Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 4 2E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Eisenstein's criterion. Let be a nonconstant primitive polynomial. If a prime number satisfies , for , and , then is an irreducible polynomial over .
To prove the Eisenstein criterion, suppose a nontrivial factorization exists over . Gauss lemma for polynomials gives with of positive degree. Their leading coefficients are not divisible by , because their product is . Reduction modulo therefore preserves both degrees, andSince the only irreducible factor of the right side is , both reduced factors are nonzero monomials of positive degree. Their constant coefficients are consequently divisible by . This would make , a contradiction.
For the requested polynomial, shift the variable by one. The binomial theorem givesIt is monic, all coefficients below the leading one are divisible by , and the constant coefficient is , not divisible by . The Eisenstein criterion proves irreducibility of this shifted polynomial. The substitution is an automorphism of , with inverse , so it preserves nontrivial factorizations. HenceThis is the cyclotomic polynomial for a prime index.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 4 9H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
If there are balls in box A, a ball currently in B is selected with probability , increasing the count, and a ball in A is selected with probability , decreasing it. For ,with every other transition zero. This is the Ehrenfest urn model.
The stationary distribution isIt is normalized by the binomial theorem, and it obeys the detailed balance:All other pairs have zero flux in both directions. These identities prove stationarity and show that this is a reversible Markov chain in equilibrium. The finite chain is irreducible and has period two; reversibility does not require aperiodicity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 127 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The quaternionic projective space is the space of one-dimensional right quaternion subspaces of . Equivalently it is the quotient of the unit sphere by simultaneous right multiplication by unit quaternions. Its coordinate filtration has one open cell in each dimension , for . Hence its cellular cohomology is in those dimensions and zero otherwise.
Let be the quaternionic tautological line bundle. Its unit sphere bundle is , with fibre . The Gysin sequence of a sphere bundle shows that multiplication by its Euler class is an isomorphism from to for . Choose the generator . Its powers generate every nonzero positive degree, giving the cohomology ring of quaternionic projective spaceThis also accounts for .
First take . Under the coordinate inclusion , the pulled-back quaternionic line is the quaternionic extension of the complex tautological line . As a complex rank-two bundle it is : a transition scalar acts on the two complex coordinates of a quaternion by and . Put , the degree-two generator of the cohomology ring of complex projective space. The Whitney sum formula for Chern classes givesHere the Euler class of a complex vector bundle is its top Chern class, using the complex orientation. In particular this degree-four pullback has coefficient one; it is not a multiple of larger absolute value. The compatible tautological bundles on the projective filtrations give the same equality for every , and multiplicativity then determines the whole ring map:It is zero whenever . These facts are the complex inclusion into quaternionic projective space.
For an odd prime , the Steenrod reduced powers are natural stable cohomology operationsThey satisfy , the Cartan formula, when , and when . In particular, on one has and for . The Cartan formula and the binomial theorem givePass to the infinite projective spaces, where , , is injective. The equality just obtained determines the Steenrod powers on quaternionic projective space; restricting to the finite spaces giveswith coefficients modulo and powers above set to zero. In particular , , and for . The infinite-space argument matters: the finite inclusion cannot detect those degrees for which .
Finally put and . Both have reduced cohomology in degrees and zero otherwise. Choose integral generators for whose pullbacks under the quotient map are , and suspended integral generators for from .
Use . Naturality for the quotient and the formula above giveStability under the suspension isomorphism instead givesAny homotopy equivalence would induce isomorphisms on the rank-one integral groups, so and with . Reducing modulo five and commuting with would require in . Neither nor equals or modulo five. ThereforeThe essential point is that integral generator signs constrain Steenrod comparisons. Arbitrary changes of basis over could rescale these two nonzero coefficients into agreement; a genuine equivalence must also preserve the integral lattices, where only the two signs are available.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 2 9F a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The binomial theorem makes the sum of the proposed probability mass function equal to ; every term is nonnegative. Realize the associated binomial distribution as , where the are independent variables with the Bernoulli distribution of parameter . Each has expected value and variance . Linearity of expectation and variance additivity for independent random variables yieldAt or this is a constant random variable; the same formulas apply, with the endpoint mass understood by continuity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 7D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For , use the binomial coefficient identity . It reduces the left side to . Put . Then , and the binomial theorem givesThus the required coefficients areFor the sum has the single coefficient . For , the power denotes the constant monomial .
