, given any , there is a so that for any with :
[Hint: Use the fundamental theorem of calculus to control the second term of the left-hand side, and then compare to its weighted mean to control the first term of the left-hand side.]
(c) Prove that, given any , there is a so that for any :
[Hint: Show first that one can reduce to the case . Then argue by contradiction with the help of the Arzelà-Ascoli theorem and part (b).]
(d) Deduce that there is a so that for any :
[Hint: Show first that one can reduce to the case . Then combine the inequality (a), multiplied by a constant of the form (where is chosen so that be sufficiently small), and the inequality (c).]
Paper 1, Section II, A
commentA particle of mass moves in one dimension in a periodic potential satisfying . Define the Floquet matrix . Show that and explain why Tr is real. Show that allowed bands occur for energies such that . Consider the potential
For states of negative energy, construct the Floquet matrix with respect to the basis of states . Derive an inequality for the values of in an allowed energy band.
For states of positive energy, construct the Floquet matrix with respect to the basis of states . Derive an inequality for the values of in an allowed energy band.
Show that the state with zero energy lies in a forbidden region for .
Paper 2, Section II, A
commentConsider a one-dimensional chain of atoms, each of mass . Impose periodic boundary conditions. The forces between neighbouring atoms are modelled as springs, with alternating spring constants and . In equilibrium, the separation between the atoms is .
Denote the position of the atom as . Let be the displacement from equilibrium. Write down the equations of motion of the system.
Show that the longitudinal modes of vibration are labelled by a wavenumber that is restricted to lie in a Brillouin zone. Find the frequency spectrum. What is the frequency gap at the edge of the Brillouin zone? Show that the gap vanishes when . Determine approximations for the frequencies near the centre of the Brillouin zone. Plot the frequency spectrum. What is the speed of sound in this system?
Paper 3, Section II, A
commentA beam of particles of mass and momentum is incident along the -axis. The beam scatters off a spherically symmetric potential . Write down the asymptotic form of the wavefunction in terms of the scattering amplitude .
The incoming plane wave and the scattering amplitude can be expanded in partial waves as,
where are Legendre polynomials. Define the -matrix. Assuming that the S-matrix is unitary, explain why we can write
for some real phase shifts . Obtain an expression for the total cross-section in terms of the phase shifts .
[Hint: You may use the orthogonality of Legendre polynomials:
Consider the repulsive, spherical potential
where . By considering the s-wave solution to the Schrödinger equation, show that
For low momenta, , compute the s-wave contribution to the total cross-section. Comment on the physical interpretation of your result in the limit .
Paper 4, Section II, A
commentDefine a Bravais lattice in three dimensions. Define the reciprocal lattice . Define the Brillouin zone.
An FCC lattice has a basis of primitive vectors given by
where is an orthonormal basis of . Find a basis of reciprocal lattice vectors. What is the volume of the Brillouin zone?
The asymptotic wavefunction for a particle, of wavevector , scattering off a potential is
where and is the scattering amplitude. Give a formula for the Born approximation to the scattering amplitude.
Scattering of a particle off a single atom is modelled by a potential with -function support on a spherical shell, centred at the origin. Calculate the Born approximation to the scattering amplitude, denoting the resulting expression as .
Scattering of a particle off a crystal consisting of atoms located at the vertices of a lattice is modelled by a potential
where as above. Calculate the Born approximation to the scattering amplitude giving your answer in terms of your approximate expression for scattering off a single atom. Show that the resulting amplitude vanishes unless the momentum transfer lies in the reciprocal lattice .
For the particular FCC lattice considered above, show that, when , scattering occurs for two values of the scattering angle, and , related by
Paper 1, Section II, J
commentLet be a continuous function. Explain what is meant by an inhomogeneous Poisson process with intensity function .
Let be such an inhomogeneous Poisson process, and let where is strictly increasing, differentiable and satisfies . Show that is a homogeneous Poisson process with intensity 1 if for all , where . Deduce that has the Poisson distribution with mean .
Bicycles arrive at the start of a long road in the manner of a Poisson process with constant intensity . The th bicycle has constant velocity , where are independent, identically distributed random variables, which are independent of . Cyclists can overtake one another freely. Show that the number of bicycles on the first miles of the road at time has the Poisson distribution with parameter .
Paper 2, Section II, J
commentLet be a continuous-time Markov chain on the finite state space . Define the terms generator (or Q-matrix) and invariant distribution, and derive an equation that links the generator and any invariant distribution . Comment on the possible non-uniqueness of invariant distributions.
Suppose is irreducible, and let be a Poisson process with intensity , that is independent of . Let be the value of immediately after the th arrival-time of (and . Show that is a discrete-time Markov chain, state its transition matrix and prove that it has the same invariant distribution as .
Paper 3, Section II, J
commentIndividuals arrive in a shop in the manner of a Poisson process with intensity , and they await service in the order of their arrival. Their service times are independent, identically distributed random variables . For , let be the number remaining in the shop immediately after the th departure. Show that
where is the number of arrivals during the th service period, and .
Show that
where is a typical service period, and is the traffic intensity of the queue.
Suppose , and the queue is in equilibrium in the sense that and have the same distribution for all . Express in terms of . Deduce that the mean waiting time (prior to service) of a typical individual is .
Paper 4, Section II, J
commentLet be independent, identically distributed random variables with finite mean . Explain what is meant by saying that the random variable is a stopping time with respect to the sequence .
Let be a stopping time with finite mean . Prove Wald's equation:
[Here and in the following, you may use any standard theorem about integration.]
Suppose the are strictly positive, and let be the renewal process with interarrival times . Prove that satisfies the elementary renewal theorem:
A computer keyboard contains 100 different keys, including the lower and upper case letters, the usual symbols, and the space bar. A monkey taps the keys uniformly at random. Find the mean number of keys tapped until the first appearance of the sequence 'lava' as a sequence of 4 consecutive characters.
Find the mean number of keys tapped until the first appearance of the sequence 'aa' as a sequence of 2 consecutive characters.
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentGiven that obtain the value of for real positive . Also obtain the value of , for real positive , in terms of
For , let
Find the leading terms in the asymptotic expansions as of (i) with fixed, and (ii) of .
Paper 3, Section II, B
comment(a) Find the curves of steepest descent emanating from for the integral
for and determine the angles at which they meet at , and their asymptotes at infinity.
(b) An integral representation for the Bessel function for real is
Show that, as , with fixed,
Paper 4, Section II, B
commentShow that
is a solution to the equation
and obtain the first two terms in the asymptotic expansion of as .
For , define a new dependent variable , and show that if solves the preceding equation then
Obtain the Liouville-Green approximate solutions to this equation for large positive , and compare with your asymptotic expansion for at the leading order.
Paper 1, Section I, G
comment(a) State the pumping lemma for context-free languages (CFLs).
(b) Which of the following are CFLs? Justify your answers.
(i)
(ii) and
(iii)
(c) Let be a CFL. Show that is also a CFL.
Paper 1, Section II, G
comment(a) Define the halting set . Prove that is recursively enumerable, but not recursive.
(b) Given , define a many-one reduction of to . Show that if is recursively enumerable and , then is also recursively enumerable.
(c) Show that each of the functions and are both partial recursive and total, by building them up as partial recursive functions.
(d) Let . We define the set via
(i) Show that both and .
(ii) Using the above, or otherwise, give an explicit example of a subset of for which neither nor are recursively enumerable.
(iii) For every , show that if and then .
[Note that we define . Any use of Church's thesis in your answers should be explicitly stated.]
Paper 2, Section I, G
comment(a) Let be a nondeterministic finite-state automaton with -transitions -NFA). Define the deterministic finite-state automaton (DFA) obtained from via the subset construction with -transitions.
(b) Let and be as above. By inducting on lengths of words, prove that
(c) Deduce that .
Paper 3, Section I, G
comment(a) Define what it means for a context-free grammar (CFG) to be in Chomsky normal form ( .
(b) Give an algorithm for converting a CFG into a corresponding CFG in CNF satisfying . [You need only outline the steps, without proof.]
(c) Convert the following :
into a grammar in CNF.
Paper 3, Section II, G
comment(a) State and prove the pumping lemma for regular languages.
(b) Let be a minimal deterministic finite-state automaton whose language is finite. Let be the transition diagram of , and suppose there exists a non-empty closed path in starting and ending at state .
(i) Show that there is no path in from to any accept state of .
(ii) Show that there is no path in from to any other state of .
Paper 4, Section I, 4G
comment(a) State the theorem, the recursion theorem, and Rice's theorem.
(b) Show that if is partial recursive, then there is some such that
(c) By considering the partial function given by
show there exists some such that has exactly elements.
(d) Given , is it possible to compute whether or not has exactly 9 elements? Justify your answer.
[Note that we define . Any use of Church's thesis in your answers should be explicitly stated.]
Paper 1, Section I, B
commentDerive Hamilton's equations from an action principle.
Consider a two-dimensional phase space with the Hamiltonian . Show that is the first integral for some constant which should be determined. By considering the surfaces of constant in the extended phase space, solve Hamilton's equations, and sketch the orbits in the phase space.
Paper 2, Section I, B
commentLet . Consider a Lagrangian
of a particle constrained to move on a sphere of radius . Use Lagrange multipliers to show that
Now, consider the system with , and find the particle trajectories.
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentDefine a body frame of a rotating rigid body, and show that there exists a vector such that
Let be the angular momentum of a free rigid body expressed in the body frame. Derive the Euler equations from the conservation of angular momentum.
Verify that the kinetic energy , and the total angular momentum are conserved. Hence show that
where is a quartic polynomial which should be explicitly determined in terms of and .
Paper 3, Section I, B
commentThree particles of unit mass move along a line in a potential
where is the coordinate of the th particle, .
