Axial moment of inertia. In the original diagram is the outer radius and the inner radius. For uniform mass density , a coaxial annulus of thickness has . Therefore the axial moment of inertia of a hollow cylinder isSince , factorizing the fourth-power difference givesFor a solid cylinder , giving . For a thin cylindrical shell with fixed mass and , . The latter limit agrees with every mass element being at radius .
Undamped rolling oscillations. Let be axle displacement from the spring equilibrium. Rolling without slipping imposes . The sum of translational and rotational kinetic energy isThe potential energy is . Differentiating in the absence of damping, or applying the force and torque equations below, givesFor the thin shell , the effective inertia is , and the angular frequency of the simple harmonic motion isStatic contact friction supplies the required torque but does no work when the contact point is instantaneously stationary.
Damped force balance. Take rightward force as positive and counterclockwise rotation as positive. Write for the signed static friction at the bottom contact. ThenEliminate and use :Here has units , so has units and units . The stated drag force is interpreted as acting through the axle, with no additional viscous torque. An oil bath could also exert such a torque physically, but its magnitude is not specified by this force-only model.
Light damping. Substitution of into the differential equation gives . In the underdamped regime ,Taking real linear combinations gives the general damped harmonic oscillator displacementThe constants are fixed by the initial displacement and velocity. For example, release from rest at gives and . Light damping means , in which case and the envelope decays slowly compared with an oscillation.
The original diagram places the output across the resistor, in series with an ideal inductor. Treat the voltages as phasors with time dependence . The electrical impedances are and , so the same electric current flows through both:This is an RL low-pass filter, with corner angular frequencyThe frequency response tends to one for , has magnitude at the corner, and tends to for . The requested sketch uses a logarithmic horizontal axis and a linear voltage-gain axis:
At the two specified angular frequencies,The relative attenuation by a linear filter is the ratio of these gains:Thus the noise amplitude is attenuated by a factor of 10 relative to the signal. A squared-voltage ratio would decrease by a factor of ; the question's voltage transfer function gives the amplitude comparison.
Equilibrium and undamped motion. Resolve forces along the incline, taking positive displacement down the slope. At equilibrium, Hooke's law balances the downhill component of weight:If is measured from that equilibrium position, Newton's second law becomesThus the motion is a harmonic oscillator withGravity shifts the equilibrium extension but drops out of this oscillation frequency because the downhill force component is constant.
Viscous damping. For a damped harmonic oscillator, put . Substitution of in the supplied linear ordinary differential equation givesIn the underdamped regime , define . The two characteristic roots are , and the general real displacement isHere , or equivalently and , are fixed by the initial conditions. For release from rest at , the condition requires , not :The curve oscillates about zero between exponentially shrinking envelopes , where for this release. The upper panel illustrates that shape; its damping strength is chosen to make the envelope visible.
An underdamped release and the first encounter with the stop for the given parameters
. Details. Frequency change. Viscous damping reduces the angular frequency and lengthens the oscillation period:For light damping, , so the frequency shift is second order in , even though the envelope decay rate is first order in .
Will the block reach the stop? The given parameters giveFor , differentiating the release-from-rest solution givesIt is positive throughout the first half-cycle. The first positive turning point therefore occurs at . The turning points of an underdamped release from rest give its unobstructed height:Since and the displacement increases continuously up to that point,Solving gives first contact at approximately . The plotted dashed continuation is the hypothetical free motion after that time; the post-impact motion is not determined by the supplied damping model.
Let the cylinder length be , cross-sectional area , and the fluid mass density . At floating equilibrium, Archimedes' principle givesFor a small downward displacement from this equilibrium, the displaced fluid volume increases by . The additional upward buoyant force is , and Newton's second law becomesThis is simple harmonic motion, with angular frequency and oscillation periodThe result for vertical oscillations of a floating cylinder is independent of its cross-sectional area and fluid mass density because those quantities cancel using the known immersion fraction. It neglects drag, surface effects and the extra fluid inertia from the motion; the cylinder must remain partly immersed throughout the small motion.
The force law separates into two identical harmonic oscillator equations:For positive , the general real solution isSince by Euler's formula, these are exactly the stated real parts of complex exponentials. The amplitudes and phases are fixed by the four initial position and velocity components. This is two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator flow: the same angular frequency acts in every direction.
Put . If both coordinate amplitudes are nonzero, eliminate the common phase to obtainFor , this is an ellipse centred at the origin. The following special cases exhaust the possible nontrivial shapes:
- or gives straight-line simple harmonic motion, including an axis-aligned line if one coordinate amplitude vanishes.
- gives an axis-aligned ellipse; if additionally , it is a circle traversed in one of the two orientations.
- Other phase differences give tilted ellipses.
The degenerate zero-amplitude solution is the stationary origin. There are no general multi-loop patterns here because the two angular frequencies are equal. Another useful description is , the image of a circle under a linear map.
