Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 39 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let and . We use these precise Bessel process facts, which the question permits: for dimension a process started at exists for all time, never reaches zero, and has a strictly positive all-time minimum. More quantitatively,No assertion about SLE simplicity or transience is being assumed.
For a real point before its Loewner lifetime, set . Its equation isThus is a Bessel process of dimension . For each rational it stays positive on every finite interval, almost surely. These countably many events hold together. They cover every real as well: choose rational and observe that the noise cancels in the difference,Consequently cannot reach zero while remains positive. The negative side has the identical argument with the reflected Brownian motion.
This excludes Loewner trace contact with every real point other than zero, rather than just with each fixed rational point. On any finite interval a positive gap at a real point stays bounded away from zero. Continuous dependence of the Chordal Loewner equation then solves it on a complex neighborhood of that point, and the analytic flow extends the map conformally across a real interval there. Its real derivative is , and its image stays away from the driving point. The Loewner trace tip therefore cannot be there. We have proved .
Now use Brownian motion independent increments to restart at every deterministic rational time . The centered future maps have Loewner driver and therefore the original SLE law, independently of the past. Its Loewner trace stays in by the preceding argument. The inverse map extends continuously to the real boundary for a continuous trace-generated compact H-hull: the finite Loewner trace gives a locally connected boundary, and the Caratheodory boundary extension theorem applies. Its value at is . Thus the future in the original plane can meet only at . All these restart conclusions hold simultaneously for rational .
Suppose with . The Loewner trace cannot be constant throughout , since its compact H-hull capacity increases strictly. By continuity there is a rational with . But lies in , contradicting the restart conclusion at . This also excludes any return to the starting point. Hence the Loewner trace is simple and lies in the open complex upper half-plane at every positive time.
For transience, first strengthen the boundary conclusion to avoidance of the closure at each fixed real point. Fix and . If the now-simple curve first enters the closed half-disc of radius about at time , join its tip to by the segment inside that disc. Before the segment misses the Loewner trace. Together with the Loewner trace and the real interval from zero to , it bounds a pocket whose boundary includes the positive side of the Loewner trace and . A Brownian motion path from high on the imaginary axis reaching that boundary arc must enter the pocket through the segment. The maximum principle for harmonic functions bounds its harmonic measure by the chance of hitting the entire half-disc.
The boundary arc maps under to . Its harmonic measure from , as , isThe half-disc maps out by ; its semicircle becomes an interval of length . Its harmonic measure has asymptotic . Comparing and letting yieldsBut by the all-time minimum of a transient Bessel process fact. The curve cannot enter any such disc with . Therefore it stays a strictly positive distance from for all time. Reflection proves the same for fixed . This is the boundary approach forces a small SLE Bessel gap argument; the crosscut comparison is also described in the boundary-closure lemma in the primary SLE paper.
Map out the simple initial slit at time one. The starting point zero has two distinct real prime end images under , lying on opposite sides of . Conditionally on the initial slit, the image future is a fresh independent SLE translated by . The just-proved fixed-point closure avoidance applies to each of and . Therefore neither nor lies in the closure of the mapped future. If a sequence of future Loewner trace points approached zero in the original domain, their images would approach one of these two prime ends. This is impossible. ThusFinally Scaling invariance of SLE gives . For every fixed ,The events of returning to the closed radius- disc after time decrease as increases. Continuity of probability on decreasing events implies that the probability of returns at arbitrarily late times is zero. Taking the countable intersection over positive integer provesThis proves actual eventual escape, not merely unboundedness of the growing compact H-hulls.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 39 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work in the prime end closure of the marked domain, so that its two conformal boundary points are distinct even if their physical boundary representatives coincide. A chordal filling is a closed connected set joining those points, meeting the conformal boundary nowhere else, and full relative to the two boundary arcs between them: complementary pockets that do not reach either boundary arc have been added. In the normalized complex upper half-plane, its two complementary sides are simply connected and abut the negative and positive real axes. For a proper boundary-to-boundary curve, chordal filling means adjoining all such trapped pockets to its range. Independent curves are combined by taking their union and then applying this same chordal filling operation.
An admissible marked subdomain contains neighborhoods of the two marked boundary points and has a simply connected component joining them. The restriction property says that, conditional on the random chordal filling being contained in , its law is the chordal filling law for . Equivalently, mapping the conditional chordal filling conformally back to recovers the original law. The contained-set events are understood away from the shared marked endpoints.
By transporting the family under conformal maps, it suffices to work in . Let be an admissible compact H-hull whose closure avoids zero, and normalizeIn terms of the single normalized measure , restriction is preciselyThe Schwarz reflection principle extends analytically near zero, with , so the stated conditioning events have positive probability for the two laws considered below. This is the chordal restriction property for filled sets. An unbounded marked subdomain can be approximated by such compact-hull removals; conformal maps transport the formulation to general domains.
