Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/ia/paper-1/5c/solution

Using Einstein notation and
we obtain
Thus
The scalar triple product is
Put . When , the three vectors
form the reciprocal basis to , so . Their scalar triple product is . Therefore
since the cyclic permutation preserves orientation. The identity also holds when , either by continuity or directly because the cross products are then linearly dependent.
For the given basis , the same identities give
If , dotting with gives , so the are linearly independent and hence form a basis. Moreover, , so the original basis is reciprocal to the primed basis. Uniqueness of a reciprocal basis gives
Every vector has a unique expansion , and then
This is an integer for every integer triple exactly when every is an integer. Hence all such points are
They form the reciprocal lattice in the convention without a factor of .

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