Write the Lagrangian in the form
and specify the matrices and .
Find the normal frequencies and normal modes for this system.
Paper 4, Section I, B
commentState and prove Noether's theorem in Lagrangian mechanics.
Consider a Lagrangian
for a particle moving in the upper half-plane in a potential which only depends on . Find two independent first integrals.
Paper 4, Section II, B
commentGiven a Lagrangian with degrees of freedom , define the Hamiltonian and show how Hamilton's equations arise from the Lagrange equations and the Legendre transform.
Consider the Lagrangian for a symmetric top moving in constant gravity:
where and are constants. Construct the corresponding Hamiltonian, and find three independent Poisson-commuting first integrals of Hamilton's equations.
Paper 1, Section I, H
commentState and prove Shannon's noiseless coding theorem. [You may use Gibbs' and Kraft's inequalities as long as they are clearly stated.]
Paper 1, Section II, H
commentDefine the bar product of binary linear codes and , where is a subcode of . Relate the rank and minimum distance of to those of and and justify your answer.
What is a parity check matrix for a linear code? If has parity check matrix and has parity check matrix , find a parity check matrix for .
Using the bar product construction, or otherwise, define the Reed-Muller code for . Compute the rank of . Show that all but two codewords in have the same weight. Given , for which is it true that all elements of have even weight? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section I, H
commentWhat is the channel matrix of a binary symmetric channel with error probability ?
State the maximum likelihood decoding rule and the minimum distance decoding rule. Prove that if , then they agree.
Let be the repetition code . Suppose a codeword from is sent through a binary symmetric channel with error probability . Show that, if the minimum distance decoding rule is used, then the probability of error is .
Paper 2, Section II, H
commentDescribe the RSA encryption scheme with public key and private key .
Suppose with and distinct odd primes and with and coprime. Denote the order of in by . Further suppose divides where is odd. If prove that there exists such that the greatest common divisor of and is a nontrivial factor of . Further, prove that the number of satisfying is .
Hence, or otherwise, prove that finding the private key from the public key is essentially as difficult as factoring .
Suppose a message is sent using the scheme with and , and is the received text. What is ?
An integer satisfying is called a fixed point if it is encrypted to itself. Prove that if is a fixed point then so is .
Paper 3, Section , H
commentCompute the rank and minimum distance of the cyclic code with generator polynomial and parity check polynomial . Now let be a root of in the field with 8 elements. We receive the word . Verify that , and hence decode using minimum-distance decoding.
Paper 4, Section I, H
commentWhat is a linear feedback shift register? Explain the Berlekamp-Massey method for recovering a feedback polynomial of a linear feedback shift register from its output. Illustrate the method in the case when we observe output
Paper 1, Section I, B
commentFor a homogeneous and isotropic universe filled with pressure-free matter , the Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations are, respectively,
with mass density , curvature , and where . Using conformal time with , show that the relative density parameter can be expressed as
where and is the critical density of a flat universe (Einstein-de Sitter). Use conformal time again to show that the Friedmann and Raychaudhuri equations can be re-expressed as
From these derive the evolution equation for the density parameter :
Plot the qualitative behaviour of as a function of time relative to the expanding Einsteinde Sitter model with (i.e., include curves initially with and ).
Paper 1, Section II, B
commentA flat homogeneous and isotropic universe with scale factor is filled with a scalar field with potential . Its evolution satisfies the Friedmann and scalar field equations,
where is the Hubble parameter, is the reduced Planck mass, and dots denote derivatives with respect to cosmic time , e.g. .
(a) Use these equations to derive the Raychaudhuri equation, expressed in the form:
(b) Consider the following ansatz for the scalar field evolution,
where are constants. Find the specific cosmological solution,
(c) Hence, show that the Hubble parameter can be expressed in terms of as
and that the scalar field ansatz solution ( ) requires the following form for the potential:
(d) Assume that the given parameters in are such that . Show that the asymptotic limit for the cosmological solution as exhibits decelerating power law evolution and that there is an accelerating solution as , that is,
Find the time at which the solution transitions from deceleration to acceleration.
Paper 2, Section I, B
comment(a) Consider a homogeneous and isotropic universe with a uniform distribution of galaxies. For three galaxies at positions , show that spatial homogeneity implies that their non-relativistic velocities must satisfy
and hence that the velocity field coordinates are linearly related to the position coordinates via
where the matrix coefficients are independent of the position. Show why isotropy then implies Hubble's law
Explain how the velocity of a galaxy is determined by the scale factor and express the Hubble parameter today in terms of .
(b) Define the cosmological horizon . For an Einstein-de Sitter universe with , calculate at today in terms of . Briefly describe the horizon problem of the standard cosmology.
Paper 3, Section I, B
commentThe energy density of a particle species is defined by
where is the energy, and the distribution function, of a particle with momentum . Here is the speed of light and is the rest mass of the particle. If the particle species is in thermal equilibrium then the distribution function takes the form
where is the number of degrees of freedom of the particle, is the temperature, and are constants and is for bosons and is for fermions.
(a) Stating any assumptions you require, show that in the very early universe the energy density of a given particle species is
(b) Show that the total energy density in the very early universe is
where is defined by
[Hint: You may use the fact that
Paper 3, Section II, B
commentThe pressure support equation for stars is
where is the density, is the pressure, is the radial distance, and is Newton's constant.
(a) What two boundary conditions should we impose on the above equation for it to describe a star?
(b) By assuming a polytropic equation of state,
where is a constant, derive the Lane-Emden equation
where , with the density at the centre of the star, and , for some that you should determine.
(c) Show that the mass of a polytropic star is
where and is the value of at the surface of the star.
(d) Derive the following relation between the mass, , and radius, , of a polytropic star
where you should determine the constant . What type of star does the polytrope represent and what is the significance of the mass being constant for this star?
Paper 4, Section I, B
commentA constant overdensity is created by taking a spherical region of a flat matterdominated universe with radius and compressing it into a region with radius . The evolution is governed by the parametric equations
where is a constant and
where is the Hubble constant and is the fractional overdensity at time .
Show that, as ,
where the scale factor is given by .
that, when the spherical overdensity has collapsed to zero radius, the linear perturbation has value .
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be a manifold and . Define the tangent space and show that it is a vector subspace of , independent of local parametrization, of dimension equal to .
(b) Now show that depends continuously on in the following sense: if is a sequence in such that , and is a sequence such that , then . If , show that all arise as such limits where is a sequence in .
(c) Consider the set defined by , where . Show that, for all , the set is a smooth manifold. Compute its dimension.
(d) For as above, does depend continuously on and for all ? In other words, let be sequences with . Suppose that and . Is it necessarily the case that ? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet denote a regular curve.
(a) Show that there exists a parametrization of by arc length.
(b) Under the assumption that the curvature is non-zero, define the torsion of . Give an example of two curves and in whose curvature (as a function of arc length ) coincides and is non-vanishing, but for which the curves are not related by a rigid motion, i.e. such that is not identically where and
(c) Give an example of a simple closed curve , other than a circle, which is preserved by a non-trivial rigid motion, i.e. which satisfies
for some choice of with . Justify your answer.
(d) Now show that a simple closed curve which is preserved by a nontrivial smooth 1-parameter family of rigid motions is necessarily a circle, i.e. show the following:
Let be a regular curve. If for all ,
then is a circle. [You may use the fact that the set of fixed points of a non-trivial rigid motion is either or a line .]
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentLet be a surface.
(a) Define the Gaussian curvature of in terms of the coefficients of the first and second fundamental forms, computed with respect to a local parametrization of .
Prove the Theorema Egregium, i.e. show that the Gaussian curvature can be expressed entirely in terms of the coefficients of the first fundamental form and their first and second derivatives with respect to and .
(b) State the global Gauss-Bonnet theorem for a compact orientable surface .
(c) Now assume that is non-compact and diffeomorphic to but that there is a point such that is a compact subset of . Is it necessarily the case that Justify your answer.
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentLet be a surface.
(a) Define what it means for a curve to be a geodesic, where and .
(b) A geodesic is said to be maximal if any geodesic with and satisfies . A surface is said to be geodesically complete if all maximal geodesics are defined on , otherwise, the surface is said to be geodesically incomplete. Give an example, with justification, of a non-compact geodesically complete surface which is not a plane.
(c) Assume that along any maximal geodesic
the following holds:
Here denotes the Gaussian curvature of .
(i) Show that is inextendible, i.e. if is a connected surface with , then .
(ii) Give an example of a surface which is geodesically incomplete and satisfies . Do all geodesically incomplete inextendible surfaces satisfy ? Justify your answer.
[You may use facts about geodesics from the course provided they are clearly stated.]
Paper 1, Section II, E
commentConsider the system
where is a constant.
(a) Find and classify the fixed points of the system. For show that the linear classification of the non-hyperbolic fixed points is nonlinearly correct. For show that there are no periodic orbits. [Standard results for periodic orbits may be quoted without proof.]
(b) Sketch the phase plane for the cases (i) , (ii) , and (iii) , showing any separatrices clearly.
(c) For what values of a do stationary bifurcations occur? Consider the bifurcation with . Let be the values of at which the bifurcation occurs, and define . Assuming that , find the extended centre manifold to leading order. Further, determine the evolution equation on the centre manifold to leading order. Hence identify the type of bifurcation.
Paper 2, Section II, 32E
commentConsider the system
where and are real constants, and . Find and classify the fixed points.
Show that when the system is Hamiltonian and find . Sketch the phase plane for this case.
Suppose now that . Show that the small change in following a trajectory of the perturbed system around an orbit of the unperturbed system is given to leading order by an equation of the form
where should be found explicitly, and where and are the minimum and maximum values of on the unperturbed orbit.