Undamped planar harmonic oscillator trajectories and potential energy for the two specified initial conditions
. Details. Write and , where is the undamped angular frequency. The linear drag gives the vector damped harmonic oscillator equationFor the original circular initial conditions, and , the exact underdamped solution isUsing , and givesThis exact potential energy is useful because it satisfies the prescribed initial conditions, including . In the stated weak-damping limit , and the square bracket differs from one by a small oscillatory term. The leading approximation is thereforeThe radius is approximately , so the trajectory is approximately a shrinking logarithmic spiral. The exactly exponential result would require slightly adjusted initial velocity; with the specified undamped circular velocity, the small modulation above is real. This is the initially circular damped planar oscillator.
Let be signed displacement along the rails, measured from the centre. The diagram in the original paper shows a guide extending across the centre, so the signed coordinate can pass through zero. Hooke's law gives the radial force . In the rotating reference frame, the radial centrifugal force is . The Coriolis force is perpendicular to the rails and is balanced by their reaction; it has no radial component. Therefore Newton's second law givesEquivalently, the radial component of acceleration in polar coordinates in the inertial frame is . The radial spring oscillator on a rotating guide has simple harmonic motion only when , withThe angular frequency is in and the frequency in . The critical angular speed isStrictly this is an upper bound, not an attained maximum for oscillations: at equality , so a displaced object released from rest stays at its displaced position relative to the rails; above it, the central equilibrium is unstable.
Let be the total parallel capacitance, since capacitors in a parallel circuit have additive capacitances. Put into the lossy parallel coil resonance condition:The additional capacitance is thereforeThis is the added capacitance, rather than the new total, and the conversion from frequency to angular frequency is essential.
For a long solenoid, solenoid inductance obeys , where is the number of turns, the cross-sectional area and the axial winding length. The natural reading of half as many turns occupying half the axial length givesWith unchanged wire material and gauge, halving the wire length also halves its electrical resistance: . With the total capacitance fixed, the new angular frequency satisfiesThusNeglecting the small resistive correction gives the estimate .
There is a documented alternative interpretation: if half the turns are distributed over the original axial length, then while , givingThis corresponds to treating “length of the winding” as wire length while preserving axial geometry. The examiner's report explicitly accepted either inductance scaling, provided the resistance change was included. The first interpretation follows the statement that the axial winding length is halved; the second records the accepted ambiguity rather than silently choosing a different geometry.[ref]
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/natural_science_tripos_physics_e/response/2127325/attach/3/FOI%202022%20639%20Sullivan%20materials.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1#page=63. Examiner commentary, B8(d), released PDF page 63: both inductance scalings accepted, with resistance halved
The contact radius is , so rolling without slipping gives . With , the energy at the minimum of the stated parabolic motion model isConsequentlyThe corresponding spin angular frequency is . It is the rod radius, not the disc radius, that relates translation and rotation; the discs determine the larger rotational inertia.
A normal mode is a small motion in which all coordinates oscillate at one common angular frequency with fixed relative amplitudes. For conservative linearized motion, these are eigenvectors of the mass-weighted stiffness matrix.
All three springs are initially stretched from to , giving equal tension and zero resultant force on each mass. This prestress is essential for the transverse modes found below.
For the final mixed-axis trajectory of a prestressed spring pair, the initial displacements excite only the symmetric mode in each direction. Therefore, to first order in ,The second mass has the same displacements about . Over the first transverse period , write :The trajectory is not closed after , because the frequency ratio is . It ends at approximately in these scaled coordinates rather than .
Prestressed spring trajectory
. Original first-transverse-period trajectory of the first mass. Markers distinguish initial and final points and intermediate quarter-period positions; both normal-coordinate amplitudes equal the release displacement. Details.For the focal length of a rotating liquid mirror, consider steady rigid rotation at angular frequency . The free surface is an equipotential of . HenceA paraboloidal mirror has , givingThe numerical estimate uses the conventional standard acceleration , rather than an asserted local measurement or a recovered handbook entry.[ref]
NIST Guide to the SI, Footnotes by National Institute of Standards and Technology. Footnote 23: conventional standard acceleration of free fall
The mercury density cancels; the ideal surface shape follows from gravity and rotation. Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2012 4 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
In the Lorentz oscillator model, each participating bound electron is displaced by an applied electric field against a restoring force. The model replaces complicated interband transitions by a driven damped harmonic oscillator. If is the electron displacement along the field and the electron charge is , its equation of motion isHere describes binding and describes loss of coherent motion. For , the complex amplitude isThe induced electric dipole moment is , so the electric polarization amplitude for number density isUsing givesThe paper's is this dimensionless relative permittivity, rather than the absolute permittivity . Independent classes of bound electrons contribute additive susceptibilities, usually with different resonance frequencies and optical oscillator strengths.
Writing separates the response intoAt zero frequency the real part is and the imaginary part vanishes. Near resonance the imaginary part has a positive photon absorption peak and the real part changes rapidly, passing through at . Above resonance the real part can become negative when damping is sufficiently weak; at very high frequency it approaches from below while the imaginary part tends to zero. Finite damping removes the undamped divergence.
