Part II, 2018
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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
(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