Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ib Paper 3 3E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A topological space is connected if it is not the union of two disjoint nonempty open sets, or equivalently has no nontrivial subset that is both an open set and a closed set.
Let be the union of all connected subspaces containing . A union of connected subsets with a common point is connected: if a separation of a topological space existed, every member containing would lie wholly in the same side. Hence is connected and contains every connected subspace through , so it is the connected component of .
If , their union is connected and maximality gives . Otherwise they are disjoint. Since every belongs to , the connected components partition .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 118 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Apply Serre duality for compact complex manifolds to , where is the canonical bundle:We can show the group on the right vanishes directly from the embedding. Since , the tautological bundle inclusion gives an inclusion of holomorphic vector bundlesA global holomorphic section of consequently determines global holomorphic functions on . Compactness and the maximum modulus principle make these functions constant on every connected component. On such a component the section is therefore a constant vector lying in the tautological line for every .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 118 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For degree zero, compactness and the maximum modulus principle make holomorphic functions constant on each connected component. For degree two, a holomorphic differential form is -closed and its derivative has type , which vanishes on a complex surface. Degrees above two have no nonzero holomorphic forms. It remains to treat a holomorphic differential form of degree one.
Set . Its coefficients are holomorphic, so is a holomorphic differential form of degree two, hence closed by the degree-two observation. Its conjugate is closed too. The Stokes theorem givesThe integrand is nonnegative in the complex orientation. In local coordinates, if with , thenIt is strictly positive wherever is nonzero. Its zero integral therefore forces everywhere. Thus holomorphic forms on a compact complex surface are closed, even when the surface is not Kähler:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 118 5 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be the sheaf of closed holomorphic one-forms, namely . The local exactness proved in part (b) gives the short exact sequence of sheavesIts long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology beginsThe first arrow is an isomorphism: on a compact complex manifold, a global holomorphic function is constant on each connected component, just as a global section of the constant sheaf is. Thus is injective. By part (c), every global holomorphic differential form of degree one is closed, so .
Concretely, for a holomorphic differential form of degree one choose local holomorphic primitives . The connecting class is represented by the locally constant Čech cocycle on overlaps. The following arrow is induced by the inclusion of the constant sheaf into the sheaf of holomorphic functions. Exactness is inherited from the long exact sequence, giving
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 142 3 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
All Topological K-theory groups below are complex and are indexed modulo two using Bott periodicity. For , Complex K-theory of a sphere givesFor an even-dimensional sphere, choose a generator of Reduced topological K-theory. Its square vanishes: the Chern character sends to a top-degree cohomology class, whose square is zero, and the Chern character is injective on this torsion-free abelian group. Thus the ring answers areThe exceptional zero-dimensional sphere consists of two points: with coordinatewise multiplication and . In particular its reduced generator is idempotent rather than square-zero.
For the Euler characteristic identity, induct over the cells of a finite CW complex. The starting CW complex consisting of vertices has , , and . If is obtained from by attaching one -dimensional cell, the quotient is , and the K-theory six-term exact sequence isThese abelian groups are finitely generated by induction. Tensoring the exact sequence with preserves exactness. The alternating sum of dimensions in a cyclic six-term exact sequence is zero, soTherefore
There is a genuine convention issue in the nilpotence assertion. With the usual definition of Reduced topological K-theory as the kernel of restriction to one basepoint, the assertion needs to be connected. For based at its first point, lies in and satisfies for every . Thus it is not a nilpotent element. For an arbitrary finite CW complex, the correct assertion uses the rank map in topological K-theory on every connected component:For a connected space, .
Here is an induction proving the corrected assertion. On the vertices, . For a positive-dimensional cell attachment , the ideal is square-zero. Indeed, lift two elements of to relative topological K-theory . Their product is induced by the reduced diagonalThis map is null-homotopic, since and is -connected. The relative product in topological K-theory is therefore zero, giving . If , its restriction belongs to , so induction gives for some . Then and . We have proved every Topological K-theory class of rank zero on every connected component is a nilpotent element, and hence the requested result for connected .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 142 3 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For the K-theory transfer of a finite covering, let be a vector bundle and defineOn an evenly covered neighborhood the sheets identify this with a direct sum of local vector bundles. On overlaps the identifications permute the sheets and apply the transition maps of , so these local descriptions glue to a vector bundle on . This operation respects direct sums, hence extends to a homomorphism of Grothendieck groupsIt obeys the projection formula for the K-theory transfer:For actual vector bundles, this follows fiberwise by distributing the tensor product of vector bundles over the direct sum; it then extends to their Grothendieck groups.
Let be the permutation vector bundle of the covering. It has rank on every connected component, but need not be a trivial vector bundle; in particular one cannot replace by multiplication by integrally. Instead writeThe componentwise nilpotence result from the preceding solution gives for some . In the localization of a ring , the finite geometric seriesis an inverse. The projection formula for the K-theory transfer givesThus implies after inverting . More explicitly, is a left inverse, proving
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 220 1 a Solution 2026-09-28
A compact real tree is a compact metric space such that any are joined by a unique arc, and that arc is isometric to . The multiplicity of a point in a real tree is the number of connected components of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 220 1 c Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
False. Join, at one common endpoint , a line segment of length for every positive integer , and use the intrinsic path metric. This is a real tree. It is totally bounded, because outside the first finitely many arms every point lies arbitrarily close to , and it is complete; hence it is compact. Removing leaves one connected component for every arm, so has countably infinite multiplicity of a point in a real tree.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 2 10G Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
The implicit function theorem states that if and the partial derivative is an invertible linear map, then near the zero set of is uniquely the graph of a continuously differentiable function.
If is a differentiable bijection with differentiable inverse , the chain rule applied to and givesThus is an isomorphism with inverse .
If a continuously differentiable map has invertible derivative everywhere, the inverse function theorem makes it a local diffeomorphism. In particular it is an open map, so its image is open. Its image need not be closed: has nonzero derivative everywhere and image .
For the given map of elementary symmetric polynomials,and direct evaluation of the determinant givesHence the critical set isIts complement is the Zariski-open set on which the three coordinates are pairwise distinct. Each point has one of the six possible strict coordinate orderings, and each ordering defines a nonempty convex open region. A continuous path cannot change an ordering without crossing . Therefore has exactlyconnected components.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 302 1 d i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
As a smooth manifold, . It has two connected components, distinguished by the sign of : each of and is connected, and a continuous path in cannot cross .
Rank map in topological K-theory 2026-10-05
The rank of a vector bundle is locally constant on the base. Taking the difference of the ranks extends to the Grothendieck group of vector bundles, giving the rank map in Topological K-theory. For a finite CW complex, its kernel consists of classes of rank zero on every connected component.
A compact Lie group has finitely many connected components, each an oriented compact manifold of dimension . Componentwise integration identifies its top-degree de Rham cohomology with one real coordinate per component. For a connected group, if top-degree classes are represented by invariant forms, the invariant volume form on a Lie group spans the cohomology: invariant top forms are one-dimensional, and its positive integral proves that its class is nonzero by the Generalized Stokes theorem. A disconnected group cannot have an invariant representative of every top-degree class, since left translations permute its components. For example, has two independent degree-one classes but only one independent invariant top form.