Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 9 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We use a blow-up compactness proof of an interior Schauder estimate, with Taylor normalization in elliptic blow-up arguments. Fix and suppose no suitable constant exists. There would be solutions with forcing for whichChoose distinct such that, for ,Then , , andIn particular . Subtract the quadratic Taylor polynomial of at and rescale:Its domain exhausts . The normalization givesTaylor theorem, or integration along line segments from zero, consequently bounds on every fixed ball by constants times , respectively. The Hessian matrices are equicontinuous. The Arzela-Ascoli theorem and a diagonal subsequence therefore give in on compact subsets of .
The rescaled equation ison each compact set. Thus is harmonic and is smooth. Every entry of its Hessian matrix is harmonic and has a global Hölder seminorm at most . The allowed Liouville lemma for globally Hölder harmonic functions makes each entry constant. Since , all these constants are zero.
On the other hand, is a unit vector and by construction. A further subsequence has ; the local convergence implies , a contradiction. Hence the desired constant exists, andThe global Hölder seminorm on the limiting Hessian matrix, rather than a bound on its magnitude throughout space, is what makes this Liouville argument work.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 107 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the paper's classical norm convention: is the derivative supremum norm through order two, not an norm. Write and , where the latter is the full Hölder norm of the forcing.
Fix . If the asserted estimate failed, rescaling the functions by their global Hessian matrix Hölder seminorm would produce withIn particular . Choose for whichThe supremum norm of tends to zero, so . Let be the quadratic Taylor polynomial of at , and defineThe domains contain , and vanish at zero. MoreoverThe right side is bounded by and tends to zero locally uniformly. The normalized Hessian matrix bound controls ; integration along line segments then bounds on every compact Euclidean ball. Arzela-Ascoli theorem and a diagonal subsequence argument give convergence in on compact subsets to an entire harmonic function , with and .
After a further subsequence with . The normalization ensures . But each second derivative of is harmonic and has finite global Hölder seminorm with exponent below one. The supplied Liouville theorem makes each derivative constant; it is the globally Hölder case of the polynomial-growth Liouville theorem for harmonic functions. Its value at zero makes it zero, a contradiction. This blow-up compactness proof of an interior Schauder estimate establishes
To absorb the term on the larger Euclidean ball, rescale this estimate to Euclidean balls contained in . For , pairs separated by less than are controlled in a Euclidean ball centred at their first point; farther pairs are controlled directly by . ThusThis is the covering step in the Simon absorption lemma. Take and fix . Iterating makes the remainder tend to zero, since the global seminorm is finite; the error terms form a convergent geometric series. Consequently
For the requested failure of the weaker estimate, take and . The derivative supremum norm and remain bounded, but comparison at and , both in for large , givesThis proves the necessity of Hölder forcing for Schauder estimates. Every member of the sequence is smooth; failure comes from the increasing frequency, not from any lack of individual regularity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 107 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write ; the paper's denotes a norm, not an norm. We use a blow-up compactness proof of an interior Schauder estimate. If the estimate failed for fixed , normalization would produceChoose with and . Since , necessarily . Subtract the quadratic Taylor polynomial at and setThe domains expand to . At zero, vanish; the Hölder seminorm of is at most . Integration along segments gives uniform bounds on each fixed ball. Alsolocally uniformly, since . By compact embedding of Hölder spaces and a diagonal subsequence, converges locally in to an entire harmonic function , with and . The unit vectors have a convergent subsequence; its limit satisfies .
Each second derivative of is an entire harmonic function with finite global Hölder seminorm. The supplied polynomial-growth Liouville theorem for harmonic functions, at growth exponent , makes it constant, and its value at zero makes it zero. This contradicts the nonzero Hessian at , proving the estimate with the small term.
To remove that term, rescale the estimate to all contained balls and apply the Simon absorption lemma. Explicitly, with and , defineFor , apply the rescaled estimate on ; its larger-ball seminorm is controlled by because all points there have boundary distance at least . For more separated pairs use . The result is . Choose and use on to obtainThe forcing's Hölder seminorm cannot be discarded. For integers , takeTheir and forcing supremum norms stay bounded, but the entry of the Hessian matrix differs by two at , giving .