Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 3 7E i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ia Paper 2 5E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
True. Conjugate the unique fixed point to infinity. The resulting map lies in the Affine subgroup of the Möbius group, so it has the form . A unique fixed point forces and ; otherwise would have a finite fixed point as well. Conjugation by the scaling changes into . Thus a nonidentity Möbius transformation with one fixed point is conjugate to a translation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ia Paper 3 1D Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
A Möbius transformation is generated by translations , nonzero scalings , and inversion . Translations and scalings plainly take circles and lines to circles and lines. More uniformly, every circle or line has an equationwhere ; the case is a line. Under inversion, put and multiply by to obtainwhich is again such an equation. The generators, and hence every Möbius transformation, therefore preserve Generalized circle under a Möbius transformation.
Now letIf , its finite pole lies on some Euclidean circle, and that circle maps to a line because its image contains infinity. Thus takes every circle to a circle exactly when , so the subgroup in question is the Affine subgroup of the Möbius group, consisting of with .
It is not normal. If and with , then is affine buthas a finite pole and is not affine. Hence conjugation by does not preserve the subgroup.