Real and imaginary relative permittivity, optical reflectance and attenuation in a Lorentz oscillator model
. Details. For a nonmagnetic material take the passive square-root branch , with . A plane wave then has an intensity attenuation coefficient . Thus the imaginary permittivity expresses dissipation, whereas the actual photon absorption coefficient is determined by the imaginary refractive index. The normal-incidence power reflectance isA large refractive-index mismatch produces wave reflection even without loss. In the undamped model between and , so the field is evanescent and wave reflection is total in a semi-infinite sample. With damping the response includes both wave reflection and photon absorption; a peak in the imaginary permittivity should not simply be identified with a reflectance peak.
To infer the short-wavelength background from , assume weak photon absorption and take the physical semiconductor branch . ThensoThis is an estimate of the valence-electron background in a frequency window above the doped-carrier response and below the effective bound-electron resonance. One reflectance value alone does not determine both parts of a complex dielectric constant. Even for real , a reciprocal-index branch gives the same ; the ordinary background index greater than unity selects the branch used here.
Using the supplied conventional cubic lattice parameter, the participating valence-electron number density isUsing for the stipulated free-electron comparison givesAn angular frequency “in eV” means its quantum energy , not . No doped-carrier effective mass should be inserted into this valence-electron count.
The low-frequency limit of the bound-electron contribution obeysConsequentlyThis effective resonance is much larger than the quoted band gap. There is no contradiction: the single oscillator has been assigned the strength of all sixteen participating valence electrons per conventional cell, whereas the band gap is only the lowest interband excitation threshold. A real spectrum distributes optical oscillator strength over many transitions. Equating the oscillator resonance to the lowest threshold would misrepresent the assumed background response. Here “low frequency” means low relative to ; the static response of the doped conducting sample also contains its free carriers.
The additional mobile carriers in doped indium antimonide contribute a Drude frequency response, obtained by setting their restoring frequency to zero. At infrared frequencies well below the effective valence resonance, the sum is approximatelyAt the shorter wavelengths the carrier term is small and approaches the background value. As wavelength increases, the negative free-carrier contribution lowers the real permittivity towards unity. For weak damping, refractive-index matching to vacuum gives the Drude-Lorentz reflectivity minimum atThis minimum is near , not its zero. At the slightly lower screened plasma frequency , the real permittivity crosses zero; at longer wavelengths it becomes negative and the material becomes strongly reflective. Finite damping prevents a perfectly vanishing minimum and rounds the edge. At still lower frequency the large conducting response also drives towards unity.
Illustrative Drude-Lorentz reflectivity minimum: increasing carrier density shifts the minimum to shorter wavelengths
. Details. For fixed carrier effective mass and background permittivity, and . The observed shift of the minimum towards shorter wavelength as doping increases is therefore the expected free-carrier trend. The figure is an original model illustration, not a digitization or quantitative fit of the supplied curves; the carrier effective mass, damping and their density dependence have not been specified.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2016 1 b Solution 2026-10-18
Use physical fields proportional to the real part of . The Drude frequency response isThus the sketch is an even Lorentzian line shape, with maximum at zero frequency, half that value at , and an tail. The positive-frequency half is shown in the preceding figure. Squaring the modulus differs from plotting either or the real part of .
For a single carrier species, the plasma frequency and electrical conductivity satisfyThereforeThe corresponding relaxation time is . This is an angular frequency; the ordinary frequency is . The units of electrical conductivity used in the calculation are , consistently with the SI plasma-frequency relation.
Take as the signed electron charge. The Lorentz oscillator model is a driven damped bound charge:The first term is inertia, the second is a phenomenological frictional loss of coherent motion to other degrees of freedom, and the third is the linear restoring force from binding to the atom. The driving term is the electric force. The natural angular frequency represents the electronic transition; this classical oscillator describes its near-resonant linear response. The friction convention is , so no factor two is hidden in .
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2019 1 a Solution 2026-10-25
A real scalar field suffices to describe one neutral species of bosonic quasiparticle. Let be its canonical momentum. In three spatial dimensions, choose the positive classical HamiltonianThe same construction works in any number of spatial dimensions by replacing appropriately. Under a spatial Fourier transform, becomes , so the Hamiltonian is a collection of independent quantum harmonic oscillators with squared angular frequency . The usual reality condition pairs opposite momenta; it does not introduce a second species.
The canonical action is . Varying gives ; eliminating it by the Legendre transform givesThis Lagrangian density is local: only the field and finitely many derivatives at the same point occur. It contains second spatial derivatives but only first time derivatives, so no extra canonical time data are needed. A square root of a differential operator in the classical Hamiltonian is unnecessary. The fourth-order spatial term breaks Lorentz invariance while preserving spatial rotations and translations. This is a free scalar field with quartic spatial dispersion.
On Rabi resonance, and , soFor nonzero drive the probability starts at zero, reaches unity at , and repeats with period . The population oscillation therefore has angular frequency . This is complete resonant Rabi transfer; a drive of zero strength gives no transition.
The orbital angular momentum generates rotations in the plane. The canonical commutation relations giveUse the commutator product rule . Since different coordinates commute,Thus, for arbitrary positive angular frequencies,At , this becomes . The rotational symmetry of the two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator allows a basis of simultaneous energy eigenstates and orbital angular momentum eigenstates.






