Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 20H i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a state , its period is ; the condition defines aperiodicity. It is a positive recurrent state if return occurs almost surely and its first strictly positive return time has finite expectation. An ergodic state of a Markov chain is positive recurrent and aperiodic.
The PDF specifies for ; the TeX aid drops the essential value one. Consequently every positive state reaches zero deterministically. From zero, every positive state is reached in one step with probability . Paths through zero connect any pair of states, proving irreducibility.
Let be the jump out of zero. It has for , after which exactly downward steps return to zero. Therefore , givingThese probabilities sum to one andReturns of lengths two and three both have positive probability, so the period is one. Hence state zero is ergodic, and by irreducibility all states are positive recurrent and have the same period.
For this geometric-jump countdown Markov chain, the invariant equations give and for . Summing the tail, or counting visits in a regeneration cycle, yields . Normalization givesThis is the stationary distribution of a regenerative countdown chain. The standard recurrence identity for an irreducible positive recurrent Markov chain is , so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 16A iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
As the real charge descends to height , its instantaneous image charge is at . The force is thereforeThe image is not kept at its initial position. Multiplying by and using , givesFor the falling charge above a grounded conducting plane, the arrival time isPut ; the integral becomes . HenceThis is the finite arrival time in the specified ideal force model, for . The field-force derivation also avoids incorrectly using the full real-image pair interaction energy: the conductor's effective energy is , with the factor one-half appropriate to induced charge.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 16A ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The method of images places an image charge at the reflected position below the plane. The candidate potential in the physical upper half-space isAt the two terms cancel, so and . Direct differentiation givesThus the upper-side field satisfies exactly the conductor boundary conditions from part (i). The fictitious pair does have a field below the plane, but that part of its solution is not used for the physical conductor.
In , the potential has the correct real point source, the correct zero Dirichlet boundary condition, and the required decay at infinity. By Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem, it is the physical potential there. This is why the artificial charge can represent the induced conductor response without being a second physical charge.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 16A i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
An ideal conductor in electrostatic equilibrium has zero field in its interior and constant potential on its surface. Grounding fixes that potential to zero. The tangential field is continuous and therefore vanishes; the normal field has the jump fixed by the induced surface charge density :Here the normal points upward out of the conductor. The normal field is not generally zero; grounding prescribes the potential, not the induced charge density.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 15A iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Parseval identity for the orthonormal stationary-state expansion is . Splitting the amplitudes into even and odd indices givesMultiply by to obtain the requested identity. Its integer constants areThe series converges absolutely, since both parity contributions are . This derivation uses the normalization of the prepared state and completeness of the well stationary states, rather than a separate summation trick.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 15A iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The original PDF threshold contains , not . It is , so the energies strictly above it are exactly those with . By the Born rule, the required probability is . The two excluded amplitudes areConsequentlyThus, in increasing powers of ,The threshold lies strictly between and , so no equality-at-threshold convention affects the answer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 15A ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose the prepared wavefunction real and positive on its support. Its normalization isIn the ramp-state expansion in a symmetric infinite well, write . Orthogonality givesFor , a primitive is . Evaluating both endpoints givesAn equivalent parity-separated form isThese formulas with are the requested explicit expansion. The convergence is in the square-integrable norm; at the idealized discontinuity at the right wall, a pointwise boundary value does not change the quantum state or its probability amplitudes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 15A i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-20
The squared sine has integral over the interval of length , since it contains an integer number of half-wavelengths. A real positive phase convention therefore givesInside the infinite square well, the time-independent Schrödinger equation is . The wavenumber is , soThe stationary states vanish at both walls and form an orthonormal basis of the square-integrable state space. A common arbitrary phase on each basis function does not alter any energy or measurement probability.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 14D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Set in the Laplace equation, multiply by , and separate:Putting turns the angular equation into the Legendre differential equation. For a solution smooth on the whole spherical axis, the allowed eigenvalues are with angular functions . The radial equation has the two solutions . Superposition yields the regular axisymmetric expansionThe coefficients and convergence region are set by the domain and boundary data. Without regularity at the poles, singular Legendre functions and more general separated degrees would also be possible; they are excluded for this exterior spherical field.
The far-field matching fixes and all other growing coefficients to zero. The radial Neumann boundary condition at isIndependence of the angular modes gives and all other decaying coefficients zero. Thus the exterior harmonic potential with no flux through a sphere isIts derivative vanishes on the sphere and its difference from tends to zero at infinity. A spatial constant may be added if the far-field condition is intended only to specify the gradient or the leading growing term; matching the potential difference to zero fixes that constant to zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 1 14D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Substitute into the Legendre differential equation. Matching the coefficient of givesChoose the parity of : start with nonzero for even , or nonzero for odd , and set the other parity to zero. The numerator is nonzero for every preceding index of that parity below , so , but at it vanishes. All higher coefficients are zero. This constructs a nonzero polynomial solution of degree exactly .