We need a determination principle for filled sets, since a probability of one avoidance event alone would not establish equality of laws. Choose countably many thin polygonal compact H-hulls with rational data, attached to real boundary intervals away from zero. For each chordal filling, every point of its complement has a path within one of the two complementary sides to the appropriate real boundary interval. A sufficiently thin tube along such a path avoids the chordal filling and contains a neighborhood of that point. Hence the union of interiors of all avoided test tubes is exactly the complement.
Their joint avoidance probabilities are also determined by single-hull probabilities. For a finite union of test compact H-hulls, either the union separates zero from infinity, in which case a connected chordal filling cannot avoid it, or its unbounded complementary component contains both marked endpoints. In the latter case fill the union's bounded pockets to get an admissible compact H-hull . A connected set joining zero to infinity and avoiding the union cannot enter one of these separated pockets, so it avoids as well. Thus joint avoidance is either impossible or is the avoidance event for . The inclusion-exclusion principle gives every finite joint probability distribution of the tube-avoidance indicators, and these indicators determine the random complement and chordal filling. This proves avoidance probabilities determine a chordal filling law.
In the given avoidance formulas, the argument of the conformal map must be the retained open domain, rather than the random closed filling. We express that domain as to keep the two objects distinct. The formulas then imply for the two filled processesThe chordal filling operation does not change avoidance of an admissible compact H-hull: every piece of that compact H-hull is attached to the real boundary away from the endpoints, and so cannot be inside a trapped pocket while its generating curve avoids the compact H-hull. These laws are conformally invariant as unparameterized chordal filling laws. For SLE this follows from Question 1; for the Brownian half-plane excursion, Brownian scaling of its independent one- and three-dimensional coordinates shows that its unparameterized law is unchanged by positive dilations, and mapping the Brownian half-plane excursion to another marked domain gives the conformally natural law. Conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion describes the corresponding change of time, which does not alter the chordal filling.
Here is the conditional-law calculation for either exponent . For another admissible compact H-hull in the image complex upper half-plane, setThe complement of is mapped to by this composition, so is again admissible; both maps fix zero and have derivative one at infinity. The chain rule gives . ThereforeThese are exactly the original chordal filling's avoidance probabilities for every . The determination principle proves equality of the conditional image law with the original law. Hence both generated chordal fillings have restriction, with exponents and respectively. This is a complete implication from the two allowed avoidance formulas; the restriction conclusion was not assumed.
For independent chordal fillings, avoidance of by their filled union is equivalent to avoidance by every component. Independence multiplies the probabilities, and thus adds their restriction exponents of a chordal filling. ConsequentlyThe determination principle applies once more, givingThe equality concerns the filled, unparameterized closed sets. The numerical reason is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 36 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write . By definition of a compact H-hull, is a proper simply connected domain, and it agrees with the complex upper half-plane outside a sufficiently large disc. The Riemann mapping theorem supplies a conformal isomorphism . Choose its boundary normalization so that the prime end at infinity maps to infinity. This prime end is unambiguous because the domain has an ordinary straight real boundary near infinity.
The Schwarz reflection principle, applied there in the coordinate , extends across the real boundary near infinity. It has a simple pole there, with Laurent seriesThe pole is simple because the reflected map is locally conformal at infinity; its leading coefficient is positive because it maps the upper side to the upper side. Postcomposing with the half-plane automorphism givesThis is hydrodynamic normalization at infinity.
If both satisfy it, is a conformal automorphism of the upper half-plane. The asymptotics force it to fix infinity, so it has the form with and . The same asymptotics force , . Hence the normalized mapping-out function exists and is unique. The argument requires reflection only outside a large disc, not regularity of the hull's entire boundary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 36 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For chordal SLE with parameter , the Loewner trace starts at zero and is parametrized by half-plane capacity . Let be the unbounded component of , and let be its filled compact H-hull. When the trace is not simple, the hull includes the regions it disconnects from infinity. The associated mapping-out functions of compact H-hulls have expansionand satisfy the Chordal Loewner equationwhere is standard real Brownian motion. The equation is solved until is swallowed by the hull. The Loewner transform records the real boundary point at which the mapped hull grows; its relation to the trace isEquivalently the tip maps to in the appropriate boundary prime-end sense. Thus the flow encodes the surviving domains, the transform drives that flow, and the trace generates its hulls. For , the driver is identically zero, with the branch asymptotic to , and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 27 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A compact H-hull is a bounded relatively closed set whose complement is a simply connected domain. Equivalently one can retain its compact closure in ; real boundary points do not affect the mapping-out function. The Riemann mapping theorem and Schwarz reflection principle near infinity give a unique conformal map with hydrodynamic normalization at infinity. Its Laurent series isThe half-plane capacity is . The missing constant term is part of the normalization, not a choice to be made again when comparing different hulls.
