Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 3 11H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We use two precise facts about the formal group of an elliptic curve. At a prime of good reduction, its kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve is identified by the uniformizer with the group . For odd this group is torsion-free. To see the second fact, the integral invariant differential of a formal group law has the form , with . Integrating constructs the formal logarithmIt is a group homomorphism to the additive group. For and ,when is odd. Hence the series converges and , so it is injective. The target has no nonzero torsion. Therefore reduction is injective on the entire rational torsion subgroup at an odd prime of good reduction, including its -primary part.
For the present elliptic curve, , so every odd is a prime of good reduction. If , the Legendre symbol of is . The values and cancel in the sum of the Legendre symbols of , yieldingThe rational torsion subgroup injects into each of these groups, so it is finite and its order divides every such .
For any odd prime , the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions supplies infinitely many with and . Discard the finitely many dividing . Since , it cannot divide . Similarly choose , again avoiding ; then , so .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 125 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For , the displayed integral equation has nonzero elliptic-curve discriminant modulo , so it has good reduction. Let be the Legendre symbol, with . Counting the two, one, or zero possible ordinates over each givesIf , then and the terms for and cancel. The term at zero vanishes. Thus the count is .
For the converse, suppose , and put . The Euler criterion and the sum of powers over a finite field show that the Trace of Frobenius satisfiesIndeed, among the positive exponents in this polynomial, of degree , only has a nonzero sum over , and that sum is . Since , the coefficient formula for trace of Frobenius modulo p yieldsNeither nor the binomial coefficient vanishes modulo . Hence , proving the point-count criterion for y squared equals x cubed plus k x:
We use the following formal logarithm fact, also useful for the next part. For a formal group law over , its logarithm has coefficients with , obtained by integrating its integral invariant differential. If is odd and , every term of degree has valuation strictly greater than , since . Thus the logarithm converges and is nonzero at . Its homomorphism into the additive characteristic-zero group proves torsion-freeness of the formal group over Qp for odd p. Consequently reduction injects the entire rational torsion subgroup at any odd prime of good reduction, including its -primary torsion. In particular the torsion subgroup is finite, and its order divides at every good .
By the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions, choose a good prime . Then , bounding the two-primary part by four. For any odd prime dividing the torsion order, the Chinese remainder theorem and the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions give a good prime with and , avoiding the finitely many primes dividing . But then , a contradiction. Therefore
The order four does occur. For , the elliptic-curve addition formula gives , so has order four. More precisely, the only nonzero rational 2-torsion point when is , so order four means a cyclic group with a rational half of this point. The duplication formula isSuch a half must have . Writing , positivity of forces . Then , so is a rational square, equivalently for an integer . Conversely is a half of when . The rational torsion on y squared equals x cubed plus positive k x is therefore cyclic of order four exactly for these , and otherwise cyclic of order two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 137 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Extend the Dirichlet character periodically to all integers, putting when . Its Dirichlet L-function, initially on , isThe Euler product follows from unique prime factorization and absolute convergence; a Dirichlet character is completely multiplicative on this extension. Write for the principal Dirichlet character, equal to one on units and zero elsewhere.
For a nonprincipal Dirichlet character , character orthogonality gives . Explicitly, multiplication by a unit with permutes the unit residues and multiplies this sum by , forcing it to vanish. For setThe numerator is at zero and the denominator is , so is bounded, indeed analytic, near zero; it decays exponentially at infinity. Initially for , absolute convergence justifiesThis Mellin transform integral is holomorphic for , locally uniformly in , and division by the Gamma function proves the requested analytic continuation to the left of the line one.
In fact, the same argument proves Mellin continuation of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function to the entire plane. If at zero, subtract this Taylor polynomial on and add its explicit integrals:The last integral is holomorphic on . Its possible simple poles at nonpositive integers cancel against zeros of . Letting increase shows that is an entire function, without any primitivity assumption.