Use the energy-balance method to find the value of , correct to leading order in , for which the system has a homoclinic orbit. [Hint: The substitution may prove useful.]
Over what range of would you expect there to be periodic solutions that enclose only one of the fixed points?
Paper 3, Section II, 32E
commentConsider the system
where and are parameters.
By considering a function of the form , show that when the origin is globally asymptotically stable. Sketch the phase plane for this case.
Find the fixed points for the general case. Find the values of and for which the fixed points have (i) a stationary bifurcation and (ii) oscillatory (Hopf) bifurcations. Sketch these bifurcation values in the -plane.
For the case , find the leading-order approximation to the extended centre manifold of the bifurcation as varies, assuming that . Find also the evolution equation on the extended centre manifold to leading order. Deduce the type of bifurcation, and sketch the bifurcation diagram in the -plane.
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentLet be a continuous one-dimensional map of an interval . Define what it means (i) for to have a horseshoe (ii) for to be chaotic. [Glendinning's definition should be used throughout this question.]
Prove that if has a 3 -cycle then is chaotic. [You may assume the intermediate value theorem and any corollaries of it.]
State Sharkovsky's theorem.
Use the above results to deduce that if has an -cycle, where is any integer that is not a power of 2 , then is chaotic.
Explain briefly why if is chaotic then has -cycles for many values of that are not powers of 2. [You may assume that a map with a horseshoe acts on some set like the Bernoulli shift map acts on .]
The logistic map is not chaotic when and it has 3 -cycles when . What can be deduced from these statements about the values of for which the logistic map has a 10-cycle?
Paper 1, Section II, D
commentDefine the field strength tensor for an electromagnetic field specified by a 4-vector potential . How do the components of change under a Lorentz transformation? Write down two independent Lorentz-invariant quantities which are quadratic in the field strength tensor.
[Hint: The alternating tensor takes the values and when is an even or odd permutation of respectively and vanishes otherwise. You may assume this is an invariant tensor of the Lorentz group. In other words, its components are the same in all inertial frames.]
In an inertial frame with spacetime coordinates , the 4-vector potential has components and the electric and magnetic fields are given as
Evaluate the components of in terms of the components of and . Show that the quantities
are the same in all inertial frames.
A relativistic particle of mass , charge and 4 -velocity moves according to the Lorentz force law,
Here is the proper time. For the case of a constant, uniform field, write down a solution of giving in terms of its initial value as an infinite series in powers of the field strength.
Suppose further that the fields are such that both and defined above are zero. Work in an inertial frame with coordinates where the particle is at rest at the origin at and the magnetic field points in the positive -direction with magnitude . The electric field obeys . Show that the particle moves on the curve for some constant which you should determine.
Paper 3, Section II, D
commentStarting from the covariant form of the Maxwell equations and making a suitable choice of gauge which you should specify, show that the 4-vector potential due to an arbitrary 4-current obeys the wave equation,
where .
Use the method of Green's functions to show that, for a localised current distribution, this equation is solved by
for some that you should specify.
A point particle, of charge , moving along a worldline parameterised by proper time , produces a 4 -vector potential
where . Define and draw a spacetime diagram to illustrate its physical significance.
Suppose the particle follows a circular trajectory,
(with ), in some inertial frame with coordinates . Evaluate the resulting 4 -vector potential at a point on the -axis as a function of and .
Paper 4 , Section II, D
comment(a) Define the polarisation of a dielectric material and explain what is meant by the term bound charge.
Consider a sample of material with spatially dependent polarisation occupying a region with surface . Show that, in the absence of free charge, the resulting scalar potential can be ascribed to bulk and surface densities of bound charge.
Consider a sphere of radius consisting of a dielectric material with permittivity surrounded by a region of vacuum. A point-like electric charge is placed at the centre of the sphere. Determine the density of bound charge on the surface of the sphere.
(b) Define the magnetization of a material and explain what is meant by the term bound current.
Consider a sample of material with spatially-dependent magnetization occupying a region with surface . Show that, in the absence of free currents, the resulting vector potential can be ascribed to bulk and surface densities of bound current.
Consider an infinite cylinder of radius consisting of a material with permeability surrounded by a region of vacuum. A thin wire carrying current is placed along the axis of the cylinder. Determine the direction and magnitude of the resulting bound current density on the surface of the cylinder. What is the magnetization on the surface of the cylinder?
Paper 1, Section II, C
commentA two-dimensional layer of very viscous fluid of uniform thickness sits on a stationary, rigid surface . It is impacted by a stream of air (which can be assumed inviscid) such that the air pressure at is , where and are constants, is the density of the air, and is the coordinate parallel to the surface.
What boundary conditions apply to the velocity and stress tensor of the viscous fluid at and ?
By assuming the form for the stream function of the flow, or otherwise, solve the Stokes equations for the velocity and pressure fields. Show that the layer thins at a rate
Paper 2, Section II, C
commentAn initially unperturbed two-dimensional inviscid jet in has uniform speed in the direction, while the surrounding fluid is stationary. The unperturbed velocity field is therefore given by
Consider separately disturbances in which the layer occupies varicose disturbances) and disturbances in which the layer occupies sinuous disturbances , where , and determine the dispersion relation in each case.
Find asymptotic expressions for the real part of in the limits and and draw sketches of in each case.
Compare the rates of growth of the two types of disturbance.
Paper 3, Section II, C
commentFor two Stokes flows and inside the same volume with different boundary conditions on its boundary , prove the reciprocal theorem
where and are the stress tensors associated with the flows.
Stating clearly any properties of Stokes flow that you require, use the reciprocal theorem to prove that the drag on a body translating with uniform velocity is given by
where is a symmetric second-rank tensor that depends only on the geometry of the body.
A slender rod falls slowly through very viscous fluid with its axis inclined to the vertical. Explain why the rod does not rotate, stating any properties of Stokes flow that you use.
When the axis of the rod is inclined at an angle to the vertical, the centre of mass of the rod travels at an angle to the vertical. Given that the rod falls twice as quickly when its axis is vertical as when its axis is horizontal, show that
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentA cylinder of radius rotates about its axis with angular velocity while its axis is fixed parallel to and at a distance from a rigid plane, where . Fluid of kinematic viscosity fills the space between the cylinder and the plane. Determine the gap width between the cylinder and the plane as a function of a coordinate parallel to the surface of the wall and orthogonal to the axis of the cylinder. What is the characteristic length scale, in the direction, for changes in the gap width? Taking an appropriate approximation for , valid in the region where the gap width is small, use lubrication theory to determine that the volume flux between the wall and the cylinder (per unit length along the axis) has magnitude , and state its direction.
Evaluate the tangential shear stress on the surface of the cylinder. Approximating the torque on the cylinder (per unit length along the axis) in the form of an integral , find the torque to leading order in .
Explain the restriction for the theory to be valid.
[You may use the facts that and
Paper 1, Section I, B
commentThe Beta and Gamma functions are defined by
where .
(a) By using a suitable substitution, or otherwise, prove that
for . Extending by analytic continuation, for which values of does this result hold?
(b) Prove that
for
Paper 1, Section II, B
commentThe equation
where is a constant with , has solutions of the form
for suitably chosen contours and some suitable function .
(a) Find and determine the condition on , which you should express in terms of and .
(b) Use the results of part (a) to show that can be a finite contour and specify two possible finite contours with the help of a clearly labelled diagram. Hence, find the corresponding solution of the equation in the case .
(c) In the case and real , show that can be an infinite contour and specify two possible infinite contours with the help of a clearly labelled diagram. [Hint: Consider separately the cases and .] Hence, find a second, linearly independent solution of the equation ( ) in this case.
Paper 2, Section ,
commentShow that
in the sense of Cauchy principal value, where and are positive integers. [State clearly any standard results involving contour integrals that you use.]
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentConsider a multi-valued function .
(a) Explain what is meant by a branch point and a branch cut.
(b) Consider .
(i) By writing , where , and , deduce the expression for in terms of and . Hence, show that is infinitely valued and state its principal value.
(ii) Show that and are the branch points of . Deduce that the line is a possible choice of branch cut.
(iii) Use the Cauchy-Riemann conditions to show that is analytic in the cut plane. Show that .
Paper 3, Section I, B
commentUsing a suitable branch cut, show that
where .
Paper 4, Section I, B
commentState the conditions for a point to be a regular singular point of a linear second-order homogeneous ordinary differential equation in the complex plane.
Find all singular points of the Bessel equation
and determine whether they are regular or irregular.
By writing , find two linearly independent solutions of . Comment on the relationship of your solutions to the nature of the singular points.
Paper 1, Section II, I
commentLet be an irreducible quartic with rational coefficients. Explain briefly why it is that if the cubic has as its Galois group then the Galois group of is .
For which prime numbers is the Galois group of a proper subgroup of ? [You may assume that the discriminant of is .]
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet be a field and let be a monic polynomial with coefficients in . What is meant by a splitting field for over ? Show that such a splitting field exists and is unique up to isomorphism.
Now suppose that is a finite field. Prove that is a Galois extension of with cyclic Galois group. Prove also that the degree of over is equal to the least common multiple of the degrees of the irreducible factors of over .
Now suppose is the field with two elements, and let
How many elements does the set have?
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentLet be a finite field extension of a field , and let be a finite group of automorphisms of . Denote by the field of elements of fixed by the action of .
(a) Prove that the degree of over is equal to the order of the group .
(b) For any write .
(i) Suppose that . Prove that the coefficients of generate over .
(ii) Suppose that . Prove that the coefficients of and lie in . By considering the case with and in , or otherwise, show that they need not generate over .
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentLet be a field of characteristic and let be the splitting field of the polynomial over , where . Let be a root of .
If , show that is irreducible over , that , and that is a Galois extension of . What is ?