Here are the conformal map facts we use to justify positivity and comparison. The inverse has expansion . The upper-half-plane Schwarz-Pick theorem, applied to and and then letting , implies . Indeed the inequality between pseudohyperbolic distances givesand multiplying by gives the height comparison in the limit. At , the inverse expansion reads , so .
For , uniqueness of the mapping-out function givesConsequentlyTranslation by a real number similarly gives and leaves half-plane capacity unchanged.
If are compact H-hulls, their mapping-out functions compose as , where is the filled image of . Comparing Laurent series yieldsThis proves monotonicity of half-plane capacity, rather than assuming it from inclusion alone. The filled half-disc has mapping-out functionwhich takes its semicircular boundary to the real line and is a conformal bijection onto . Thus its half-plane capacity is . Enclose in such a half-disc, compare capacities, and minimize over real centres and radii. This proves the sharp boundIf one defines the radius by an infimum, take strictly larger than that infimum and then let decrease; no attainment assumption is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 27 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and, for , let be the filled image hull . The half-plane-capacity composition rule givesThe Loewner local growth property says that these mapped increments shrink uniformly on bounded time intervals: for every ,Using diameter instead of radius is equivalent, since a nonempty compact H-hull has its closure meeting the real axis. This is a condition on the increments after mapping out the past, not merely on the Euclidean size of in the original domain.
For fixed , the nonempty compact sets , , are nested as decreases. Their diameters tend to zero by Loewner local growth property. The nested-compact-set property gives a single intersection point, and its imaginary part is zero because lies in a real-centred disc of radius tending to zero. Define the Loewner transform byOne may restrict the intersection to sufficiently small . Every point of is within of when .
Here is a direct proof of continuity, using the permitted displacement estimate. Fix and put . Take and a point . Set . The hull composition rule puts , while the displacement estimate givesSince is within of , let , taking , to obtainUse a slightly larger fixed time interval if is its endpoint. Both terms tend to zero with . This proves continuity from both sides, and indeed uniform continuity on every compact time interval. The real boundary value is obtained as a limit; evaluating the displacement estimate directly on a possibly rough boundary is unnecessary.
The Loewner correspondence theorem states that a capacity- increasing hull family with Loewner local growth property has the unique continuous real Loewner driving function just defined, and its mapping-out functions solve the Chordal Loewner equationFor each , this solution is taken up to its maximal lifetime; is precisely the set of points whose lifetimes exceed . Conversely a continuous real driver gives such a hull family through this ordinary differential equation. A continuous driver alone need not have a continuous Loewner trace; that additional assertion is part of the trace theory of SLE, not of the deterministic correspondence theorem.
A continuous process is chordal Schramm–Loewner evolution with parameter from to infinity when , its filled past generates these capacity- hulls, and their Loewner driving function iswith standard real Brownian motion. The filling includes bounded components cut off from infinity. Equivalently its Loewner trace is the continuous extension of . This last boundary limit is the trace-existence input for SLE.
Fix and scale space and time together:The half-plane capacity of is by part (a). Differentiation givesBy Brownian scaling, is again standard Brownian motion, so the new driver has the same law as the old one. Uniqueness of the Chordal Loewner equation transfers this equality to the hulls and their continuous Loewner traces. ThusThis is capacity-parametrized scale invariance of a Loewner chain. It includes , when the driver is zero and the trace is the deterministic vertical slit .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 27 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
As printed, the lower bound needs a connectedness hypothesis. This illustrates that radius gives no positive lower bound for disconnected harmonic hull capacity. A compact H-hull need not have connected closure. To see the obstruction, take , set , and use three disjoint vertical slits,Their complement in the complex upper half-plane is a simply connected domain: the three slits attach to the real boundary, and create no interior holes. Symmetry shows that the smallest enclosing half-disc is centred at zero and has radius one. More explicitly, any real centre has maximum distance to the two outer tips at least , while the unit half-disc contains every slit. Also and has modulus one.
For a vertical slit of height , the mapping-out function of a vertical slit maps its two faces onto an interval of length , so its harmonic capacity from infinity in the upper half-plane is . Subadditivity of harmonic hull capacity, from the union bound for the Brownian hitting events, givesThus the requested conclusion does not follow from the printed assumptions.
The intended reflection lower bound for harmonic hull capacity works when the closure is a connected continuum joining the two specified points, as for a slit hull. Reflect in the vertical line through , using . The reflected continuum joins to . Together the original and reflected continua form a barrier between infinity and the segment together with the real interval between and . One can first verify this separation for polygonal simple arcs, then use decreasing connected neighbourhoods of the continuum. Hence, for Brownian motion started at , large, reaching or the real interval between and requires a hit of the original or reflected barrier. Reflection symmetry and the union bound giveFor the connected slit setting, the real attachment endpoints have zero harmonic measure, so the last event may be written with .
