Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-9/3/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 9 3 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The appropriate Poincare-Wirtinger inequality, with no zero-boundary assumption, isAssume is nonempty, bounded, connected and has the stated cone property. If this failed, after subtracting the mean and normalizing there would be withThe sequence is bounded in . By the permitted Rellich-Kondrachov compactness theorem, a subsequence converges strongly in to . For every compactly supported test function, integration by parts and these two convergences show that each distributional derivative of is zero. A function with zero weak gradient is constant on a connected open set: mollification makes it locally constant, and connectedness identifies the local constants.
Convergence in on a finite-measure set also preserves the integral, so and the constant is zero. But strong convergence preserves , a contradiction. This proves the inequality; connectedness prevents different constants on separate components.
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