Paper 1, Section II, 37E
commentConsider the de Sitter metric
where is a constant.
(a) Write down the Lagrangian governing the geodesics of this metric. Use the Euler-Lagrange equations to determine all non-vanishing Christoffel symbols.
(b) Let be a timelike geodesic parametrized by proper time with initial conditions at ,
where the dot denotes differentiation with respect to and is a constant. Assuming both and to be future oriented, show that at ,
(c) Find a relation between and along the geodesic of part (b) and show that for a finite value of . [You may use without proof that
(d) Briefly interpret this result.
Paper 2, Section II, E
commentThe Friedmann equations and the conservation of energy-momentum for a spatially homogeneous and isotropic universe are given by:
where is the scale factor, the energy density, the pressure, the cosmological constant and .
(a) Show that for an equation of state constant, the energy density obeys , for some constant .
(b) Consider the case of a matter dominated universe, , with . Write the equation of motion for the scale factor in the form of an effective potential equation,
where you should determine the constant and the potential . Sketch the potential together with the possible values of and qualitatively discuss the long-term dynamics of an initially small and expanding universe for the cases .
(c) Repeat the analysis of part (b), again assuming , for the cases:
(i) ,
(ii) ,
(iii) .
Discuss all qualitatively different possibilities for the dynamics of the universe in each case.
Paper 3, Section II, E
commentThe Schwarzschild metric in isotropic coordinates , is given by:
where
and is the mass of the black hole.
(a) Let , denote a coordinate system related to by
where and . Write down the transformation matrix , briefly explain its physical meaning and show that the inverse transformation is of the same form, but with .
(b) Using the coordinate transformation matrix of part (a), or otherwise, show that the components of the metric in coordinates are given by
where and are functions of that you should determine. You should also express in terms of the coordinates .
(c) Consider the limit with held constant. Show that for points the function , while tends to a finite value, which you should determine. Hence determine the metric components at points in this limit.
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(a) In the Newtonian weak-field limit, we can write the spacetime metric in the form
where and the potential , as well as the velocity of particles moving in the gravitational field are assumed to be small, i.e.,
Use the geodesic equation for this metric to derive the equation of motion for a massive point particle in the Newtonian limit.
(b) The far-field limit of the Schwarzschild metric is a special case of (*) given, in spherical coordinates, by
where now . For the following questions, state your results to first order in , i.e. neglecting terms of .
(i) Let . Calculate the proper length along the radial curve from to at fixed .
(ii) Consider a massless particle moving radially from to . According to an observer at rest at , what time elapses during this motion?
(iii) The effective velocity of the particle as seen by the observer at is defined as . Evaluate and then take the limit of this result as . Briefly discuss the value of in this limit.
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Define ex where is a graph with at least one edge and . Show that, for any such , the exists.
[You may not assume the Erdős-Stone theorem.]
(b) State the Erdős-Stone theorem. Use it to deduce that if is bipartite then
(c) Let . Show that ex .
We say is nice if whenever with then either or . Let is nice . Show that
denotes the set of integers modulo , i.e. with addition modulo
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet be a graph and . Show that if every -separator in has order at least then there exist vertex-disjoint -paths in .
Let and assume that is -connected. Show that must contain a cycle of length at least .
Assume further that . Must contain a cycle of length at least Justify your answer.
What is the largest integer such that any 3-connected graph with must contain a cycle of length at least ?
[No form of Menger's theorem or of the max-flow-min-cut theorem may be assumed without proof.]
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentWhat does it mean to say that a graph has a -colouring? What are the chromatic number and the independence number of a graph ? For each , give an example of a graph such that but .
Let . Show that there exists a graph containing no cycle of length with .
Show also that if is sufficiently large then there is a triangle-free of order with .
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentLet . Define the Ramsey number . Show that exists and that .
Show that . Show that (up to relabelling the vertices) there is a unique way to colour the edges of the complete graph blue and yellow with no monochromatic triangle.
What is the least positive integer such that the edges of the complete graph can be coloured blue and yellow in such a way that there are precisely monochromatic triangles?
Paper 1, Section II, A
commentLet be equipped with the standard symplectic form so that the Poisson bracket is given by:
for real-valued functions on . Let be a Hamiltonian function.
(a) Write down Hamilton's equations for , define a first integral of the system and state what it means that the system is integrable.
(b) State the Arnol'd-Liouville theorem.
(c) Define complex coordinates by , and show that if are realvalued functions on then:
(d) For an anti-Hermitian matrix with components , let . Show that:
where is the usual matrix commutator.
(e) Consider the Hamiltonian:
Show that is integrable and describe the invariant tori.
[In this question , and the summation convention is understood for these indices.]
Paper 2, Section II, A
comment(a) Let be two families of linear operators, depending on a parameter , which act on a Hilbert space with inner product , . Suppose further that for each is self-adjoint and that is anti-self-adjoint. State 's equation for the pair , and show that if it holds then the eigenvalues of are independent of .
(b) For , define the inner product:
Let be the operators:
where are smooth, real-valued functions. You may assume that the normalised eigenfunctions of are smooth functions of , which decay rapidly as for all .
(i) Show that if are smooth and rapidly decaying towards infinity then:
Deduce that the eigenvalues of are real.
(ii) Show that if Lax's equation holds for , then must satisfy the Boussinesq equation:
where are constants whose values you should determine. [You may assume without proof that the identity:
holds for smooth, rapidly decaying
Paper 3, Section II, A
commentSuppose is a smooth one-parameter group of transformations acting on .
(a) Define the generator of the transformation,
where you should specify and in terms of .
(b) Define the prolongation of and explicitly compute in terms of .
Recall that if is a Lie point symmetry of the ordinary differential equation:
then it follows that whenever .
(c) Consider the ordinary differential equation:
for a smooth function. Show that if generates a Lie point symmetry of this equation, then:
(d) Find all the Lie point symmetries of the equation:
where is an arbitrary smooth function.
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentLet be a compact Hausdorff space.
(a) State the Arzelà-Ascoli theorem, and state both the real and complex versions of the Stone-Weierstraß theorem. Give an example of a compact space and a bounded set of functions in that is not relatively compact.
(b) Let be continuous. Show that there exists a sequence of polynomials in variables such that
Characterize the set of continuous functions for which there exists a sequence of polynomials such that uniformly on .
(c) Prove that if is equicontinuous then is finite. Does this implication remain true if we drop the requirement that be compact? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentLet be Banach spaces and let denote the space of bounded linear operators .
(a) Define what it means for a bounded linear operator to be compact. Let be linear operators with finite rank, i.e., is finite-dimensional. Assume that the sequence converges to in . Show that is compact.
(b) Let be compact. Show that the dual map is compact. [Hint: You may use the Arzelà-Ascoli theorem.]
(c) Let be a Hilbert space and let be a compact operator. Let be an infinite sequence of eigenvalues of with eigenvectors . Assume that the eigenvectors are orthogonal to each other. Show that .
Paper 3, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be a normed vector space and let be a Banach space. Show that the space of bounded linear operators is a Banach space.
(b) Let and be Banach spaces, and let be a dense linear subspace. Prove that a bounded linear map can be extended uniquely to a bounded linear map with the same operator norm. Is the claim also true if one of and is not complete?
(c) Let be a normed vector space. Let be a sequence in such that
Prove that there is a constant such that
Paper 4, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be a separable normed space. For any sequence with for all , show that there is and a subsequence such that for all as . [You may use without proof the fact that is complete and that any bounded linear map , where is a dense linear subspace, can be extended uniquely to an element .]
(b) Let be a Hilbert space and a unitary map. Let
Prove that and are orthogonal, , and that for every ,
where is the orthogonal projection onto the closed subspace .
(c) Let be a linear map, where is the unit circle, induced by a homeomorphism by . Prove that there exists with such that for all . (Here denotes the function on which returns 1 identically.) If is not the identity map, does it follow that as above is necessarily unique? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, G
commentGive the inductive definition of ordinal exponentiation. Use it to show that whenever (for ), and also that whenever for .
Give an example of ordinals and with such that .
Show that , for any ordinals , and give an example to show that we need not have .
For which ordinals do we have ? And for which do we have ? Justify your answers.
[You may assume any standard results not concerning ordinal exponentiation.]
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentState and prove the Knaster-Tarski Fixed-Point Theorem. Deduce the SchröderBernstein Theorem.
Show that the poset of all countable subsets of (ordered by inclusion) is not complete.
Find an order-preserving function that does not have a fixed point. [Hint: Start by well-ordering the reals.]
Paper 3, Section II, G
commentState and prove the Compactness Theorem for first-order predicate logic. State and prove the Upward Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem.
[You may assume the Completeness Theorem for first-order predicate logic.]
For each of the following theories, either give axioms (in the specified language) for the theory or prove that the theory is not axiomatisable.
(i) The theory of finite groups (in the language of groups).
(ii) The theory of groups in which every non-identity element has infinite order (in the language of groups).
(iii) The theory of total orders (in the language of posets).
(iv) The theory of well-orderings (in the language of posets).
If a theory is axiomatisable by a set of sentences, and also by a finite set of sentences, does it follow that the theory is axiomatisable by some finite subset of ? Justify your answer.
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentState and prove the -Recursion Theorem. [You may assume the Principle of Induction.]
What does it mean to say that a relation on a set is well-founded and extensional? State and prove Mostowski's Collapsing Theorem. [You may use any recursion theorem from the course, provided you state it precisely.]
For which sets is it the case that every well-founded extensional relation on is isomorphic to the relation on some transitive subset of ?
Paper 1, Section I,
commentConsider a birth-death process in which the birth and death rates in a population of size are, respectively, and , where and are per capita birth and death rates.
(a) Write down the master equation for the probability, , of the population having size at time .