The original PDF allows , but its displayed ratio is then . Literally that expression is undefined. The meaningful endpoint identity is obtained before normalization:This polynomial identity is valid at , giving on both sides. The normalized formula and the Bernstein monomial recurrence below are used only for .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 7D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For the constant monomial , the binomial theorem gives . For , the binomial coefficient identity givesThus , including by evaluation of the polynomials.
For and , substitute the preceding coefficient identity into the Bernstein polynomial sum and write . This yields the Bernstein monomial recurrenceThe coefficients are nonnegative and sum to ; and the others tend to zero. The weights in any Bernstein polynomial sum are nonnegative and sum to , so . Induction on therefore gives : the term has that limit and the other finitely many terms vanish. In fact, the same estimate in the supremum norm proves uniform convergence on .
As an independent quantitative bound, take a binomial distribution variable with parameters . Then . On , factoring the difference of powers gives ; the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the variance of giveFor the error is exactly zero. Finally the requested sum equals , so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 2 11E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For nilpotent elements of the commutative ring, choose positive integers with . The binomial theorem giveseach term has either or . Also , , and for every . Thus is an additive subgroup stable under multiplication by arbitrary ring elements:Commutativity is essential to the simple binomial argument; an arbitrary sum of nilpotent elements in a noncommutative ring need not be nilpotent.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 216 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
An exact finite mixture model follows from the binomial theorem:Define positive mixture weightsHere is the Beta function, so the component probability distributions are . All coefficients are computable from the observed integer counts.
Use inverse transform sampling with the supplied to choose : writing and , take . Then recycle its position inside that interval,Recycling a uniform random variable after discrete sampling makes uniform independently of , since . It is also independent of all supplied random variables with gamma distributions. Transform these by the probability integral transform:They are independent random variables with uniform distributions because has a unit-rate exponential distribution.
Conditional on , put and . Form the values and return their th order statistic. This uses at most the supplied random variables with gamma distributions, since . The uniform order statistic formula givesAveraging these component probability density functions with weights recovers exactly the normalized posterior density. Unused inputs can be discarded. When , , , and the output is , as required. Interval endpoints and ties have probability zero; any consistent convention there is harmless. Exactness here concerns the mathematical algorithm; finite-precision arithmetic can be stabilized with logarithmic mixture weights.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ia Paper 2 3F i Solution 2026-10-03
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 213 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a fixed occupancy , let be the per-flow rate on every active route, so feasibility means . A proportionally fair allocation is a feasible allocation satisfying, for every other feasible ,The sum counts the proportional changes over individual flows. By the first-order condition for a concave function, it is exactly the allocation solvingThis is weighted logarithmic utility optimization, and its negative objective is a strictly convex function, which gives unique rates on active routes. Routes with have no per-flow rate to determine.
Index the four routes by , , , , and let be each route's total service. WriteThe four capacity constraints say , , , and . Equivalently,For fixed maxima , every active route in the first group optimally takes total service , and every active route in the second takes , because its logarithmic objective is increasing. Up to the constant , the objective therefore becomes with . Its maximizer is , when , with the evident endpoint choices when one group is empty. Hence the proportionally fair allocation on a four-cycle isSet on inactive routes. If , all service totals are zero. In particular, for , , as required. Two disjoint active routes in the same group can each receive the same total service; service totals need not sum to one over the entire network.
With independent document arrivals given by Poisson processes of rates and independent unit-mean exponential distributions for document sizes, each of the active documents has completion rate . The flow-level network model is consequently a continuous-time Markov chain withAt all downward rates are zero. The total departure rate is at most four, so the bounded total jump rate ensures no explosion.
The original PDF's displayed factor is a binomial coefficient, not the plain quotient produced by the TeX extraction. The candidate stationary distribution for this reversible four-cycle flow model isUse . For and ,so . For the corresponding ratio is . Thus detailed balance for a continuous-time Markov chain holds for every adjacent pair, proving the displayed stationary distribution whenever .
For completeness, its existence condition can be made explicit. Put and . At fixed ,Therefore the sum over states with is at most , using the binomial theorem. This is summable if . Conversely, restricting to the single maximizing route in each group leaves the series , which diverges if . HenceThese are exactly the four strict resource-load inequalities. With positive arrival rates the Markov chain is irreducible, so the normalized stationary distribution is unique.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 339 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let . For , express in the Bernstein basis as , where . Its precomputed coefficients arewith the ratio for interpreted as one. The identity follows from , obtained by the binomial theorem.
