Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-61/1/b/solution

The reproduction hypothesis gives , and . If “quadratic” were read as degree exactly two, the same identities follow by subtracting pairs of such reproduced polynomials. Hence
Apply the same positive-barrier argument as in part (a), now with no moment errors. It gives for every and every . Therefore
The identity is itself a positive linear operator on continuous functions reproducing all quadratics, so existence as well as uniqueness is established. In particular, reproducing three small test functions is much stronger for a positive operator than merely fixing one finite-dimensional polynomial space without positivity.

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