(b) Obtain the differential equations for the rates of change of the mean and the variance in terms of and .
(c) Compare the equations obtained above with the deterministic description of the evolution of the population size, . Comment on why and cannot be uniquely deduced from the deterministic model but can be deduced from the stochastic description.
Paper 2, Section I, C
commentConsider a model of an epidemic consisting of populations of susceptible, , infected, , and recovered, , individuals that obey the following differential equations
where and are constant. Show that the sum of susceptible, infected and recovered individuals is a constant . Find the fixed points of the dynamics and deduce the condition for an endemic state with a positive number of infected individuals. Expressing in terms of and , reduce the system of equations to two coupled differential equations and, hence, deduce the conditions for the fixed point to be a node or a focus. How do small perturbations of the populations relax to the steady state in each case?
Paper 3, Section I,
commentConsider a nonlinear model for the axisymmetric dispersal of a population in two spatial dimensions whose density, , obeys
where is a positive constant, is a radial polar coordinate, and is time.
Show that
is constant. Interpret this condition.
Show that a similarity solution of the form
is valid for provided that the scaling function satisfies
Show that there exists a value (which need not be evaluated) such that for but for . Determine the area within which at time in terms of .
[Hint: The gradient and divergence operators in cylindrical polar coordinates act on radial functions and as
Paper 3, Section II, C
commentConsider fluctuations of a population described by the vector . The probability of the state at time , obeys the multivariate Fokker-Planck equation
where is a drift vector and is a symmetric positive-definite diffusion matrix, and the summation convention is used throughout.
(a) Show that the Fokker-Planck equation can be expressed as a continuity equation
for some choice of probability flux which you should determine explicitly. Here, denotes the gradient operator.
(b) Show that the above implies that an initially normalised probability distribution remains normalised,
at all times, where the volume element .
(c) Show that the first two moments of the probability distribution obey
(d) Now consider small fluctuations with zero mean, and assume that it is possible to linearise the drift vector and the diffusion matrix as and where has real negative eigenvalues and is a symmetric positive-definite matrix. Express the probability flux in terms of the matrices and and assume that it vanishes in the stationary state.
(e) Hence show that the multivariate normal distribution,
where is a normalisation and is symmetric, is a solution of the linearised FokkerPlanck equation in the stationary state, and obtain an equation that relates to the matrices and .
(f) Show that the inverse of the matrix is the matrix of covariances and obtain an equation relating to the matrices and .
Paper 4, Section I, C
commentConsider a model of a population in discrete time
where are constants and Interpret the constants and show that for there is a stable fixed point.
Suppose the initial condition is and that . Show, using a cobweb diagram, that the population is bounded as
and attains the bounds.
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentAn activator-inhibitor reaction diffusion system is given, in dimensionless form, by
where and are positive constants. Which symbol represents the concentration of activator and which the inhibitor? Determine the positive steady states and show, by an examination of the eigenvalues in a linear stability analysis of the spatially uniform situation, that the reaction kinetics are stable if .
Determine the conditions for the steady state to be driven unstable by diffusion, and sketch the parameter space in which the diffusion-driven instability occurs. Find the critical wavenumber at the bifurcation to such a diffusion-driven instability.
Paper 1, Section II, G
comment(a) Let be an integer such that is prime. Suppose that the ideal class group of is trivial. Show that if is an integer and , then is prime.
(b) Show that the ideal class group of is trivial.
Paper 2, Section II, 20G
commentLet be a prime, and let . Let .
(a) Show that .
(b) Calculate . Deduce that .
(c) Now suppose . Prove that . [You may use any general result without proof, provided that you state it precisely.]
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentLet be a square-free integer, and let be an integer. Let .
(a) By considering the factorisation of into prime ideals, show that .
(b) Let be the bilinear form defined by . Let . Calculate the dual basis of with respect to , and deduce that .
(c) Show that if is a prime and , then .
Paper 1, Section I, G
comment(a) State and prove the Chinese remainder theorem.
(b) An integer is squarefull if whenever is prime and , then . Show that there exist 1000 consecutive positive integers, none of which are squarefull.
Paper 2, Section I, G
commentDefine the Legendre symbol, and state Gauss's lemma. Show that if is an odd prime, then
Use the law of quadratic reciprocity to compute .
Paper 3, Section I, G
commentWhat is a multiplicative function? Show that if is a multiplicative function, then so is .
Define the Möbius function , and show that it is multiplicative. Deduce that
and that
What is if What is if
Paper 3, Section II, G
commentWhat does it mean to say that a positive definite binary quadratic form is reduced? What does it mean to say that two binary quadratic forms are equivalent? Show that every positive definite binary quadratic form is equivalent to some reduced form.
Show that the reduced positive definite binary quadratic forms of discriminant are and . Show also that a prime is represented by if and only if
Paper 4, Section I, G
commentShow that if a continued fraction is periodic, then it represents a quadratic irrational. What number is represented by the continued fraction ?
Compute the continued fraction expansion of . Hence or otherwise find a solution in positive integers to the equation .
Paper 4, Section II, G
comment(a) State and prove the Fermat-Euler theorem. Let be a prime and a positive integer. Show that holds for every integer if and only if .
(b) Let be an odd integer and be an integer with . What does it mean to say that is a Fermat pseudoprime to base ? What does it mean to say that is a Carmichael number?
Show that every Carmichael number is squarefree, and that if is squarefree, then is a Carmichael number if and only if for every prime divisor of . Deduce that a Carmichael number is a product of at least three primes.
(c) Let be a fixed odd prime. Show that there are only finitely many pairs of primes for which is a Carmichael number.
[You may assume throughout that is cyclic for every odd prime and every integer
Paper 1, Section II, E
comment(a) Suppose that is a real matrix, and and are given so that . Further, let be a non-singular matrix such that , where is the first coordinate vector and .
Let . Prove that the eigenvalues of are together with the eigenvalues of the bottom right submatrix of .
Explain briefly how, given a vector , an orthogonal matrix such that can be constructed.
(b) Suppose that is a real matrix, and two linearly independent vectors are given such that the linear subspace spanned by and is invariant under the action of , i.e.,
Denote by an matrix whose two columns are the vectors and , and let be a non-singular matrix such that is upper triangular:
Again, let . Prove that the eigenvalues of are the eigenvalues of the top left submatrix of together with the eigenvalues of the bottom right submatrix of .
Explain briefly how, for given vectors , an orthogonal matrix which satisfies (*) can be constructed.
Paper 2, Section II, E
commentThe Poisson equation in the unit interval , with , is discretised with the formula
where , the grid points are at and .
(a) Write the above system of equations in the vector form and describe the relaxed Jacobi method with relaxation parameter for solving this linear system.
(b) For and being the exact and the iterated solution, respectively, let be the error and be the iteration matrix, so that
Express in terms of the matrix and the relaxation parameter . Using the fact that for any Toeplitz symmetric tridiagonal matrix, the eigenvectors have the form:
find the eigenvalues of . Hence deduce the eigenvalues of .
(c) For as above, let
be the expansion of the error with respect to the eigenvectors of .
Find the range of the parameter which provides convergence of the method for any , and prove that, for any such , the rate of convergence is not faster than when is large.
(d) Show that, for an appropriate range of , the high frequency components of the error tend to zero much faster than the rate obtained in part (c). Determine the optimal parameter which provides the largest supression of the high frequency components per iteration, and find the corresponding attenuation factor assuming is large. That is, find the least such that for .
Paper 3, Section II, E
commentThe diffusion equation for :
is solved numerically by the difference scheme
Here is the Courant number, with , and .
(a) Prove that, as with constant , the local error of the method is .
(b) Applying the Fourier stability analysis, show that the method is stable if and only if . [Hint: If a polynomial has real roots, then those roots lie in if and only if and .]
(c) Prove that, for the same equation, the leapfrog scheme
is unstable for any choice of .
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentThe inverse discrete Fourier transform is given by the formula
Here, is the primitive root of unity of degree and
(a) Show how to assemble in a small number of operations if the Fourier transforms of the even and odd parts of ,
are already known.
(b) Describe the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method for evaluating , and draw a diagram to illustrate the method for .
(c) Find the cost of the FFT method for (only multiplications count).
(d) For use the FFT method to find when: (i) , (ii) .
Paper 2, Section II,
comment(a) A ball may be in one of boxes. A search of the box costs and finds the ball with probability if the ball is in that box. We are given initial probabilities that the ball is in the box.
Show that the policy which at time searches the box with the maximal value of minimises the expected searching cost until the ball is found, where is the probability (given everything that has occurred up to time ) that the ball is in box .
(b) Next suppose that a reward is earned if the ball is found in the box. Suppose also that we may decide to stop at any time. Develop the dynamic programming equation for the value function starting from the probability distribution .
Show that if then it is never optimal to stop searching until the ball is found. In this case, is the policy defined in part (a) optimal?
Paper 3, Section II, K
commentThe scalars are related by the equations
where the initial state is normally distributed with mean and variance 1 and is a sequence of independent random variables each normally distributed with mean 0 and variance 1 . The control variable is to be chosen at time on the basis of information , where and
(a) Let be the Kalman filter estimates of , i.e.
where is chosen to minimise . Calculate and show that, conditional on is normally distributed with mean and variance .
(b) Define
Show that , where and .
(c) Show that the minimising control can be expressed in the form and find . How would the expression for be altered if or had variances other than 1?
Paper 4, Section II,
commentConsider the deterministic system
where and are scalars. Here is the state variable and the control variable is to be chosen to minimise, for a fixed , the cost
where is known and for all . Let be the minimal cost from state and time .
(a) By writing the dynamic programming equation in infinitesimal form and taking the appropriate limit show that satisfies
with boundary condition .