For , use the branch of the square root fixed by hydrodynamic normalization at infinity:The two slit faces together have image length . The interval has image length , by the square-root formula on the appropriate real side. Thus the image length of is . Multiply the probability inequality by and use part (i); the allowed starting approach includes . We obtainunder the stated connected-barrier interpretation. If , the model slit is empty and has length , giving the same lower bound by the real-interval argument. The connectedness repair is essential, as the explicit three-slit counterexample demonstrates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 27 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A compact H-hull is a bounded relatively closed subset of the complex upper half-plane such that is a simply connected domain. This does not require its closure to be connected. Its mapping-out function is the unique conformal map with hydrodynamic normalization at infinity,The half-plane capacity isThe coefficient is zero exactly for the empty hull.
In terms of the least radius of a real-centred enclosing half-disc, the sharp displacement bound for a compact H-hull, also called the continuity estimate, isThe differentiability estimate for a mapping-out function is a uniform small-hull expansion: there is an absolute constant such that if with , thenThese are statements of the two requested estimates. The second is not merely a bound for : it controls the first-order change of a mapping-out function when a small hull is removed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 29 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A compact H-hull is a bounded set that is closed relative to the complex upper half-plane and whose complement is a simply connected domain. Its Euclidean closure is compact in ; “compact” here does not require separation from the real axis. One may equivalently describe the closed hull in , with its real-boundary convention understood. Its mapping-out function is the unique conformal map to with hydrodynamic normalization at infinity.
Use the capacity convention . A chordal Schramm–Loewner evolution from to infinity is the hull family of the Chordal Loewner equationwhere is a real standard Brownian motion and . The points with interior-point swallowing time for a Loewner chain at most constitute . For each , maps conformally onto and has expansion . The case is the deterministic vertical-slit chain.
First identify the relevant transformed Loewner driving functions directly. For , defineDifferentiation gives . Its initial value is , its domain is , and its expansion is . Thus its driving function is , by uniqueness of the differential equation and of the hydrodynamically normalized map. Brownian scaling provesThis is capacity-parametrized scale invariance of a Loewner chain.
For a fixed time , map the future remaining domains by . The corresponding hulls are specified without any boundary-image ambiguity byTheir mapping-out functions areAt this is the identity. Differentiating at a point in its domain yieldsThe Laurent series is . Hence the transformed Loewner driver is exactly , with the original capacity clock unchanged. This proves the composition rule for chordal Loewner driving functions, rather than assuming an identification of transforms.
The Brownian motion increments after are independent of its past and have the original law. Since past hulls are measurable functions of the past Loewner driver, conditionally on the past, the centered mapped future is an independent copy of the original chain. This is the domain Markov property of a chordal Loewner chain. At an almost surely finite stopping time it follows likewise from the Strong Markov property.
For the converse, a precise class is essential: take capacity-parametrized Loewner chains generated by a continuous real Loewner driving function , with , and require the two displayed hull properties, including independence from the entire hull past in the domain Markov property. Within this class they characterize , for some .
To see why the hull assertions determine the Loewner driver assertions, the hull domains determine their normalized maps uniquely. For any surviving point,The left time derivative suffices for , since is continuous. A sufficiently high point survives up to any given finite time, so points , , suffice to reconstruct the Loewner driver locally and measurably from the hull past. Thus the driving-function reconstruction for a chordal Loewner chain identifies the two past filtrations and makes the preceding scale and composition computations reversible.
The domain Markov property therefore gives stationary independent increments for . Its continuity makes it a continuous Lévy process. Its classification gives : in the Lévy–Khintchine formula continuity removes the jump measure, leaving characteristic function . Driver scaling would turn the drift into , so invariance for every forces . The diffusion coefficient is unchanged. This proves the scale-and-domain-Markov characterization of SLE with its regularity and parametrization hypotheses stated explicitly.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 203 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The mapping-out function of a compact H-hull is the unique conformal bijection from onto the complex upper half-plane with hydrodynamic normalization at infinity:The nonnegative coefficient is the half-plane capacity of . The leading coefficient one and constant term zero remove the affine ambiguity of a half-plane map. In the compact H-hull convention, is bounded and relatively closed in , and its complement is a simply connected domain; boundary attachment points can be included in its closure.
We will use these standard properties explicitly: and its inverse extend holomorphically by Schwarz reflection principle across real intervals outside the hull's real attachment region; their real boundary restrictions are strictly increasing; and their normalized Laurent series hold in a full reflected neighbourhood of infinity. In particular, when lies in the unit disc, these extensions exist across and .