Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For , the real Lp space is the vector space of real measurable functions with , identifying functions equal almost everywhere. Its Lp norm is . For , take the essentially bounded real measurable functions, with the same identification and norm . The identification makes each norm definite; absolute homogeneity follows from the Lebesgue integral, and the triangle inequality follows from Minkowski inequality for finite , or directly from the essential supremum for .
Here is a completeness proof valid on any measure space. For , a Cauchy sequence has a subsequence with . Choose measurable function representatives and put . By Minkowski inequality and the monotone convergence theorem,Consequently the series converges absolutely almost everywhere. Define there, and define it to be zero on the measurable exceptional null set. Then , and Fatou lemma applied to each tail gives . The original Cauchy sequence also converges in Lp norm, by the triangle inequality. For , choose the same subsequence using the essential supremum norm. Outside one measurable null set, all the bounds hold and is bounded. The series then converges uniformly there, with an essentially bounded measurable function limit and the same tail estimate in essential supremum norm. Thus all these spaces are Banach spaces.
The duality of Lp spaces says that, for and , the mapis an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces. This form of Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space requires no finiteness hypothesis on . At , a standard version assumes a sigma-finite measure and identifies with through the same dual pairing. That endpoint assertion must not be made without a suitable measure-space hypothesis.
We first prove the required duality of Lp spaces for a finite measure. Let and set . For disjoint measurable , the indicator functions of their partial unions converge in Lp norm to that of their union, so is countably additive. It has finite variation measure: for every finite measurable partition , choosing real signs givesAlso implies . The Radon-Nikodym theorem supplies a Radon-Nikodym derivative with . Linearity gives for simple functions. Uniform approximation by simple functions extends this identity to bounded measurable functions: both their Lp norm errors and the errors in integration against tend to zero.
To establish the correct integrability, test with the bounded measurable function . Since , writing givesThe second inequality is also valid when . The monotone convergence theorem gives and . Density of simple functions in the Lp space, together with Hölder's inequality, now gives on all of . Conversely Hölder's inequality gives . If , testing againstgives and , so . This also proves uniqueness of the representing Radon-Nikodym derivative.
For completeness, the passage to an arbitrary measure space can be made without losing a hypothesis in the reflexive Banach space argument below. On a sigma-finite measure space, exhaust by nested finite-measure sets . The representing Radon-Nikodym derivatives on agree on overlaps by uniqueness. Their glued density has Lp norm by the monotone convergence theorem, and represents because in Lp norm. Every on an arbitrary measure space is supported on a sigma-finite measurable set: the sets have finite measure and their union is .
Use support localization of an Lp functional as follows. For a sigma-finite measurable , let be the operator norm of restricted to functions supported in . The support observation gives . Choose approaching this supremum and set ; then . If a sigma-finite had , functions supported on the disjoint sets have the direct-sum Lp norm. Optimizing their two scalar coefficients by Hölder's inequality, and using functions approaching the two restriction operator norms, would givea contradiction. Thus vanishes on functions supported outside . The density on , extended by zero, represents globally. The case simply uses . This proves the stated Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space.
Finally let and let , where stars denote continuous dual spaces. Compose with to obtain the bounded linear functional on . Applying duality of Lp spaces with the exponents reversed gives with . For the canonical embedding into the bidual , its value on is also . Since is onto, . Its norm is by the same dual pairing norm identity. Therefore , which proves that is a reflexive Banach space through its actual canonical embedding into the bidual.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 23J a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For , consists of measurable functions with , identifying functions equal almost everywhere. Its Lp norm is . Thus membership is a condition on an almost-everywhere equivalence class, not on individual point values.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 107 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Assume is nonnegative almost everywhere, and that the real coefficient matrix is measurable and satisfies, for almost every and every ,The operator norm bound controls all coefficients, including any antisymmetric part. For a symmetric matrix, these assumptions are exactly the usual lower and upper quadratic-form bounds. The weak solution condition isThen the Harnack inequality for uniformly elliptic divergence-form equations isA nonnegative weak solution has its supremum controlled by its infimum on the smaller ball. The De Giorgi-Nash-Moser theorem supplies a Hölder continuous function representative, for which ordinary supremum and infimum can replace the essential supremum and essential infimum. Nonnegativity and the larger ball are essential hypotheses; there is no differentiability requirement on the coefficients.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 107 6 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use a signed power test for a Laplacian eigenfunction. For , test the Dirichlet Laplacian eigenfunction equation with . Its derivative is ; at the test function is just . Integration by parts gives the exact energy estimateSet . It belongs to the zero-boundary Sobolev space and obeys the Sobolev chain rule:For , the power map is with bounded derivative on the bounded range of . For , the absolute value map is Lipschitz, and almost everywhere; on the zero set, use the fact that a gradient of a Sobolev function vanishes on a level set. These facts justify the identity even when changes sign.
