Part II, 2018, Paper 1
Part II, 2018, Paper 1
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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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 ,