For real , use the absolutely convergent Euler product logarithmThe higher-power remainder has the uniform estimateFor a nonprincipal Dirichlet character , invoke the allowed nonvanishing of a nonprincipal Dirichlet L-function at one. Its holomorphy and nonvanishing give a holomorphic logarithm on a small disk about one. On the connected real interval , differs from this logarithm by a fixed element of : the difference is continuous with exponential one. Thus the prime-character sum near one is bounded. This branch argument is needed for complex-valued Dirichlet characters.
For ,The finite product has a positive limit as , and the residue-one pole of the Riemann zeta function givesHere for nonprincipal Dirichlet characters means bounded complex magnitude.
Finally, for a residue class coprime to , Orthogonality of Dirichlet characters givesOnly primes not dividing occur, so the character orthogonality applies to every term. This sum diverges as . A finite collection of primes would give a bounded sum, a contradiction. Every reduced residue class contains infinitely many primes. This is the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions; the coprimality hypothesis is essential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 10G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions states that if positive integer and integer satisfy , then infinitely many prime numbers satisfyThe coprimality hypothesis is essential: if and have a common factor greater than one, a prime in the progression must divide that factor, giving at most finitely many possibilities.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 10G c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Both forms have discriminant of a binary quadratic form . The reduction algorithm for a positive definite binary quadratic form gives and for a reduced positive definite representative. Enumerating givesThe second and fourth forms are imprimitive and represent only even integers. Every odd prime represented by a form of discriminant of a binary quadratic form must therefore be represented by or .
For a prime , quadratic reciprocity givesEvery prime has this symbol equal to one and hence is represented by one of the two primitive forms, by part (b). But an odd prime represented by and different from three is , so these primes must be represented by . Similarly, primes have both symbols equal to , and are represented by , since a prime represented by is . Both residue classes are coprime to 15, so Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions proves each form represents infinitely many primes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 125 2 c Solution 2026-10-03
A positive integer is a congruent number when it is the area of a right triangle with positive rational side lengths. For a point with onthe formulasgive and , after changing signs if necessary. Conversely, a rational right triangle of area givesso these constructions are inverse up to the usual sign choices.
It remains to distinguish torsion. If an odd prime divided the order of a rational torsion point, choose by the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions a good prime for which . Part (a) gives , while part (b), applied to the formal group of an elliptic curve, makes reduction injective on -power torsion because is a unit in . This is impossible. Similarly, a good prime shows that the rational -primary torsion has order at most four. Sincealready form the full rational 2-torsion,The triangle construction uses exactly the points with , which are therefore nontorsion. By the Mordell-Weil theorem, such a point exists exactly when the free part has positive rank. Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 4 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
By Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions, choose a prime withThe cyclotomic field is Galois over , andwhere the last group is cyclic because the multiplicative group of a finite field is cyclic.
The cyclic group has a unique subgroup of order . By the Galois correspondence, its fixed field satisfiesNormality follows because lies in an abelian group. Thus every occurs as the Galois group of a finite extension of . This is the cyclic Galois extension of the rational numbers of every finite degree.
Rational torsion of a congruent number curve 2026-10-06
For nonzero integral , the elliptic curve has rational torsion precisely . At every good prime , cancellation of the Legendre symbols at and gives . The torsion-freeness of the formal group over Qp for odd p makes the rational torsion subgroup inject into this group. The Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions excludes odd factors of its order and bounds its two-primary part by four. The four displayed rational 2-torsion points then give equality.
For positive integral , the rational torsion subgroup of has order dividing four. Indeed, torsion-freeness of the formal group over Qp for odd p, reduction of torsion points on an elliptic curve, and the point-count criterion for y squared equals x cubed plus k x bound its order by at all good primes . The Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions excludes every odd torsion prime and bounds the two-primary part by four, by choosing . There is exactly one nonzero rational 2-torsion point, namely . A rational half of it must have by the elliptic-curve addition formula. Writing with , its equation is , so and . Conversely has order four. Thus the cyclic group of order four occurs exactly for , . The order bound itself holds for every nonzero integral of either sign: positivity was used only to classify the rational points of orders two and four.