Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/ia/paper-3/4a/c/solution

Use for . On this path , so its line integral is
The first two components of the curl vanish because the field is independent of and has zero third component. Writing , its third curl component is
Thus this azimuthal inverse-radius vector field is a curl-free vector field on , but its line integral is not path independent. This domain is not simply connected: the circle links the removed axis. A spanning disk through the axis is inadmissible for Stokes theorem, since the vector field is undefined there. Zero curl alone does not force global path independence.

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