Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 10A b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the positive graph . The printed PDF bounds are , so its projection is the annulus . The surface is the corresponding band of the upper sheet of a two-sheeted hyperboloid, bounded by circles of radii and at heights and .
The upper hyperboloid band between heights square root of two and square root of five, with annular projection
. For the parametrization , its tangent vectors are and . Their cross product gives the upward vector surface element of a graph:Its magnitude gives the scalar surface area of a graph:Both formulas apply on . Reversing the orientation changes only the sign of the vector element.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 10A c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Direct use of partial derivatives givesWith the upward oriented surface element found in part (b), the curl flux integrand over the annulus becomesEvery term in the numerator is odd in or , so its integral over the symmetric annulus is zero. Thus the surface integral isEach boundary circle has constant , hence . Its line integral is therefore , with no contribution from the third field component. An anticlockwise radius- circle gives . The outward boundary orientation is anticlockwise at and clockwise at , soThe two computed values agree, verifying Stokes theorem with both boundary components. A downward choice would give on both sides.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 14 2 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Fix the algebraic intersection number of curves on an oriented surface by declaring when the ordered tangent pair agrees with the surface orientation. Orient an annular neighbourhood of with coordinates and orientation . A right-handed Dehn twist is represented there by , where increases from zero to one and is constant near the two boundary circles; it is the identity outside this annulus. A transverse arc gains one oriented copy of per signed crossing. Consequently its homology action of a Dehn twist isReversing the orientation of changes both factors' signs and leaves this expression unchanged. A separating curve has , so its Dehn twist acts trivially on first homology.
The first assertion is true. Choose a basis for the first homology group of the torus with . The positive Dehn twists about these curves have matricesThe mapping class group of the oriented closed torus is , generated by and their inverses; the Euclidean algorithm on a primitive column gives this generation. The displayed relation rewrites those inverses as positive words:Replacing every inverse in a generating word proves the assertion. The closed torus hypothesis matters: a boundary twist is retained when a boundary circle must be fixed pointwise.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 14 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a properly embedded oriented topological surface , putThis defines the Thurston norm on integral relative homology classes in . Homogeneity extends it to rational classes, and continuity extends it to real classes. It is a seminorm: nonzero classes carried by spheres, disks, annuli or tori can have zero value.
Not every integral class has a connected embedded representative. In , the class is a counterexample. A connected embedded oriented surface either separates, in which case it is null-homologous, or has connected complement. In the latter case join its two local sides through its complement to obtain a loop intersecting it exactly once. Its homology class is consequently a primitive lattice element. The proposed double has all intersection numbers even, so cannot have such a representative. Two disjoint parallel spheres do represent it.
For the knot exterior in an integral homology sphere, is generated by a Seifert surface. Its Thurston norm iswhere is the Seifert genus in the ambient integral homology sphere. To justify using a one-boundary-component Seifert surface, simplify a minimizing representative's boundary to parallel essential longitudes. The algebraic sum of these longitudes is one. Join oppositely oriented pairs by boundary annuli and push inward; this preserves Euler characteristic and does not increase . Discard closed components, which represent zero because the ambient integral homology sphere has . The component retaining the single boundary is a Seifert surface. This proves the formula, including the disk case.
When , . In zero Dehn surgery the longitude bounds a meridional disk in the filling solid torus. Cap a minimizing Seifert surface with that disk. The resulting closed surface has the same genus and represents a generator of : its intersection with the filling core is one. ThereforeThe case gives a zero-cost torus, rather than a negative value.
Here is a rigorous family of strict examples with . Use the excellent knot representative theorem to choose a knot representing the generator of with an excellent three-manifold as exterior . Inside , choose a winding number of a satellite pattern one pattern whose two-boundary-component exterior is also an excellent three-manifold. Both choices are available because neither ambient manifold has a spherical boundary component. Put and .
The interface is an incompressible surface. On a Thurston norm minimizing surface in with boundary the meridian , arrange all interface intersections to be essential. The winding number of a satellite pattern one condition forces the oriented boundary on that interface to have net class . The piece in has odd meridional boundary sum and costs at least one: a zero-cost representative would require an essential disk or annulus, forbidden by excellence. The piece in has opposite net meridians on its two boundary tori. It costs at least two: zero-cost components are boundary-parallel annuli or tori and carry no such boundary class, and its total meridional boundary count is even, so its nonzero negative Euler characteristic has even magnitude. Cutting along the interface adds the costs, since the essential pieces have no disk or sphere components. ThusHere the notation denotes the relative class whose boundary is , not the meridian curve itself. This is the usual Thurston norm gluing along an incompressible torus argument.