(b) Determine the form of the optimal control in the special case where is constant, and also in general.
Paper 1, Section II, D
commentA one-dimensional harmonic oscillator has Hamiltonian
where . Show that , where and .
This oscillator is perturbed by adding a new term to the Hamiltonian. Given that
show that the ground state of the perturbed system is
to first order in . [You may use the fact that, in non-degenerate perturbation theory, a perturbation causes the first-order shift
in the energy level.]
Paper 2, Section II, D
commentExplain what is meant by the intrinsic parity of a particle.
In each of the decay processes below, parity is conserved.
A deuteron has intrinsic parity and spin . A negatively charged pion has spin . The ground state of a hydrogenic 'atom' formed from a deuteron and a pion decays to two identical neutrons , each of spin and parity . Deduce the intrinsic parity of the pion.
The particle has spin and decays as
What are the allowed values of the orbital angular momentum? In the centre of mass frame, the vector joining the pion to the neutron makes an angle to the -axis. The final state is an eigenstate of and the spatial probability distribution is proportional to . Deduce the intrinsic parity of the .
[Hint: You may use the fact that the first three Legendre polynomials are given by
Paper 3, Section II, D
commentA quantum system is prepared in the ground state at time . It is subjected to a time-varying Hamiltonian . Show that, to first order in , the system evolves as
where and
A large number of hydrogen atoms, each in the ground state, are subjected to an electric field
where is a constant. Show that the fraction of atoms found in the state is, after a long time and to lowest non-trivial order in ,
where is the energy difference between the and states, and is the electron charge and the Bohr radius. What fraction of atoms lie in the state?
[Hint: You may assume the hydrogenic wavefunctions
and the integral
for a positive integer.]
Paper 4, Section II, D
commentThe spin operators obey the commutation relations . Let be an eigenstate of the spin operators and , with and . Show that
where . When , use this to derive the explicit matrix representation
in a basis in which is diagonal.
A beam of atoms, each with spin 1 , is polarised to have spin along the direction . This beam enters a Stern-Gerlach filter that splits the atoms according to their spin along the -axis. Show that , where (respectively, ) is the number of atoms emerging from the filter with spins parallel (respectively, anti-parallel) to .
Paper 1, Section II,
commentA scientist wishes to estimate the proportion of presence of a gene in a population of flies of size . Every fly receives a chromosome from each of its two parents, each carrying the gene with probability or the gene with probability , independently. The scientist can observe if each fly has two copies of the gene A (denoted by AA), two copies of the gene (denoted by BB) or one of each (denoted by AB). We let , and denote the number of each observation among the flies.
(a) Give the probability of each observation as a function of , denoted by , for all three values , or .
(b) For a vector , we let denote the estimator defined by
Find the unique vector such that is unbiased. Show that is a consistent estimator of .
(c) Compute the maximum likelihood estimator of in this model, denoted by . Find the limiting distribution of . [You may use results from the course, provided that you state them clearly.]
Paper 2, Section II,
commentWe consider the model of a Gaussian distribution in dimension , with unknown mean and known identity covariance matrix . We estimate based on one observation , under the loss function
(a) Define the risk of an estimator . Compute the maximum likelihood estimator of and its risk for any .
(b) Define what an admissible estimator is. Is admissible?
(c) For any , let be the prior . Find a Bayes optimal estimator under this prior with the quadratic loss, and compute its Bayes risk.
(d) Show that is minimax.
[You may use results from the course provided that you state them clearly.]
Paper 3, Section II, K
commentIn the model of a Gaussian distribution in dimension , with unknown mean and known identity covariance matrix , we estimate based on a sample of i.i.d. observations drawn from .
(a) Define the Fisher information , and compute it in this model.
(b) We recall that the observed Fisher information is given by
Find the limit of , where is the maximum likelihood estimator of in this model.
(c) Define the Wald statistic and compute it. Give the limiting distribution of and explain how it can be used to design a confidence interval for .
[You may use results from the course provided that you state them clearly.]
Paper 4, Section II,
commentLet be an unknown function, twice continuously differentiable with for all . For some , we know the value and we wish to estimate its derivative . To do so, we have access to a pseudo-random number generator that gives i.i.d. uniform over , and a machine that takes input and returns , where the are i.i.d. .
(a) Explain how this setup allows us to generate independent , where the take value 1 or with probability , for any .
(b) We denote by the output . Show that for some independent
(c) Using the intuition given by the least-squares estimator, justify the use of the estimator given by
(d) Show that
Show that for some choice of parameter , this implies
Paper 1, Section II, J
comment(a) Let be a real random variable with . Show that the variance of is equal to .
(b) Let be the indicator function of the interval on the real line. Compute the Fourier transform of .
(c) Show that
(d) Let be a real random variable and be its characteristic function.
(i) Assume that for some . Show that there exists such that almost surely:
(ii) Assume that for some real numbers , not equal to 0 and such that is irrational. Prove that is almost surely constant. [Hint: You may wish to consider an independent copy of .]
Paper 2, Section II, J
commentLet be a probability space. Let be a sequence of random variables with for all .
(a) Suppose is another random variable such that . Why is integrable for each ?
(b) Assume for every random variable on such that . Show that there is a subsequence , such that
(c) Assume that in probability. Show that . Show that in . Must it converge also in Justify your answer.
(d) Assume that the are independent. Give a necessary and sufficient condition on the sequence for the sequence
to converge in .
Paper 3, Section II, J
commentLet be the Lebesgue measure on the real line. Recall that if is a Borel subset, then
where the infimum is taken over all covers of by countably many intervals, and denotes the length of an interval .
(a) State the definition of a Borel subset of .
(b) State a definition of a Lebesgue measurable subset of .
(c) Explain why the following sets are Borel and compute their Lebesgue measure:
(d) State the definition of a Borel measurable function .
(e) Let be a Borel measurable function . Is it true that the subset of all where is continuous at is a Borel subset? Justify your answer.
(f) Let be a Borel subset with . Show that
contains the interval .
(g) Let be a Borel subset such that . Show that for every , there exists in such that
Deduce that contains an open interval around 0 .
Paper 4, Section II, J
commentLet be a measurable space. Let be a measurable map, and a probability measure on .
(a) State the definition of the following properties of the system :
(i) is T-invariant.
(ii) is ergodic with respect to .
(b) State the pointwise ergodic theorem.
(c) Give an example of a probability measure preserving system in which for -a.e. .
(d) Assume is finite and is the boolean algebra of all subsets of . Suppose that is a -invariant probability measure on such that for all . Show that is a bijection.
(e) Let , the set of positive integers, and be the -algebra of all subsets of . Suppose that is a -invariant ergodic probability measure on . Show that there is a finite subset with .
Paper 1, Section I, D
comment(a) Define what it means for a 2-qubit state of a composite quantum system to be entangled.
Consider the 2-qubit state
where is the Hadamard gate. From the definition of entanglement, show that is an entangled state.
(b) Alice and Bob are distantly separated in space. Initially they each hold one qubit of the 2-qubit entangled state
They are able to perform local quantum operations (unitary gates and measurements) on quantum systems they hold. Alice wants to communicate two classical bits of information to Bob. Explain how she can achieve this (within their restricted operational resources) by sending him a single qubit.
Paper 2, Section I,
comment(a) The classical controlled- operation applied to the 2-bit string (for or 1 ) achieves the cloning of , i.e. the result is . Let denote the quantum controlled (or controlled-NOT) operation on two qubits. For which qubit states will the application of to (with the first qubit being the control qubit) achieve the cloning of ? Justify your answer.
(b) Let and be two distinct non-orthogonal quantum states. State and prove the quantum no-cloning theorem for unitary processes.
Paper 2, Section II, D
comment(a) Suppose that Alice and Bob are distantly separated in space and each has one qubit of the 2-qubit state . They also have the ability to perform local unitary quantum operations and local computational basis measurements, and to communicate only classically. Alice has a 1-qubit state (whose identity is unknown to her) which she wants to communicate to Bob. Show how this can be achieved using only the operational resources, listed above, that they have available.
Suppose now that a third party, called Charlie, joins Alice and Bob. They are all mutually distantly separated in space and each holds one qubit of the 3-qubit state
As previously with Alice and Bob, they are able to communicate with each other only classically, e.g. by telephone, and they can each also perform only local unitary operations and local computational basis measurements. Alice and Bob phone Charlie to say that they want to do some quantum teleportation and they need a shared state (as defined above). Show how Charlie can grant them their wish (with certainty), given their joint possession of and using only their allowed operational resources. [Hint: It may be useful to consider application of an appropriate Hadamard gate action.]
(b) State the quantum no-signalling principle for a bipartite state of the composite system .
Suppose we are given an unknown one of the two states
and we wish to identify which state we have. Show that the minimum error probability for this state discrimination task is zero.
Suppose now that we have access only to qubit of the received state. Show that we can now do no better in the state discrimination task than just making a random guess as to which state we have.
Paper 3, Section I, 10D
commentLet denote the set of all -bit strings. For any Boolean function on 2 bits consider the linear operation on 3 qubits defined by
for all and denoting addition of bits modulo 2 . Here the first register is a 2-qubit register and the second is a 1-qubit register. We are able to apply only the 1-qubit Pauli and Hadamard gates to any desired qubits, as well as the 3 -qubit gate to any three qubits. We can also perform measurements in the computational basis.
(a) Describe how we can construct the state
starting from the standard 3-qubit state .
(b) Suppose now that the gate is given to us but is not specified. However is promised to be one of two following cases:
(i) is a constant function (i.e. for all , or for all ),
(ii) for any 2-bit string we have (with as above).
Show how we may determine with certainty which of the two cases (i) or (ii) applies, using only a single application of .
