Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 5 f Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 5 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The Hermitian conjugate of a real matrix is its transpose, soTherefore It is also a real skew-symmetric matrix. It is Hermitian as well only in the exceptional case , precisely when is symmetric. This includes the identity and half-turn cases from part (d), so the zero-matrix overlap should not be excluded.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 5 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
With the same right-handed active rotation convention as , the direction is fixed, rotates towards , and towards . ThereforeIts columns give the images of the three Cartesian unit vectors, which also makes the signs of this rotation matrix explicit.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 5 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The direction is fixed, giving the eigenvalue one. The planar block has characteristic polynomialThus the full list of eigenvalues isThe last two are real precisely when , so all three are real exactly for . At even multiples of the matrix is the identity and every vector is fixed. At odd multiples it is a half-turn: the axial eigenvalue remains , while the whole perpendicular plane has eigenvalue .
For other angles, the only real eigenvector direction is the rotation axis; the perpendicular plane is rotated rather than preserving an individual real direction. Its complex eigenvectors can be taken as and for and , respectively. These represent the two complex conjugate planar eigenvalues.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 5 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The columns of are an orthonormal basis, since and the first two columns have zero dot product. Thus : it is an orthogonal matrix. Consequentlyand hence . This is the preservation of the Euclidean norm by a rotation matrix.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 4 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The input is even, so its Fourier transform is real and even. Decomposing the cosine into complex exponentials and integrating over its support givesCombining the fractions and using the angle addition formula yieldsThe apparent poles at are removable singularities; either the integral or the sine-quotient limit gives .
If , expansion of the denominator givesThe oscillatory envelope is therefore . At , , the endpoint values vanish and the first term cancels:This gives an envelope. At general the truncation creates jumps in the function; at these special values it leaves the function continuous but creates jumps in its first derivative. Each additional degree of endpoint smoothness gives another inverse power, as explained by Fourier decay from a derivative jump. The exact example is the Fourier transform of a truncated cosine; isolated zeros of its oscillatory factors do not change the envelope order.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 4 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Use the trigonometric identity and express the cosine as a sum of two complex exponentials. The Fourier transform of each exponential is a shifted Dirac delta distribution:By linearity,The original function does not decay and is not absolutely integrable on the real line, so this answer is a tempered distribution, rather than an ordinary convergent Fourier integral. Its three lines represent the constant part and the two opposite spatial frequencies.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 4 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
First take a Schwartz function, so that Fourier inversion and the exchange of integrals are justified. Inserting the inverse transform of the complex conjugate givesFor , approximate it by Schwartz functions in both norms. The identity just proved makes their transforms a Cauchy sequence in L2 space, while convergence in L1 space makes the transforms converge uniformly to the defining transform of . Thus the two transform limits agree, and passing to the norms proves the finite Parseval identity. This is the normalization of the Plancherel theorem appropriate to the paper.
There is a qualification to the printed hypothesis: absolute integrability alone does not guarantee a finite square integral. For instance on and zero elsewhere belongs to but not . For an function of this kind the transform is not in either, by L2 density from a square-integrable Fourier transform, so both sides are infinite if the identity is interpreted in that extended sense. The finite equality requires square integrability as well.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 3 d Solution by
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Insert the source into the Green-function representation and split the integral at its source discontinuity in derivative:Using , the answer isBoth endpoint values are zero. As a direct check, conjugating by sends to , and gives . Thus the differential equation and both boundary conditions are satisfied.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 3 c Solution by
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The homogeneous characteristic equation is , with roots . Choose the endpoint-adapted homogeneous solutionsso that and . Their Wronskian iswhich never vanishes. A continuous Green function with the required endpoints has the form , where and . Its derivative jump is . Because the leading coefficient is one, part (b) requires this to equal one. ThereforeIn particular, the branches are for and for . This is the Dirichlet Green function for a conjugated harmonic oscillator with interval length , drift parameter one and oscillator wave number one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 3 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For a fixed source point , the Green function is defined bywhere is the Dirac delta distribution and the operator acts on . The corresponding solution isApplying under the integral gives by the defining delta identity, while the endpoint values vanish. With the stated continuous coefficients, one may define the normalized distributional equation ; this avoids multiplying a general distributional second derivative by a merely continuous coefficient.
Existence of this inverse Green function additionally requires that the homogeneous two-point boundary value problem have only the zero solution. The assumptions printed in the question alone do not ensure this: on has the nonzero zero-endpoint solution . At such resonance there are solvability conditions and no ordinary inverse kernel for arbitrary . The construction below is nonresonant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 2 b Solution by
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For spherical symmetry the angular mode is . Put . Direct differentiation givesso the radial heat equation in three dimensions becomes the ordinary one-dimensional heat equation . Since , the zero endpoint temperatures become .
Write . The two initial sine modes already satisfy these Dirichlet boundary conditions; their squared wave numbers are and . Each therefore evolves independently with its corresponding exponential decay. Dividing back by givesAt the initial profile is recovered, and each sine is zero at both endpoints. The first mode decays four times more slowly in its exponential rate than the second. This is the two-mode instance of the spherical-shell heat equation via radial rescaling; uniqueness follows, for example, by applying the heat equation energy identity to the difference of two solutions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Seek a nonzero separated solution . Substitution into the heat equation and division by the product givesThe left side depends only on time, so set it to . Multiplication by then separates the angular dependence, with separation constant . The three ordinary differential equations areThe temporal solution is . With , the angular equation is the Legendre differential equation; regularity at both angular endpoints selects and , the Legendre polynomial. The radial equation has the Spherical Bessel functions and for . Regularity at , if imposed, excludes the singular second solution. For the radial powers are and . Without specified radial boundary conditions, no discrete set of is selected; is a convention for the temporal separation constant.
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