Its value at cannot be zero. If it had a zero there of multiplicity , write with . The lowest-order term of would be , whereas starts at order . The differential equation could not hold. Hence the polynomial can be scaled to satisfy .
The resulting Legendre polynomials beginEach satisfies both the differential equation and the specified normalization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 8E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
In the ambient set of all functions from to itself, let be the forbidden event . Apply the avoidance form of the inclusion-exclusion principle from part (i).
For a proper subset of the cyclic difference constraints, with , the selected edges form disjoint paths around the cycle, including isolated vertices. There are components. On each component, choosing one value of arbitrarily determines all the other values by the prescribed differences. No consistency condition occurs because the cycle has been broken. ThereforeThis also works for , whose two directed constraints use the same pair of vertices: any single constraint leaves one freely chosen value.
If all constraints hold, summing them around the cycle gives the necessary conditionIt holds when is odd and fails when is even, the latter sum being congruent to . When it holds, choose in ways and determine every other value; the final constraint is then consistent. Thus the full intersection has size for odd and for even .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 8E i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For finite sets , the inclusion-exclusion principle statesTo prove it, count the contribution of one element. If it belongs to exactly of the sets, it is counted by intersections of size . Its total weight isusing the binomial theorem. An element belonging to none contributes zero. Summing these weights gives the cardinality of the union and proves the inclusion-exclusion principle. Equivalently, within a finite ambient set , the number avoiding every is the sum over all , with sign and the empty intersection interpreted as .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 7E iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use uncountability by interleaving prescribed binary coordinates. For each arbitrary binary sequence , define another binary sequence byThere are infinitely many zero coordinates, namely , so . There are also infinitely many coordinates agreeing with the prescribed binary expansion, namely , so . The coordinates recover , making this map an injection of the uncountable set of all binary sequences into . If were a countable set, composing with an injection into would make all binary sequences countable, contrary to part (i). Therefore The construction works for every prescribed binary sequence ; no special distribution property of the digits of is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 7E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use . If a bijection maps onto the even natural numbers, its restriction is a bijection from onto an infinite set. Moreover, its restriction to the complement of maps onto the odd natural numbers. Both sets are therefore infinite.
Conversely, suppose that and its complement are infinite. Applying the increasing enumeration of an infinite subset of natural numbers to each givesFor completeness, successively choose the least unused member. The process never stops because the set is infinite, and it lists every member: an omitted member would have infinitely many selected natural numbers below it, which is impossible. DefineThis is injective on each list, their images are disjoint, and together their images cover . Thus it is a bijection and maps onto . Both infinitude conditions are necessary and sufficient. If a convention includes zero in , index each list from zero and use , instead.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 7E i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A set is a countable set if it admits an injective function into the natural numbers; this includes finite sets and countably infinite sets. A countably infinite set can be listed by a bijection from .
Let be the set of infinite binary sequences. Suppose it were countable and list all its members as , writing for the th entry of row . A finite listing could be repeated to make such a list as well. Define the binary sequence by . It differs from the th row in coordinate , for every . Thus it belongs to but is missing from the list, a contradiction. The set is uncountable, by Cantor's diagonal argument.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 6E iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Fermat's little theorem reduces the exponent modulo because is a prime number and is coprime to it. Compute , then and . Thus for an integer , andThe exponent is , rather than an iterated left-associated power.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 6E iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Suppose is a quadratic nonresidue. On the nonzero residue classes modulo , define the involutionIt is an involution because . A fixed point would satisfy , which is excluded by the quadratic nonresidue hypothesis. Thus it partitions the classes into disjoint pairs , each with product . ConsequentlyNow evaluate the same product by pairing every class with its own modular inverse. The only classes equal to their modular inverses solve and hence are and . All other pairs have product one. The complete product is therefore , soTogether with the preceding part, this is Euler's criterion; the pairing argument establishes the converse without assuming it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 6E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For the odd prime , the Fermat-Euler theorem gives . Therefore the residue class obeys . Since a prime number dividing a product divides one of its factors,If is a quadratic residue, choose with . Then is nonzero modulo , and Fermat's little theorem givesThis proves the quadratic residue direction of Euler's criterion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 6E i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Fermat-Euler theorem states that, for an integer and any integer coprime to ,where the Euler totient function counts the residue classes coprime to .
Let be representatives of these residue classes. Multiplication by gives a permutation of them: each remains coprime to , and implies by cancellation using the modular inverse of . Multiplying all the resulting modular congruences yieldsThe product is itself coprime to , so it has a modular inverse and can be canceled. This proves the Fermat-Euler theorem. For , the congruence is trivial; no separate argument is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 9A d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Close the truncated two-sheet double circular cone by the lateral circular cylinder , . Together these form the boundary of the solid in part (c); no planar caps are required because the cone meets the circular cylinder along both end circles. On the circular cylinder the outward unit normal is , so , and . Its flux integral isThe divergence theorem now gives , using the volume integral from part (c). Henceagreeing with tangency. The isolated vertex can be handled by excising a ball of radius and passing to the limit: since there and the added area is , its extra flux is and tends to zero.
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