Apply the given Sobolev inequality with the Sobolev conjugate exponent :Testing with a signed power raises the integrability exponent from to . Absorbing the factor into gives precisely the requested inequality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 201 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Work on as a probability space, with Lebesgue measure of total mass one. Let be the filtration generated by the level- half-open dyadic cells together with the separate null cell . Define the dyadic slope martingale byThe endpoint may be assigned any value, since it is a null set for Lebesgue measure. The two child slopes average to their parent slope, by telescoping the two increments. Therefore almost everywhere, so this is a martingale. The Lipschitz condition gives everywhere except possibly at the freely chosen endpoint, where we take zero.
Apply the Lp martingale convergence theorem with . Its limit has almost everywhere and in L1 norm as well, by Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Choose a measurable representative of and set it to zero on any exceptional null set; it is then a bounded measurable function on the entire interval.
Set . Telescoping at the grid points shows that is the linear interpolation of on the dyadic grid. The Lipschitz condition gives . AlsoThe two uniform limits coincide, giving the absolutely continuous function representationThe chosen bound holds for every after the null-set modification; the integral identity holds for every simultaneously.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 341 5 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the real Hilbert space , the zero-boundary Sobolev space, with norm . The Poincare inequality makes this equivalent to its usual Sobolev space norm. Define the symmetric bilinear form and continuous linear functionalThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the sharp interval Poincare inequality implyThus is a bounded bilinear form and a coercive bilinear form, and is bounded because is square-integrable. The Lax-Milgram theorem supplies a unique weak solution:This is obtained from the differential equation by integration by parts; the test functions have zero boundary trace. Conversely, the weak solution satisfies in the sense of distributions. Since , it belongs to and solves the equation almost everywhere.
Equivalently, the Ritz method minimizesover . Indeed , since the mixed term is . This proves existence and uniqueness of the minimizer directly from the weak solution, as well as its equivalence to the variational problem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 22F ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Take . Its Fourier transform iswith value one at zero. It is bounded near zero and is at infinity, so is integrable for . ThereforeIf a continuous function agreed with this indicator almost everywhere, continuity would force it to equal zero on and one on : any violation has a nonempty open neighbourhood of positive measure. The one-sided limits at zero would then differ, a contradiction. Hence no continuous representative exists.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 22F iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The implication is true in every dimension despite the failure of part (iii). The hypothesis gives , since its weight is at least one. Let be its inverse Fourier-Plancherel transform; then by construction.
Use the Gaussian approximate identity . Its Fourier transform is . Fourier inversion of this integrable multiplier times the bounded transform of , justified by Fubini, gives the same function both as and as . The first converges to in , while the second converges to in by Plancherel and dominated convergence. Along a common sequence, select subsequences converging almost everywhere for both norms. Their limits agree, giving almost everywhere. ConsequentlyThis proves the requested conclusion without relying on the incorrect general-dimensional kernel assertion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 25J c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Birkhoff ergodic theorem states: for a measure-preserving transformation of a finite measure space and , the averages converge almost everywhere and in to an invariant function . On a probability space,where is the invariant sigma-algebra modulo null sets. In particular the integral is preserved, and if is ergodic then almost everywhere; for a finite space of nonunit mass, this constant is when .
The maximal ergodic lemma says that for real integrable , with and ,The same inequality holds on , by taking the increasing limit and dominated convergence. These statements do not require the transformation to be invertible or the space to be ergodic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 2F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For , and . Iterating this Gauss continued-fraction map on an irrational number never reaches zero, and its continued fraction isThe branches have inverse , for . The change of variables formula for a probability density function gives, almost everywhere,The endpoints of these branches are a countable set of probability zero. Thus and have the same distribution; this Gauss measure is an invariant measure for the Gauss continued-fraction map.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 105 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let tend to in the Sobolev space , using density of smooth functions in a Sobolev space. Write . Applying the Morrey inequality on a cube to a unit cube centered at , and bounding its average by the Holder inequality, givesfor every smooth . Hence is a Cauchy sequence in the supremum norm and has a bounded continuous limit by uniform convergence. On every finite-measure cube, this limit is also the limit, so almost everywhere.
