Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-2/7/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 2 7 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
A common shift of all three angles leaves every spring length unchanged. This continuous rotational symmetry gives the zero mode: there is no restoring force against rigid rotation.
The equilateral equilibrium also has the dihedral group symmetry . Its action on the three angular displacements preserves the uniform one-dimensional subspace and the two-dimensional sum-zero subspace. The latter is an irreducible representation over the real numbers; a reflection may reverse all angular signs as well as exchange bead labels, which does not change these invariant subspaces. The symmetric stiffness matrix must act as a scalar on the sum-zero subspace, explaining the equal vibrational angular frequencies. Directly, each sum-zero vector satisfies . This is an example of degenerate normal modes from permutation symmetry, and of normal modes of three equal masses with a symmetric gap potential.
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