Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 2 11F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 3 19F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 13 5 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
An elliptic curve works over every algebraically closed field, including one algebraic over a finite field. Give it explicitly in byIn the first case the only point at infinity is , where the derivative with respect to is nonzero. In the affine chart , a singular point of an algebraic variety would have , , and . The possible roots cannot satisfy the last equation in characteristic different from : at it is , and at it is . In the second case the three homogeneous partial derivatives are , up to harmless signs, and cannot vanish simultaneously at a projective point. Thus both cubics are smooth varieties. A reducible plane cubic would have intersecting positive-degree components by Bézout theorem, and be singular at an intersection; therefore these smooth cubics are irreducible varieties. The genus-degree formula gives . With the marked point they are elliptic curves.
For a smooth algebraic curve, its divisor class group is its Picard group. Its degree-zero subgroup isThe map gives an isomorphism of abelian groupsTo recall why it is a bijection, Riemann-Roch theorem in geometric genus one says every degree-one divisor class has exactly one independent section: a canonical divisor has degree zero, so the dual degree- term has no section. Thus the class contains one effective divisor on an algebraic curve of degree one, namely a point , and that point is unique. Translating by gives the claimed bijection; this is precisely the chord-and-tangent group law on the elliptic curve.
Choose a prime integer different from . The multiplication-by-n morphism has derivative times the identity at , so it is nonconstant. A nonconstant morphism of algebraic varieties between smooth projective curves is surjective: its image is closed by proper morphism and cannot have algebraic dimension zero. Since is an algebraically closed field, this makes surjective on -points. ThereforeYet is infinite. For each , the affine equation has a solution for in the algebraically closed field; since is infinite, this gives infinitely many points.
By the Fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups, a finitely generated abelian group satisfying has no free part and is a finite torsion group of order prime to . The infinite group cannot have this property while being finitely generated. Thus is not finitely generated. A subgroup of a finitely generated abelian group is finitely generated, soThis proof uses divisibility and infinitude, rather than uncountability, so it remains valid over countable algebraically closed fields.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 19 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use integral homology throughout. The singular chain group is free on the continuous maps from the standard -simplex to . Since the boundary operator preserves chains lying in , these form a chain subcomplex. The relative chain complex and its relative homology areThe short exact sequence of chain complexes gives the long exact sequence in relative homology.
A sufficient hypothesis for the quotient comparison is a nonempty good pair: is closed and has an open neighbourhood which admits a deformation retraction onto while fixing throughout. A CW pair is another standard sufficient setting. These hypotheses hold for a simple closed curve in the surface here, using its annular collar neighbourhood. The induced quotient map collapses to a point .
Here is the proof of the collapsing a pair theorem. Put . The deformation retraction makes , so the long exact sequence of the triple gives . It also contracts onto , giving . Because is closed inside the open neighbourhood , excision givesSimilarly, excision of the closed point in the open set givesThe quotient map restricts to a homeomorphism between the two punctured pairs, so these are the same groups and the identifications commute with . Finally , including degree zero. ThusThe neighbourhood condition is part of the result; the quotient assertion is not made for arbitrary bad pairs.
For the genus-two closed orientable surface with its chosen orientation, , , , with higher groups zero. The curve has . Its relevant long exact sequence in relative homology isThe final map is an isomorphism because both spaces are connected. Consequently and ; all relative groups above degree two vanish. The quotient topological space is connected, so its unreduced is .
In the separating case, the curve is the oriented boundary of one of the two subsurfaces. Its homology class in is therefore zero, so . The exact sequence becomesThe first sequence splits since its quotient is a free abelian group. Hence the homology after collapsing a separating surface curve isGeometrically, collapsing the boundary of each once-punctured torus fills its puncture with a cone on the circle, which is a disk. The quotient is a wedge sum of two tori at the collapsed point. Their two independent fundamental classes explain the extra second-homology generator.
In the nonseparating case, join the two new boundary components of the cut surface by an arc. Upon regluing, this supplies a closed curve meeting once transversely. The signed intersection pairing on an oriented surface therefore provides an integer homomorphism taking to . Thus is a nonzero primitive homology class, and is an injection onto a direct summand. Its kernel is zero and its cokernel is . The same exact sequence gives . Therefore the homology after collapsing a nonseparating surface curve isAnother description starts from the genus-one surface with two boundary circles. Collapse those two circles separately to obtain a closed torus with two marked points, then identify the two points. Identifying two distinct points in a connected CW complex adds a loop up to homotopy, so this quotient has the homotopy type of . The preceding relative homology calculation proves the groups without requiring that homotopy description.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 25 7 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A semi-additive category has commutative-monoid enrichment: each hom-set is a commutative monoid, and composition in a category preserves addition and zero in each variable. In the finite-biproduct convention, which we use here, it also has finite products in a category and coproducts in a category. A preadditive category has abelian groups as its hom-sets, with composition additive in each variable; this definition alone does not require finite products in a category or a zero object.
Let with projections . Define by for and otherwise. Bilinearity givesso product uniqueness gives . For a family , set . Then . If has the same restrictions, . Thus the product in a category is also the coproduct in a category, with its canonical injections. Conversely, the analogous construction from a finite coproduct in a category gives projections and the same identities, proving that it is a product in a category.
For the empty family, a terminal object has a singleton endomorphism monoid, so . Every map equals its composite with , hence equals the zero map; this map exists by enrichment. Therefore is also an initial object, a zero object. The dual argument applies to an initial object. Consequently finite products in a category and coproducts in a category coincide canonically as biproducts, including the nullary case.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 2D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
A cyclic group has one generator of a group: . An abelian group has for every pair of elements. Powers of one element commute because , so every cyclic group is Abelian. The Klein four-group is Abelian but is not a cyclic group: every nonidentity element has order two, whereas a generator of a group for a four-element cyclic group would have order four.