Paper 3, Section II,
commentIn this question you may assume the following fact about the quantum Fourier transform if and , where , then
where .
(a) Let denote the integers modulo . Let be a periodic function with period and with the property that is one-to-one within each period. We have one instance of the quantum state
and the ability to calculate the function on at most two values of our choice.
Describe a procedure that may be used to determine the period with success probability . As a further requirement, at the end of the procedure we should know if it has been successful, or not, in outputting the correct period value. [You may assume that the number of integers less than that are coprime to is .
(b) Consider the function defined by .
(i) Show that is periodic and find the period.
(ii) Suppose we are given the state and we measure the second register. What are the possible resulting measurement values and their probabilities?
(iii) Suppose the measurement result was . Find the resulting state of the first register after the measurement.
(iv) Suppose we measure the state (with from part (iii)). What is the probability of each outcome ?
Paper 4, Section I, 10D
commentLet denote the set of all -bit strings. Suppose we are given a 2-qubit quantum gate which is promised to be of the form
but the 2-bit string is unknown to us. We wish to determine with the least number of queries to . Define , where is the identity operator and .
(a) Is unitary? Justify your answer.
(b) Compute the action of on , and the action of on , in each case expressing your answer in terms of and . Hence or otherwise show that may be determined with certainty using only one application of the gate , together with any other gates that are independent of .
(c) Let be the function having value 0 for all and having value 1 for . It is known that a single use of can be implemented with a single query to a quantum oracle for the function . But suppose instead that we have a classical oracle for , i.e. a black box which, on input , outputs the value of . Can we determine with certainty using a single query to the classical oracle? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Define the derived subgroup, , of a finite group . Show that if is a linear character of , then ker . Prove that the linear characters of are precisely the lifts to of the irreducible characters of . [You should state clearly any additional results that you require.]
(b) For , you may take as given that the group
has order .
(i) Let . Show that if is any -th root of unity in , then there is a representation of over which sends
(ii) Find all the irreducible representations of .
(iii) Find the character table of .
Paper 2, Section II, I
comment(a) Suppose is a subgroup of a finite group is an irreducible character of and are the irreducible characters of . Show that in the restriction , the multiplicities satisfy
Determine necessary and sufficient conditions under which the inequality in ( ) is actually an equality.
(b) Henceforth suppose that is a (normal) subgroup of index 2 in , and that is an irreducible character of .
Lift the non-trivial linear character of to obtain a linear character of which satisfies
(i) Show that the following are equivalent:
(1) is irreducible;
(2) for some with ;
(3) the characters and of are not equal.
(ii) Suppose now that is irreducible. Show that if is an irreducible character of which satisfies
then either or
(iii) Suppose that is the sum of two irreducible characters of , say . If is an irreducible character of such that has or as a constituent, show that .
(c) Suppose that is a finite group with a subgroup of index 3 , and let be an irreducible character of . Prove that
Give examples to show that each possibility can occur, giving brief justification in each case.
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentState the row orthogonality relations. Prove that if is an irreducible character of the finite group , then divides the order of .
Stating clearly any additional results you use, deduce the following statements:
(i) Groups of order , where is prime, are abelian.
(ii) If is a group of order , where is prime, then either the degrees of the irreducible characters of are all 1 , or they are
(iii) No simple group has an irreducible character of degree 2 .
(iv) Let and be prime numbers with , and let be a non-abelian group of order . Then divides and has conjugacy classes.
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentDefine and write down a complete list
of its continuous finite-dimensional irreducible representations. You should define all the terms you use but proofs are not required. Find the character of . State the Clebsch-Gordan formula.
(a) Stating clearly any properties of symmetric powers that you need, decompose the following spaces into irreducible representations of :
(i) ;
(ii) (with multiplicands);
(iii) .
(b) Let act on the space of complex matrices by
where is the block matrix . Show that this gives a representation of and decompose it into irreducible summands.
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentGiven a complete analytic function on a domain , define the germ of a function element of at . Let be the set of all germs of function elements in . Describe without proofs the topology and complex structure on and the natural covering map . Prove that the evaluation map defined by
is analytic on each component of .
Suppose is an analytic map of compact Riemann surfaces with the set of branch points. Show that is a regular covering map.
Given , explain how any closed curve in with initial and final points yields a permutation of the set . Show that the group obtained from all such closed curves is a transitive subgroup of the group of permutations of .
Find the group for the analytic map where .
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentState the uniformisation theorem. List without proof the Riemann surfaces which are uniformised by and those uniformised by .
Let be a domain in whose complement consists of more than one point. Deduce that is uniformised by the open unit disk.
Let be a compact Riemann surface of genus and be distinct points of . Show that is uniformised by the open unit disk if and only if , and by if and only if or .
Let be a lattice and a complex torus. Show that an analytic map is either surjective or constant.
Give with proof an example of a pair of Riemann surfaces which are homeomorphic but not conformally equivalent.
Paper 3, Section II, F
commentDefine the degree of an analytic map of compact Riemann surfaces, and state the Riemann-Hurwitz formula.
Let be a lattice in and the associated complex torus. Show that the
is biholomorphic with four fixed points in .
Let be the quotient surface (the topological surface obtained by identifying and ), and let be the associated projection map. Denote by the complement of the four fixed points of , and let . Describe briefly a family of charts making into a Riemann surface, so that is a holomorphic map.
Now assume that, by adding finitely many points, it is possible to compactify to a Riemann surface so that extends to a regular map . Find the genus of .
Paper 1, Section I, J
commentThe data frame Ambulance contains data on the number of ambulance requests from a Cambridgeshire hospital on different days. In addition to the number of ambulance requests on each day, the dataset records whether each day fell in the winter season, on a weekend, or on a bank holiday, as well as the pollution level on each day.
A health researcher fitted two models to the dataset above using . Consider the following code and its output.
Define the two models fitted by this code and perform a hypothesis test with level in which one of the models is the null hypothesis and the other is the alternative. State the theorem used in this hypothesis test. You may use the information generated by the following commands.
Paper 1, Section II, J
commentA clinical study follows a number of patients with an illness. Let be the length of time that patient lives and a vector of predictors, for . We shall assume that are independent. Let and be the probability density function and cumulative distribution function, respectively, of . The hazard function is defined as
We shall assume that , where is a vector of coefficients and is some fixed hazard function.
(a) Prove that .
(b) Using the equation in part (a), write the log-likelihood function for in terms of and only.
(c) Show that the maximum likelihood estimate of can be obtained through a surrogate Poisson generalised linear model with an offset.
Paper 2, Section I,
commentConsider a linear model with , where the design matrix is by . Provide an expression for the -statistic used to test the hypothesis for . Show that it is a monotone function of a log-likelihood ratio statistic.
Paper 3, Section I, J
commentThe data frame Cases. of .flu contains a list of cases of flu recorded in 3 London hospitals during each month of 2017 . Consider the following code and its output.
table (Cases. of.flu)
Month Hospital
May
November
October
September
Cases. of.flu.table = as.data.frame (table (Cases. of .flu))
head (Cases. of .flu.table)
Month Hospital Freq
1 April A 10
2 August A 9
3 December A 24
4 February A 49
5 January A 45
6 July A 5
glm (Freq ., data=Cases. of .flu.table, family=poisson)
[1]
levels (Cases. of.flu$Month)
Describe a test for the null hypothesis of independence between the variables Month and Hospital using the deviance statistic. State the assumptions of the test.
Perform the test at the level for each of the two different models shown above. You may use the table below showing 99 th percentiles of the distribution with a range of degrees of freedom . How would you explain the discrepancy between their conclusions?
Paper 4, Section I, J
commentA scientist is studying the effects of a drug on the weight of mice. Forty mice are divided into two groups, control and treatment. The mice in the treatment group are given the drug, and those in the control group are given water instead. The mice are kept in 8 different cages. The weight of each mouse is monitored for 10 days, and the results of the experiment are recorded in the data frame Weight.data. Consider the following code and its output.
head (Weight.data)
Time Group Cage Mouse Weight
11 Control 1 1
Control 1 1
Control
44 Control
Control 1 1
Control
(Weight Time*Group Cage, data=Weight. data)
Call:
(formula Weight Time Group Cage, data Weight. data)
Residuals:
Min Median Max
Coefficients:
Estimate Std. Error t value
GroupTreatment
Cage2
Time: GroupTreatment
Signif. codes: 0 '' '' '' '., ', 1
Residual standard error: on 391 degrees of freedom
Multiple R-squared: , Adjusted R-squared:
F-statistic: on 8 and 391 DF, p-value:
Which parameters describe the rate of weight loss with time in each group? According to the output, is there a statistically significant weight loss with time in the control group?
Three diagnostic plots were generated using the following code.
Weight.data$Time[mouse1]
Weight.data$Time[mouse2]
Based on these plots, should you trust the significance tests shown in the output of the command summary (mod1)? Explain.
Paper 4, Section II, J
commentBridge is a card game played by 2 teams of 2 players each. A bridge club records the outcomes of many games between teams formed by its members. The outcomes are modelled by
where is a parameter representing the skill of player , and is a parameter representing how well-matched the team formed by and is.
(a) Would it make sense to include an intercept in this logistic regression model? Explain your answer.
(b) Suppose that players 1 and 2 always play together as a team. Is there a unique maximum likelihood estimate for the parameters and ? Explain your answer.
(c) Under the model defined above, derive the asymptotic distribution (including the values of all relevant parameters) for the maximum likelihood estimate of the probability that team wins a game against team . You can state it as a function of the true vector of parameters , and the Fisher information matrix with games. You may assume that as , and that has a unique maximum likelihood estimate for large enough.
Paper 1, Section II, A
comment(a) A macroscopic system has volume and contains particles. Let denote the number of states of the system which have energy in the range where represents experimental uncertainty. Define the entropy of the system and explain why the dependence of on is usually negligible. Define the temperature and pressure of the system and hence obtain the fundamental thermodynamic relation.