At this level solve the linear programThere are exactly inequalities. Equivalently, must have nonnegative coefficients in the unnormalized basis; its coefficients are . Since the basis functions are nonnegative and sum to one, every feasible satisfies for all , so .
Degree elevation of Bernstein coefficients gives, for ,with endpoint coefficients unchanged. These convex combinations imply .
To cover every positive index even when , put . For , use the one-inequality LP , giving . This is a lower bound on ; moreover the explicit coefficient formula has all its factorial ratios in , so . Thus the transition to level is also monotone and every level respects the requested bound of at most inequalities. Constants are handled by the main formula at all positive indices.
Finally, for every , is strictly positive on the interval. Part (c) supplies a nonnegative-coefficient representation at some degree, and degree elevation preserves it at every higher degree. Hence eventually . Combining with the upper bound proves the Bernstein linear programming hierarchy for polynomial minimization:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 3 7D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Let . Using the conventionthe discrete Fourier transform of the supplied sequence follows from the binomial theorem:The orthogonality of roots of unity givesSince both lie between zero and , it follows that
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 113 2 b Solution 2026-10-03
On every open set , define . In characteristic of a ring , the binomial theorem gives , so these are ring homomorphisms; they commute with restrictions and hence define a morphism of sheaves of rings.
On an affine chart , the inverse image of a prime ideal under the Frobenius endomorphism isby primality. The induced continuous map is therefore the identity. These local morphisms agree on overlaps, giving the Absolute Frobenius morphism . Its action on the underlying space and on every local section was prescribed, so the morphism is unique.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 145 1 Solution 2026-10-03
Let be odd and letFor , define . Matrix multiplication and the identitygive the two filtration inequalities. Since , only the p-power condition remains. The binomial theorem givesThe first term has valuation , while every other term has strictly larger valuation because is odd and . Hence , so this is a p-valuation.
Finally, if are p-valuations, put . Taking minima preserves both filtration inequalities and the strict lower bound, whileIf , both original valuations force . Therefore the pointwise minimum of two p-valuations is again a p-valuation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ia Paper 1 11F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
For events , the probabilistic inclusion-exclusion principle isTo prove it, fix an outcome lying in exactly events. Its total coefficient on the right isby the binomial theorem; outcomes in no event contribute zero. Taking expectations of this pointwise indicator identity proves the formula. Truncating after the pair terms gives the Bonferroni inequalities
For the final bound, let and . The intersection assumption givesThe Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to yields . Thereforeso the required universal constant may be taken as . This is a second moment method estimate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 1H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Let be the unit group of residue classes modulo , and partition it into the set of bases satisfying the displayed congruence and the set of Euler witnesses that do not. If , multiplication by maps injectively into : indeed, if and also lay in , then the multiplicativity of the Jacobi symbol would giveCancelling the invertible congruence for would say that , a contradiction. Hence , so at least half of the coprime bases are witnesses.
It remains to construct one witness for every odd composite number . If is not squarefree, choose an odd prime number with . The Chinese remainder theorem gives a unit such that for the full power and modulo every other prime-power factor. The binomial theorem givesSince , this is neither nor modulo , whereas the Jacobi symbol is always or . Thus is a witness.
If is squarefree and composite, choose distinct primes . By the Chinese remainder theorem, choose to be a quadratic nonresidue modulo and to satisfy modulo every other prime divisor of . Then , while , so the Euler congruence again fails. This proves the existence of an Euler witness for every odd composite integer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ia Paper 4 5E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The binomial theorem statesThe required sum is the coefficient of inThere is no term when is odd. When is even, the relevant term has exponent and coefficient . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ia Paper 4 6D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The special binomial theoremfollows by mathematical induction. Multiplication of the formula for by and collection of the coefficient of uses Pascal's identity from part (a).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 4 39C b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 2 37A c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Several microstates can have the same extension. If denotes their state degeneracy, grouping equal terms in the state sum givesFor the one-dimensional freely jointed chain, a macrostate with positive links and negative links hasHenceThe binomial theorem now gives the fixed-tension partition function of a one-dimensional chain