Fix a generator of a group of . A group homomorphism is determined by because , and the relation forces . Conversely, such a defines : exponents differing by a multiple of give the same value, and addition of exponents verifies the group homomorphism law. Thus the homomorphism from a finite cyclic group correspondence isFor , the order of a permutation is the least common multiple of its disjoint cycle lengths. The condition allows identity, transpositions, two disjoint transpositions, and four-cycles. The sixteen homomorphisms are , with the full list of possible generator imagesThe remaining eight elements of the symmetric group are three-cycles and do not qualify.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 11 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a finite nonempty set , its additive energy iswhere counts ordered representations. Since , Cauchy-Schwarz givesThus implies : a small doubling constant forces many additive quadruples.
A polynomial form of the Balog-Szemerédi-Gowers theorem gives the converse after passing to a subset. There are absolute constants such that if , , then some satisfiesThe exponent and constants here need not be optimal.
Precisely, a graph form of the Balog-Szemerédi-Gowers theorem states the following. If are finite sets of size in an abelian group, has at least edges, and its restricted sumsethas size at most , then there are , with andThese are uniform absolute constants, valid for and .
To apply this theorem to additive energy, let and retain the sums with . The discarded sums contribute at most to the additive energy. Since , the retained pairs number at least . There are at most retained sums. They therefore define a bipartite graph of density at least with restricted sumset size at most . The graph theorem supplies large subsets with polynomially bounded .
For completeness, turn this cross-sumset bound into a doubling constant bound. The Ruzsa triangle inequality gives . If , the Plünnecke inequality, applied to the pair , gives . The minimal-growth proof below in Question 5 applies to arbitrary finite pairs and proves this particular expansion estimate as well. All losses are fixed powers of , proving the displayed converse after increasing .
The requested dense bipartite common-neighbour lemma is a dependent random choice assertion. Call an ordered pair in bad when it has fewer than common neighbours. Choose uniformly, and put . ThenFor each bad pair, the probability that both endpoints lie in is its number of common neighbours divided by , which is less than . Thus the expected number of bad ordered pairs in is at most . ConsequentlyChoose a neighbourhood attaining at least this expectation. It has , andHence at least the proportion of its ordered pairs have at least two-edge connections. As usual these connections are counted by common neighbours, including a return walk for a diagonal ordered pair; assume , as the formula requires.
The relevance to the graph theorem is that many two-edge connections turn a sparse collection of permitted sums into additive control on a large vertex subset. On a connection , expresses a difference using two elements of the restricted sumset. The abundance of connections, followed by standard cleaning and further path counting, bounds the number of differences without throwing away most vertices. This is the role of dependent random choice in obtaining polynomial losses in the graph form of the Balog-Szemerédi-Gowers theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 22 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
In this setting a formal group law means a one-dimensional commutative series with identity zero andIt starts with ; there is a unique inverse series satisfying . For coefficients in , the series and its inverse converge on , making this ideal a topological abelian group under .
Set , and write . The formal logarithm isDifferentiate associativity in the third variable at zero. It gives , so . Subtracting leaves a series independent of , whose value at zero is . Thus .
For odd , the logarithm converges on : the valuation of its degree- term is at least , which tends to infinity. Put . For , factor to obtainfor every and odd . Hence is a contraction with constant at most and maps into . The equation is equivalent to ; the contraction mapping theorem gives a unique solution in for every . The same estimate shows , so the logarithm is a topological group isomorphism. Dividing its values by givesThis is the deep logarithm subgroup of a formal group argument, here with depth one.
For , the degree-two estimate at depth one need not be strict. At depth two, however,so the same proof gives . This subgroup has index two in , because when .
Indeed the topological structure of a formal group on twice the 2-adic integers has just two possibilities. Let , let its index-two subgroup have topological generator , and choose . Write , with , using group notation. If is odd, generates and generates , giving . If is even, has order two and lies outside , giving . The multiples are defined by continuity in this compact pro-two group.
For explicit contrasting examples, the formal additive group gives , which is a torsion-free group. The formal multiplicative group is identified by with . Its element corresponds to and has order two. Moreoverand the logarithm identifies the second factor with . The two resulting groups are and , so they are not isomorphic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 12 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Unless a coefficient group is displayed, use integral singular cohomology. The standard CW complex structure on infinite-dimensional real projective space has one cell in each nonnegative dimension. Its cellular chain complex has boundary for positive even and for odd . The cellular cohomology differential is therefore zero for even and multiplication by two for odd . ConsequentlyMore generally, for an abelian group , the positive odd groups are and the positive even groups are . In particular in every nonnegative degree.
For the required Bockstein homomorphism, use the short exact sequenceHere ; for all three coefficient groups are zero. Since singular chains are free abelian groups, applying cochains gives a short exact sequence of cochain complexes. Its connecting homomorphism defines and its long exact sequence is precisely the required one, with the other maps induced by and .
Explicitly, represent a class by a cocycle and choose a lift . Since , there is a unique cochain with . Injectivity of and show . DefineChanging the lift by changes by the coboundary . Changing the representative by a coboundary can be lifted by a coboundary as well and leaves the resulting class unchanged. Thus this is a well-defined group homomorphism, and the standard cochain lifting argument gives exactness.
Compute the Bockstein homomorphism on infinite-dimensional real projective space using its cellular cohomology complex. A generator with coefficients is represented by in degree , lifted to . Its coboundary is for even and for odd . Dividing via givesThus the odd-degree maps are isomorphisms. The comparison between cellular cohomology and singular cohomology is natural with respect to coefficient maps, so this computes the same connecting homomorphism constructed above.