Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 40E b Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 40E a Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 3I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Use Shamir's secret sharing over the finite field . The Chair independently chooses from the uniform distribution on a finite set and forms the random polynomialChoose distinct nonzero , with equal to the number of discs to be issued, and inscribe on disc .
Any discs give distinct values of a polynomial of degree at most . Their Vandermonde determinant is nonzero, so polynomial interpolation recovers uniquely and hence recovers the secret as .
Conversely, fix any observed discs and any candidate secret . Interpolating through those points and gives exactly one polynomial of degree at most . Thus every candidate is compatible with the observed discs in exactly the same number of ways. Because the coefficients were chosen uniformly, the conditional distribution of the secret is unchanged after seeing any discs. This proves the Perfect secrecy of Shamir's threshold scheme.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 39B iii Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 39B ii Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 39B i Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 38B b Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 38B a Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 37D b Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 37D a Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 36D ii Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 36D i Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 35A iii Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 35A ii Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 35A i Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 34C b Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 34C a Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 33A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
A boson is an identical particle whose total multiparticle quantum state is symmetric under exchange of any two particles, whereas a fermion has a total state that is antisymmetric under every exchange. The Spin-statistics theorem associates integer spin with bosons and half-integer spin with fermions.
For three distinguishable spin-one particles, the spin Hilbert space has dimensionLetbe the total angular momentum operator. Since each particle haswe haveThe Hamiltonian operator is consequentlyOn the total-spin sector with quantum number , its energy eigenvalue is
The Clebsch-Gordan decomposition may be performed by first coupling particles and . Their intermediate spin is , and coupling the third spin givesThus the three spin-one angular-momentum decomposition contains total spin with multiplicities . Multiplying each multiplicity by the multiplet dimension givesThe degeneracies sum to , as required.
When the particles are indistinguishable, their integer spin makes them bosons. Their common spatial wavefunction is symmetric, so their spin wavefunction must also lie in the symmetric three-spin-one subspace. Its decomposition isHence only the and levels remain, now with one copy of each multiplet:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 32C b Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 32C a Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
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