Because represents the generator of , , its meridian is null-homologous in , and a longitudinal curve generates . Fill along to obtain . The Mayer–Vietoris sequence gives , so is an integral homology sphere. Let be the filling core. Its preferred longitude is ; zero Dehn surgery on consequently recovers . For this example , whereas the product sphere generates with zero cost. HenceThe construction needs a nontrivial winding-one pattern; merely tying a local knot into the product core would not provide this lower bound.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 9 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use a Lipschitz continuous cutoff function which equals one on , vanishes outside , takes values in , and has . Its gradient is supported in the annulus . The function is an admissible test function in the zero-boundary Sobolev space for the weak solution, by approximation with smooth compactly supported test functions. If bounds the operator norm of , we can take . The weak equation and uniform ellipticity giveYoung inequality bounds the right side byAfter absorption, this annular Caccioppoli inequality isThe dimension is fixed in the notation of the question; with the entrywise coefficient bound its dependence on is absorbed there. If the larger ball merely lies in without its closure being compactly contained, approximation from smaller cutoff functions gives the same admissible test function and estimate. Crucially, the right side uses only the annulus, where the cutoff function varies. The constant is arbitrary because constants have zero gradient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 9 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write . For , choose in the annular Caccioppoli inequality to be the integral average of over . The supplied Poincare inequality on an annulus givesMoving the term to the left is the hole-filling argument:Consequently . Put and choose . For , monotonicity givesDyadic endpoints can be assigned to either adjacent interval. Since , the requested dyadic energy decay isBoth constants depend only on the dimension and uniform ellipticity bounds, not on .
There is a dimensional detail in the printed hint: an annulus is disconnected in dimension one, so that Poincare inequality with a single average is false there. The conclusion still holds. In one dimension the weak equation gives almost everywhere for a constant flux for a one-dimensional divergence-form equation . Since ,This implies the required estimate with, for example, and . If , the estimate is immediate. Thus the proof also covers dimension one without using the inapplicable hint.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 132 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The given is a simple closed curve. Assume it is essential; for a contractible class both infimal lengths are already zero. Write . The collar lemma supplies an embedded annulus with coordinates and , and metricSet . This changes the metric to a positive scalar multiple of , so the conformal modulus of an annulus isThe extremal length of its core curves is . Allowing all curves homotopic to in can only decrease infimal lengths, while the area of a metric on all of is at least its area on the collar. Thus . Use the particular conformal metric , whose area of a quadratic differential is one:This proves the required implication uniformly over all the area-one holomorphic quadratic differentials on these surfaces.
The converse is false. Here is an explicit slit connected sum of translation tori. Start with square flat copies of a torus and , where . Cut a horizontal slit of physical length in each, centred in an interior coordinate disk, and cross-glue the banks by translation. The resulting surface has genus two. Its two slit endpoints have cone angle , so the locally defined extends to a holomorphic one-form with two simple zeros. Its flat area is . Setwhich is a holomorphic quadratic differential of area one. Let be a horizontal generator in the small torus, taken away from the slit and fixed by the marking of this small handle. Then
To verify that its hyperbolic length does not tend to zero, construct a uniform lower bound on extremal length. On the unit square torus choose a disk about the eventual slit centre and a smooth cutoff function equal to one on a smaller disk and supported in . Let denote a local real coordinate on ; in the first term below, is the globally defined torus one-form, while is extended by zero outside . The real closed differential formis globally defined, vanishes on the smaller disk, and has period one on the horizontal generator. Pull it to by the rescaling map , and extend it by zero across the slit and over the other torus. For sufficiently small , the slit is inside the region where the form vanishes. Hence this extension is a smooth closed differential form on the connected sum, with .