For , choose , so that . The second estimate from part (a), followed by passage to the limit, givesThus is a Hölder continuous function andIt is the unique continuous representative: two continuous functions agreeing almost everywhere agree everywhere.
For , take a smooth cutoff function equal to one near zero and setIts weak derivative has size near zero, whose th power is integrable because . Thus , but it is essentially unbounded in every neighborhood of zero and has no continuous representative. The value assigned at zero is irrelevant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 105 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Choose at which is finite and the -mean version of the Lebesgue differentiation theorem holds:These conditions hold almost everywhere. On a cube about , subtract the affine function and put . Its weak derivative is and . Approximate as in part (b) and subtract the same affine function from the approximants. Uniform convergence and convergence of their weak derivatives extend part (a)'s estimate to , givingFor , choose and . It follows thatThis is precisely classical Frechet derivative differentiability, not merely existence of coordinate derivatives. Therefore the differentiability almost everywhere of supercritical Sobolev functions gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 105 2 b ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be the trace map from the Sobolev trace theorem. The weak Robin problem for a uniformly elliptic operator uses all of as the test space, since a Robin boundary condition does not require a zero trace. DefineThe weak formulation isFor a classical solution, integration by parts produces the boundary term . Substituting the Robin boundary condition replaces it by , giving the displayed identity.
Conversely, if satisfies the identity, tests first show in the sense of distributions. Subtracting this interior equality after integration by parts givesEvery smooth boundary function is the trace of a smooth function on . The boundary residual is continuous, so this proves the boundary equation pointwise. Thus the formulations agree for solutions. If is continuous the interior equation holds pointwise; for merely , equality with that given representative of is understood almost everywhere.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 108 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the probability-system convention . The Birkhoff ergodic theorem, also called the pointwise ergodic theorem, states that for a measure-preserving system and ,where is the invariant sigma-algebra. The limit is integrable and has the same integral as . On a probability space the convergence also holds in , as in the allowed mean ergodic theorem. If is an ergodic transformation, is trivial modulo null sets, giving
The integer multiplication map on the circle preserves Lebesgue measure: for any integrable on ,To prove the ergodicity of integer multiplication on the circle, suppose satisfies . Let be its Fourier coefficients in the Fourier basis . Since , the Fourier coefficients of at index are zero if does not divide , and are otherwise. This identity holds for all functions by approximation with trigonometric polynomials and the isometry . Invariance givesEvery nonzero integer can be divided by only finitely often. Thus for every , and completeness of the Fourier basis makes constant almost everywhere. Applying this to the indicator function of an invariant set gives measure zero or one, so
A normal number in base has every word of base- digits occurring with limiting overlapping frequency . Use the expansion that is not eventually equal to when there are two expansions. The word corresponds to the half-open intervalA word starting at position occurs exactly when . The Birkhoff ergodic theorem, applied to , gives frequency almost everywhere. There are countably many pairs , so their full-measure sets have a full-measure intersection. In particular,These are absolutely normal numbers, so existence follows as well. This interval description also proves normality and equidistribution under integer multiplication: the base- intervals form arbitrarily fine grids, so their frequencies imply the correct frequency for every interval by approximation from inside and outside.
For the growth assertion, put . For every , the Tonelli theorem gives the useful summability boundSince is a measure-preserving transformation, . The first Borel-Cantelli lemma shows that occurs only finitely often almost everywhere. Intersecting the resulting full-measure sets for proves the linear growth bound for integrable observables, . Multiplication by then gives
The threshold is sharp. For , choose with , and take the Bernoulli shift on with the product measure of independent uniform coordinates. The left shift preserves that measure because it preserves the probability of every finite-coordinate event. Define ; it is integrable becauseThe variables are independent. For any fixed ,The probability sum diverges, so the second Borel-Cantelli lemma makes these events occur infinitely often almost surely. Intersecting over positive integer even yields . For , the constant observable already fails to give limit zero. Thus the sharpness of the linear growth bound for integrable observables gives