Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 33C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For a normalized trial state in the form domain of a bounded-below Hamiltonian, the quantum variational principle gives . Thus each trial expectation is an upper bound for the ground-state energy. The same spectral argument covers a continuum: for a decaying potential whose essential spectrum begins at , a negative trial expectation guarantees a negative-energy bound state.
For the stated exponential trial function, normalization follows from . The kinetic expectation, using , is . The potential expectation is . ThereforeThe exponential variational bound for the Yukawa potential at gives if . Thus a bound state necessarily exists in the stated range.
For , this single-exponential family cannot prove binding: the maximum of is , so every . This does not prove absence of bound states.
The equality case can in fact be strengthened. At , use normalized exponentials and write . Their matrix elements areThe Rayleigh numerator for is negative for sufficiently small , and its norm is nonzero. Hence binding also holds at equality, and by continuity in a small interval beyond it. For arbitrary larger , these trials alone do not settle existence; a nonnegative variational upper bound cannot establish a nonnegative ground-state energy.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 32C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Taking along a coordinate axis gives . Taking for gives . Combining this anticommutator relation with the specified commutator givesand contraction with provesThe operators for spin angular momentum, , satisfy and , identifying spin . The usual irreducible spin space is two-dimensional; the assumptions also allow repeated copies of it if no Hilbert-space dimension is specified.
Since is Hermitian and squares to , are Hermitian, , and . They are its spectral projectors. WriteEach nonzero term is a scalar multiple of a normalized eigenstate with eigenvalue . The Born rule gives, for normalized ,If , expectation of gives . Taking yields .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 31A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Compatibility of the auxiliary system, computed on a fundamental matrix of solutions, gives the zero-curvature conditionIndeed equality of the mixed derivatives gives . A single possibly zero vector solution would not justify the matrix identity; compatibility means a full fundamental family.
Put . Using the zero-curvature condition gives . At , and hence . Uniqueness of the initial-value problem gives , or . Periodicity implies , so the monodromy matrix obeys the Lax equationCyclicity of the trace yields for every .
There is a genuine factor-of-two error in the printed sine-Gordon pair. Assign the second printed matrix to and the first to :Direct multiplication givesThus the printed matrices encode .
For the stated Sine-Gordon equation, explicitly repair the first prefactor by taking , that is . Its zero-curvature condition becomes . For this corrected pair, is conserved for every . Since is entire in , so are and these traces. Their Taylor coefficients in supply an infinite family of first integrals, by the identity theorem extending conservation through . At a fixed spectral parameter the higher traces of a matrix are related by the Cayley-Hamilton theorem; no independence of the resulting first integrals is claimed.
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