Define a nonnegative conformal metric density by the pointwise norm of relative to the flat metric. Two-dimensional scale invariance givesindependently of . For every representative homotopic to ,because the period of a closed differential form is unchanged by homotopy. This is the extremal length lower bound from a closed one-form; therefore . If tended to zero along any subsequence, the collar estimate would force , a contradiction. In fact its hyperbolic lengths are uniformly bounded away from zero. ThusFor every fixed , replace by the area-one translation surface constructed in the polygon argument; its genus is . Cut its slit inside a nonsingular flat coordinate disk. The new connected sum has genus , and the area normalization, small-handle length bound and closed-one-form energy argument are unchanged. Thus the converse fails at every fixed genus .
A small translation torus joined by equal slits; its generator is flat-short while retaining a positive extremal-length bound
. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 141 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write . Filling one end of times an annulus gives a solid torus, so is a solid torus. The prescribed algebraic intersection number of curves on an oriented surface convention gives . HenceIn , the first Dehn filling imposes , while . ThereforeThe class is primitive because , a consequence of . It is therefore the disk-bounding meridian of a solid torus of . Since meets it once, Dehn filling along glues two solid torus pieces with disk boundaries meeting once. This is the standard genus-one Heegaard splitting of , soTo identify the regular fiber geometrically, put it on their common boundary torus. Invert the displayed basis change:Here bounds a disk in the newly attached solid torus and bounds a disk in . Thus the curve has winding numbers and in the two complementary solid torus pieces. Both coefficients are positive and , so it is the positive torus knot. This identifies the torus knot directly from the genus-one splitting, without invoking a theorem specifically about torus knots.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 316 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For an unperturbed Kepler orbit, successive revolutions advance the planet-relative orientation by modulo , where is the comet's orbital period. An irrational period ratio makes these orientations dense; sufficiently distant mean-motion resonance and adequate observation time justify the corresponding phase mixing approximation.
At each radius between its pericentre distance and apocentre distance, the comet eventually visits every azimuth in the rotating reference frame. The spatial projection is thereforeIt is an annulus, with a nonuniform radial residence probability, rather than a uniformly filled area. Strictly, the full position-velocity phase space is not this annulus: at each radius the energy and angular momentum constrain the velocity, with inward and outward branches. The annulus is its position-space projection. This description assumes the orbital elements have not yet been substantially changed by planetary scattering.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 316 3 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put . For , the solution of the linear secular forcing of a test particle equation isThe initial condition gives and . The proper eccentricity is the constant amplitude of the homogeneous response; its proper longitude of periapsis is . The forced eccentricity is the driven vector , not necessarily a constant magnitude.
On an Argand diagram, describes a circle of radius . Its center can itself move under the planetary modes, so need not trace one fixed circle in the inertial complex plane. At a secular resonance , that mode instead produces , and the undamped linear response grows until the approximation fails.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 316 3 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
To first order in orbital eccentricity, the semi-minor axis is , while the ellipse's center is displaced from the star by . Thus each orbit is a circle of radius about , in complex spatial coordinates.
Write at one secular epoch. The centers of the individual circles lie on a circle of radius about . Their union is the proper-eccentricity annulusIts full radial width is and its center is displaced by toward the forced apoapsis direction. Relative to the star, if the forced longitude of periapsis is zero,The middle panel of the preceding figure shows this construction. For fully sampled orbital phases and proper phases, the annulus is occupied throughout, but its density need not be uniform; turning points in the proper radial excursion give integrable edge enhancements. The construction requires and is an instantaneous secular geometry.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 1 2F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The partial fraction decomposition isFor , expand both denominators by the geometric series:This is actually a Taylor series at zero, since the apparent puncture at zero contains no singularity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 4 21F a ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Write the closed oriented surface of genus as , where is a closed disk, is a slightly enlarged once-punctured surface, and is an annulus. Thus is contractible, is homotopy equivalent to the circle, and is homotopy equivalent to the wedge sum of circles. The boundary circle represents the product of the commutators in the fundamental group of , so its image in the first homology group, which is the abelianization of that group, is zero.
The relevant part of the Mayer–Vietoris sequence is consequentlyThe degree-zero part says that the connected space has , while the groups above degree two vanish. Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 2 14A a iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
An annulus stays away from both the origin and infinity, so every displayed radial mode is regular there. Therefore none of the coefficients is forced to vanish.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 202 3 d i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The function is a harmonic function on the annulus . The Itô formula therefore makes a bounded martingale. The optional sampling theorem for a supermartingale giveswhere . Solving this linear equation yields the planar Brownian annulus hitting probability


