Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We place the definitions and the unheaded preliminary requests here before addressing the first labelled property. The Schwartz space consists of smooth functions with finite seminormsfor every pair of multi-indices. Convergence means convergence in each seminorm. The tempered distribution space is its continuous dual space, with weak convergence tested against every Schwartz function. A continuous functional satisfies a bound by finitely many of these seminorms, equivalently by one sufficiently large weighted derivative seminorm.
Use the Fourier transform conventionDifferentiation under the integral and integration by parts express as a constant of modulus one times the Fourier transform of . Its supremum is bounded by the norm of that function. For , this norm is at most a constant times finitely many Schwartz seminorms, using the integrable weight . Thus is continuous.
For completeness, Fourier inversion follows by inserting in the inverse integral and using Fubini's theorem. The result is convolution with the Gaussian approximate identityIt tends to , while integrability of allows the damping factor to be removed by dominated convergence theorem. Consequently . Reflection preserves every Schwartz seminorm, so the inverse transform is continuous as well. This proves the Fourier transform isomorphism of the Schwartz space.
Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution by transposition,The Schwartz-space continuity just proved makes this a tempered distribution. Its inverse is , where . These maps are continuous for weak convergence, since each pairing is a pairing with a fixed transformed test. They are also continuous for the strong dual topology, because the Schwartz-space maps take bounded sets to bounded sets.
The convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function isSmooth dependence of translated Schwartz functions gives . The finite-seminorm estimate and show that each derivative has at most polynomial growth. In particular, is a smooth function defining a tempered distribution. It need not itself be a Schwartz function; for example .
Writing , its distributional pairing is . The inner convolution is a Schwartz function, and this identity follows by integration in the Schwartz topology, justified by the weighted seminorm estimates. A direct Fubini's theorem calculation gives . HenceMultiplication is well defined because multiplication by acts continuously on .
Now write the Hilbert transform as convolution with , the principal-value reciprocal distribution. The given Heaviside function transform, together with , yieldsThe value of the sign function at zero is irrelevant to its regular distribution. Thus the Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier isApplying Plancherel theorem, whose normalization here is , proves the isometry:The principal-value integral agrees with this convolution: near its singular point subtract , and use odd cancellation; at infinity the Schwartz decay gives convergence. The Hilbert transform has domain , but generally does not take values in , as the tail in part (c) demonstrates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 327 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The multiplication of a distribution by a smooth function is . If is a Schwartz function, the Leibniz rule shows that is a continuous map , so is a tempered distribution. When both and are radial, , andThus Multiplication by a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
For the convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function, setTranslations of depend smoothly on in the Schwartz space, so this is a smooth function with . The bound for by finitely many seminorms, together with , provesThus the function also defines a tempered distribution. For a radial function , put . Then , soHence Convolution with a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
Smoothing alone need not give a Schwartz function: for the constant tempered distribution and a Schwartz function with integral one, . The radial Schwartz approximation of tempered distributions therefore combines smoothing with a large-radius cutoff. Choose a nonnegative radial mollifier , supported in the unit ball with integral one, and a radial cutoff function equal to one on the unit ball. PutEach is a smooth function of compact support, hence a Schwartz function, and the two invariance calculations above make it radial.
It remains to prove convergence, including the simultaneous changes of both scales. With , the distributional convolution pairing isFor every fixed , the Leibniz rule, rapid decay outside the radius- ball, and the chain rule for giveConvolution by is uniformly bounded in for , because its shifts have size at most one. The mean value theorem applied to similarly givesSplitting the error into the convolved cutoff error and the approximate identity error provesIf , this yieldsConsequentlyweakly, and even in the strong dual topology, since is uniformly bounded on every subset of the Schwartz space that is a bounded set in a topological vector space. No assertion that itself is rapidly decreasing is needed.
Choose a radial mollifier with integral one and support in the unit ball, and a radial cutoff function equal to one there. For a radial tempered distribution , the functionsare radial Schwartz functions. Smoothness comes from convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function, and compact support comes from the cutoff. Pairing with gives . With , the cutoff tail and the mean value theorem giveThe continuity estimate for therefore proves even in the strong dual topology. Inserting a cutoff is essential because convolution alone need not give rapid decay.