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 2015 iii Paper 9 6 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Fix with and use as the test function in part (a). Its support lies compactly inside . Differentiating the convolution under the integral is allowed, and while . ConsequentlyThusat every stated interior point. This is the convolution derivative identity. The convolutions are local, so no integrability of the smooth coefficients all the way to the boundary is needed. In particular, is the convolution of the product; it must not be replaced by for a variable coefficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 9 6 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose nested interior open sets . For small , part (b) gives a smooth equation on of the formThe divergence-forcing interior H1 estimate isOne can obtain this estimate directly by testing the smooth equation against and applying Young inequality, with a cutoff function equal to one on and supported in . The approximate identity and the convolution bound give, uniformly in ,with analogous bounds for and . The coefficients need only be bounded on . Therefore is bounded in . It converges to in , and weak sequential compactness in a Hilbert space in this Sobolev space gives . Since was arbitrary, .
Now expand the distributional derivative:Its right side belongs to , so the interior elliptic regularity estimate gives . More generally, if for an integer , multiplication by the smooth coefficients puts the right side in . Interior elliptic regularity then gives . This elliptic regularity bootstrap proves for every integer .
For any nonnegative integer , choose . The Sobolev embedding theorem on compact interior subsets gives . Taking all proves , for its smooth representative. The first gain from to is the step supplied by the mollified equation; assuming in the initial definition would miss that step.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 3 15B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Taking the spatial Fourier transform of the diffusion equation gives and . Hence . Fourier inversion and the Gaussian transform from part (a), or direct evaluation of the inverse Gaussian integral, give the heat kernelSubstituting the integral for and interchanging absolutely integrable terms produces the convolution solutionFor the stated nonnegative compactly supported data, understood to be nonzero on a set of positive measure, the kernel is strictly positive everywhere. Therefore for every real and every . Property P holds: diffusion has infinite propagation speed. The distant value can be extremely small, but is not zero. For continuous initial data, any nontrivial nonnegative automatically has the required positive-measure set.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 210 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a kernel for density estimation with integral one and a smoothing bandwidth , the univariate kernel density estimator isIts expected value isThis is the convolution identity. It holds wherever the integral is defined, in particular everywhere for the bounded kernel used below. For a nonnegative kernel for density estimation, Tonelli theorem also gives the identity as an extended nonnegative integral. A signed kernel for density estimation instead requires absolute integrability for this interchange.
For the centred unit-width uniform kernel, substitute :Put . The Taylor theorem with Lagrange remainder givesThe odd function term integrates to zero, while . Hence the bias of a kernel density estimator obeysThis is a second-order pointwise bias bound for kernel density estimation. Existence and boundedness of the second derivative suffice for the stated remainder; continuity of that derivative is not an extra assumption.
For concentration, writeThe are independent and identically distributed random variables with a Bernoulli distribution, and . The required concentration bound follows from the Hoeffding lemma. We prove its Bernoulli case directly. Withwe have and , where is the exponentially tilted success probability. Therefore for every real . If or , the centred variable is identically zero and the same bound holds directly.
Independence and the exponential form of the Markov inequality now give, for ,Choose . Applying the same argument to the lower tail and adding the probabilities proves the Hoeffding inequality
To obtain the requested variance constant, use the additional bound that a probability is at most one. Set and . The tail integral formula for moments, justified by Tonelli theorem, yieldsThusThe clipping at one is essential for this integration argument to give that constant. It is an instance of a second moment bound from a clipped Gaussian tail. The exact Bernoulli distribution calculation also gives , an even stronger bound.
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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 24J c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
First : square the positive integral and use polar coordinates to obtain . Scaling therefore normalizes the one-dimensional Gaussian function .
Let . Differentiation under the integral is justified by the integrable majorant . Since , integration by parts, with zero endpoint terms, gives . With , this yields . Multiplication of the one-dimensional integrals givesApplying the same computation with reciprocal scale evaluates its inverse integral:For , Fubini's theorem gives , which is integrable because is bounded. Its inverse integral isAbsolute integrability of justifies this second application of Fubini's theorem. Thus Fourier inversion holds for every Gaussian convolution, in fact pointwise for this continuous representative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 20F iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For , the convolution equals the length of the overlap of two intervals:It is continuous and compactly supported, with . Inverse Fourier transform turns this convolution into a product, soThis function is bounded near zero and at infinity, hence lies in . Fourier inversion, or the convolution theorem applied first to the integrable interval indicators, gives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ib Paper 1 14C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The supplied transform and the Fourier shift theorem giveSincethe shift and differentiation rules yieldThe coincident boundary values make the endpoint convention immaterial.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 219 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write , and . The latent absolute magnitude and measurement error are independent normal variables, so their convolution is normal. After integrating out the individual intrinsic magnitudes, each apparent magnitude has distributionConsequently the likelihood function for the independent sample isThis is the marginal observational likelihood of a hierarchical Bayesian model, not the likelihood conditional on each unknown intrinsic magnitude. The individual errors remain heteroscedastic through their known .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 312 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The background Einstein-de Sitter universe satisfies and . Introduce and for the spatial convolutions in the Fourier transform representation with kernels and , respectively, so and . Differentiation givesAt first order the cosmological continuity equation yields , while the cosmological Euler equation gives . The growing-mode normalization therefore gives .