(b) A one-dimensional model of rubber consists of a chain of links, each of length a. The chain lies along the -axis with one end fixed at and the other at where . The chain can "fold back" on itself so may not increase monotonically along the chain. Let and denote the number of links along which increases and decreases, respectively. All links have the same energy.
(i) Show that and are uniquely determined by and . Determine , the number of different arrangements of the chain, as a function of and . Hence show that, if and then the entropy of the chain is
where is Boltzmann's constant. [You may use Stirling's approximation: ! for
(ii) Let denote the force required to hold the end of the chain fixed at . This force does work on the chain if the length is increased by . Write down the fundamental thermodynamic relation for this system and hence calculate as a function of and the temperature .
Assume that . Show that the chain satisfies Hooke's law . What happens if is held constant and is increased?
Paper 2, Section II, A
comment(a) Starting from the canonical ensemble, derive the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for the velocities of particles in a classical gas of atoms of mass . Derive also the distribution of speeds of the particles. Calculate the most probable speed.
(b) A certain atom emits photons of frequency . A gas of these atoms is contained in a box. A small hole is cut in a wall of the box so that photons can escape in the positive -direction where they are received by a detector. The frequency of the photons received is Doppler shifted according to the formula
where is the -component of the velocity of the atom that emits the photon and is the speed of light. Let be the temperature of the gas.
(i) Calculate the mean value of .
(ii) Calculate the standard deviation .
(iii) Show that the relative number of photons received with frequency between and is where
for some coefficient to be determined. Hence explain how observations of the radiation emitted by the gas can be used to measure its temperature.
Paper 3, Section II, A
comment(a) A system of non-interacting bosons has single particle states with energies . Show that the grand canonical partition function is
where is Boltzmann's constant, and is the chemical potential. What is the maximum possible value for ?
(b) A system of bosons has one energy level with zero energy and energy levels with energy . The number of particles with energies is respectively.
(i) Write down expressions for and in terms of and .
(ii) At temperature what is the maximum possible number of bosons in the state with energy What happens for
(iii) Calculate the temperature at which Bose condensation occurs.
(iv) For , show that . For show that
(v) Calculate the mean energy for and for . Hence show that the heat capacity of the system is
Paper 4, Section II, A
commentThe one-dimensional Ising model consists of a set of spins with Hamiltonian
where periodic boundary conditions are imposed so . Here is a positive coupling constant and is an external magnetic field. Define a matrix with elements
where indices take values and with Boltzmann's constant and temperature.
(a) Prove that the partition function of the Ising model can be written as
Calculate the eigenvalues of and hence determine the free energy in the thermodynamic limit . Explain why the Ising model does not exhibit a phase transition in one dimension.
(b) Consider the case of zero magnetic field . The correlation function is defined by
(i) Show that, for ,
(ii) By diagonalizing , or otherwise, calculate for any positive integer . Hence show that
Paper 1, Section II, K
comment(a) What does it mean to say that is a martingale?
(b) Let be independent random variables on with -a.s. and . Further, let
Show that is a martingale with respect to the filtration .
(c) Let be an adapted process with respect to a filtration such that for every . Show that admits a unique decomposition
where is a martingale and is a previsible process with , which can recursively be constructed from as follows,
(d) Let be a super-martingale. Show that the following are equivalent:
(i) is a martingale.
(ii) for all .
Paper 2, Section II, K
commentConsider the Black-Scholes model, i.e. a market model with one risky asset with price at time given by
where denotes a Brownian motion on the constant growth rate, the constant volatility and the initial price of the asset. Assume that the riskless rate of interest is .
(a) Consider a European option with expiry for any bounded, continuous function . Use the Cameron-Martin theorem to characterize the equivalent martingale measure and deduce the following formula for the price of at time 0 :
(b) Find the price at time 0 of a European option with maturity and payoff for some . What is the value of the option at any time Determine a hedging strategy (you only need to specify how many units of the risky asset are held at any time ).
Paper 3, Section II,
commentConsider a multi-period model with asset prices , modelled on a probability space and adapted to a filtration . Assume that is -trivial, i.e. for all , and assume that is a -a.s. strictly positive numéraire, i.e. -a.s. for all . Further, let denote the discounted price process defined by .
(a) What does it mean to say that a self-financing strategy is an arbitrage?
(b) State the fundamental theorem of asset pricing.
(c) Let be a probability measure on which is equivalent to and for which for all . Show that the following are equivalent:
(i) is a martingale measure.
(ii) If is self-financing and is bounded, i.e. for a suitable , then the value process of is a -martingale.
(iii) If is self-financing and is bounded, then the value process of satisfies
[Hint: To show that (iii) implies (i) you might find it useful to consider self-financing strategies with of the form
for any and any .]
(d) Prove that if there exists a martingale measure satisfying the conditions in (c) then there is no arbitrage.
Paper 4, Section II, K
commentConsider a utility function , which is assumed to be concave, strictly increasing and twice differentiable. Further, satisfies
for some positive constants and . Let be an -distributed random variable and set .
(a) Show that
(b) Show that and . Discuss this result in the context of meanvariance analysis.
(c) Show that is concave in and , i.e. check that the matrix of second derivatives is negative semi-definite. [You may use without proof the fact that if a matrix has nonpositive diagonal entries and a non-negative determinant, then it is negative semi-definite.]
Paper 1, Section I,
commentState and prove Sperner's lemma concerning colourings of points in a triangular grid.
Suppose that is a non-degenerate closed triangle with closed edges and . Show that we cannot find closed sets with , for , such that
Paper 2, Section I,
commentFor we write . Define
(a) Suppose that is a convex subset of , that and that for all . Show that for all .
(b) Suppose that is a non-empty closed bounded convex subset of . Show that there is a such that for all . If for each with , show that
for all , and that is unique.
Paper 2, Section II, F
comment(a) Give Bernstein's probabilistic proof of Weierstrass's theorem.
(b) Are the following statements true or false? Justify your answer in each case.
(i) If is continuous, then there exists a sequence of polynomials converging pointwise to on .
(ii) If is continuous, then there exists a sequence of polynomials converging uniformly to on .
(iii) If is continuous and bounded, then there exists a sequence of polynomials converging uniformly to on .
(iv) If is continuous and are distinct points in , then there exists a sequence of polynomials with , for , converging uniformly to on .
(v) If is times continuously differentiable, then there exists a sequence of polynomials such that uniformly on for each .
Paper 3, Section I,
commentState a version of the Baire category theorem and use it to prove the following result:
If is analytic, but not a polynomial, then there exists a point such that each coefficient of the Taylor series of at is non-zero.
Paper 4, Section I,
commentLet and . If we have an infinite sequence of integers with , show that
is irrational.
Does the result remain true if the are not restricted to integer values? Justify your answer.
Paper 4, Section II, F
commentWe work in . Consider
and
Show that if is analytic, then there is a sequence of polynomials such that uniformly on .
Show that there is a sequence of polynomials such that uniformly for and uniformly for .
Give two disjoint non-empty bounded closed sets and such that there does not exist a sequence of polynomials with uniformly on and uniformly on . Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, 39C
commentDerive the wave equation governing the velocity potential for linearised sound waves in a perfect gas. How is the pressure disturbance related to the velocity potential?
A high pressure gas with unperturbed density is contained within a thin metal spherical shell which makes small amplitude spherically symmetric vibrations. Let the metal shell have radius , mass per unit surface area, and an elastic stiffness which tries to restore the radius to its equilibrium value with a force per unit surface area. Assume that there is a vacuum outside the spherical shell. Show that the frequencies of vibration satisfy
where , and is the speed of sound in the undisturbed gas. Briefly comment on the existence of solutions.
[Hint: In terms of spherical polar coordinates you may assume that for a function ,
Paper 2, Section II, C
commentA perfect gas occupies the region of a tube that lies parallel to the -axis. The gas is initially at rest, with density , pressure , speed of sound and specific heat ratio . For times a piston, initially at , is pushed into the gas at a constant speed . A shock wave propagates at constant speed into the undisturbed gas ahead of the piston. Show that the excess pressure in the gas next to the piston, , is given implicitly by the expression
Show also that
and interpret this result.
[Hint: You may assume for a perfect gas that the speed of sound is given by
and that the internal energy per unit mass is given by
Paper 3, Section II, 40C
commentDerive the ray-tracing equations
for wave propagation through a slowly-varying medium with local dispersion relation , where and are the frequency and wavevector respectively, is time and are spatial coordinates. The meaning of the notation should be carefully explained.
A slowly-varying medium has a dispersion relation , where . State and prove Snell's law relating the angle between a ray and the -axis to .
Consider the case of a medium with wavespeed , where and are positive constants. Show that a ray that passes through the origin with wavevector , remains in the region
By considering an approximation to the equation for a ray in the region , or otherwise, determine the path of a ray near , and hence sketch rays passing through the origin for a few sample values of in the range .
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentA physical system permits one-dimensional wave propagation in the -direction according to the equation
Derive the corresponding dispersion relation and sketch graphs of frequency, phase velocity and group velocity as functions of the wavenumber. Waves of what wavenumber are at the front of a dispersing wave train arising from a localised initial disturbance? For waves of what wavenumbers do wave crests move faster or slower than a packet of waves?
Find the solution of the above equation for the initial disturbance given by
where , and is the complex conjugate of . Let be held fixed. Use the method of stationary phase to obtain a leading-order approximation to this solution for large when , where the solutions for the stationary points should be left in implicit form.
Very briefly discuss the nature of the solutions for and .
[Hint: You may quote the result that the large time behaviour of
due to a stationary point , is given by
where