Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/iii/paper-346/3/b/solution

Treat the Milky Way and M31 as a radial Kepler orbit of total mass . At maximum separation the radial speed vanishes, so conservation of energy gives
Put . Substitution into the energy equation and integration from the Big Bang gives the cycloidal orbit
Since ,
Differentiating the parametric solution gives
Eliminating numerically gives the stated accurate fit
A remote dwarf sees the Local Group primarily through its total monopole mass, so the same radial timing relation applies with its own . Dimensional consistency requires
rather than the cube-root exponent printed in the converted statement. Let . At the zero-velocity radius , and . For the dwarf, . Since ,
Therefore

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