At second order, take the unsymmetrized order of the inputs printed in the paper. Matching the alpha mode-coupling kernel and beta mode-coupling kernel terms givesHenceWith the paper's unsymmetrized convention , one possible unsymmetrized representation isOnly the symmetric part enters a convolution of two identical linear fields. Symmetrizing givesThis is the one-dimensional cosmological density kernel. The physical symmetric one-dimensional Euler kernel is also : symmetrizing the printed reproduces it, so its apparently different unsymmetrized form is not a contradiction. Unsymmetrized kernels themselves are not unique, since antisymmetric parts integrate to zero. Zero input momenta require the usual separate treatment of the homogeneous background.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 340 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Either essay option suffices; both are developed here to make the two mathematical constructions available.
Diffusion for images. Model grey level as , initially , and use a Neumann boundary condition to avoid flux across an image boundary. The linear heat equation smooths the data. On its solution is convolution with the heat kernel, . Equivalently each Fourier mode is multiplied by , suppressing high frequencies and noise. With no flux, the mean is conserved andThe drawback is that sharp edges also contain high frequencies: a step becomes a transition of width comparable to . Running the heat equation backwards attempts sharpening but amplifies modes by and is ill-posed.
The Perona-Malik equation instead uses a decreasing diffusivity,Small gradients are smoothed strongly and large ones less strongly. If and is a unit tangent to a level curve, then away from zero gradient,The derivative of the flux, rather than just , controls forward parabolicity. Here becomes negative for : smoothing remains tangential but the normal direction can sharpen. This formal edge enhancement comes with forward-backward ill-posedness, so existence and stability of the unregularized continuum equation must not be presumed. One regularization uses as a smoothed edge detector while keeping the flux proportional to . For fixed positive , the coefficient is controlled by the smoothed data; under suitable bounds it stays positive and gives a regularized forward equation. It preserves edges through reduced cross-edge transport, without the same local backward-diffusion calculation.
Diffusion from a gradient energy connects these equations with variational regularization. If , its formal gradient flow is . Linear diffusion corresponds to . The displayed Perona-Malik equation corresponds to , which is nonconvex in the gradient for large . A convex alternative is total variation flow, with , interpreted through a subgradient at zero gradient. Adding squared data fidelity gives the formal evolution , whose equilibrium is the unique total variation denoising minimizer. Convex TV preserves sharp interfaces more effectively than the heat energy, but it may produce piecewise constant plateaux, known as staircasing in total variation denoising. A stopping time or fidelity weight controls the smoothing scale. Linear diffusion is stable but blurs edges; nonlinear diffusion must balance edge selectivity with parabolicity and regularization.
Wavelets on an interval. Simply restricting a whole-line orthonormal wavelet to destroys its orthogonality and generally its vanishing moments. Periodizing the basis restores orthogonality on the circle, but treats the two endpoints as neighbors. This is suitable for periodic data and can create an artificial endpoint jump for nonperiodic data.
A localized interval-adapted wavelet basis instead uses unchanged interior functions and finitely many special boundary wavelets at each endpoint. Start with a sufficiently regular compact support orthonormal Daubechies wavelet of order at least and choose a coarse level at which left and right boundary supports are disjoint. At each boundary, take appropriate finite combinations of the scaling functions that meet the endpoint, restricted to the interval. Choose these combinations to reproduce polynomials of degrees , remove dependencies, and orthonormalize the finite boundary Gram matrix. The choices must be compatible with refinement so that the resulting finite-dimensional spaces are nested; independent arbitrary orthonormalizations would not ensure this. Interior functions retain their whole-line filters, while the boundary functions use finite boundary refinement matrices.
For each level, choose an orthonormal basis of the orthogonal complement . It consists of interior wavelets and a bounded number of left and right boundary wavelets. Since the polynomial restrictions of degree less than belong to , every member of has vanishing moments. The compatible local boundary construction retains support diameter and the regularity of the interior construction. Boundary modification affects only finitely many functions at each level, so increasing resolution still makes the union dense in . Consequently, for a fixed coarse level ,The coarse scaling functions together with all these wavelets form an orthonormal basis. This construction is the Cohen-Daubechies-Vial interval wavelet construction. It preserves localization, polynomial cancellation and stable coefficient extraction without imposing periodic or zero boundary data. The finite boundary refinement matrices also permit a fast transform; a mere restriction followed by one unrelated Gram-Schmidt process at each scale does not establish all these properties.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ib Paper 2 4B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The convolution theorem states, for this convention, thatSince , it follows thatagain interpreted continuously at , where .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 1 23I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
For and , define their convolution byIt is bounded becauseIf , thenContinuity of translation in makes the right-hand side tend to zero with , uniformly in . Thus the convolution of L infinity and L1 functions is bounded and continuous.
Now let and . ThenAt zero this equals . By continuity it remains positive throughout some open neighbourhood of zero. Positivity at means that some satisfies and , so . HenceThis is the Steinhaus theorem.
The conclusion also holds when . Since is the union of bounded balls, some measurable subset has finite positive measure. Its difference set lies inside and already contains a neighbourhood of zero.