Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 28 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A suitable large sieve statement is the following. If are separated modulo one by at least and is supported on consecutive integers, thenThe sharper classical constant also suffices, but is unnecessary for the requested bound. This is the exponential-sum large sieve.
Put , , and . By the orthogonality of roots of unity,At most of these residue counts are nonzero. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , and the frequency contributes exactly . Thus, if ,If for some prime, is empty and the result is immediate.
All fractions , , , are distinct reduced fractions. Their circular spacing is at least , because two distinct fractions of these denominators differ modulo one by at least . Apply the large sieve with and , and sum the preceding lower bounds:For and a positive sieve denominator, division provesWhen the denominator is zero this asserts no restriction; that degenerate case is interpreted as a vacuous bound.
For the least-nonresidue application, first establish the positive density of power-smooth integers. Fix , with an integer , and let tend to infinity. Choose ordered primes, with repetitions allowed, in the intervalTheir product satisfies . Every number has , so is -smooth. By partial summation of the Prime number theorem, or the Mertens theorem for reciprocal primes,The number of ordered representations is at leastbecause for .
This representation count must not be confused with a count of distinct integers. A number at most has at most prime factors in that interval, counted with multiplicity. There are therefore only a bounded number, depending on , of ordered -tuples which can occur as divisors of it; the cofactor is then fixed. Dividing by this bounded multiplicity provesfor a fixed and all sufficiently large .
Now work on a dyadic prime interval and let be the primes there with . Take and , so . Let be the -smooth integers at most . The density lemma gives for an absolute .
For each , every prime factor of a member of is at most and is smaller than . Hence it is a nonzero quadratic residue modulo . Multiplicativity of the Legendre symbol makes every member of a nonzero quadratic residue modulo . It therefore avoids all quadratic-nonresidue classes. In the sieve inequality set at exceptional primes and zero at every other prime up to . For odd , , soThus each dyadic interval has at most exceptional primes. The finitely many small intervals can be absorbed into this absolute bound. Summing the intervals up to proves the large-sieve logarithmic exceptional-prime bound for least quadratic nonresidues:The least nonresidue is normally defined for odd primes; any convention at the prime two changes the count by at most one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 28 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let count pairs both prime with . The Selberg sieve replaces primality by the necessary condition that the polynomial have no small prime divisor. Its strength is a nonnegative quadratic majorant with optimizable divisor weights; its limitation is that a sifted integer need not be prime.
For a prime , let count the forbidden residues of modulo . We have , since the two roots coincide modulo two, and for every odd prime, where the roots are zero and . The Chinese remainder theorem makes multiplicative on squarefree integers. With ,These local densities constitute the sieve distribution for the twin-prime problem. Since , it is a dimension-two sieve, which is why the expected upper bound has two logarithms in the denominator.
Let and choose real Selberg sieve weights supported on squarefree , with . If , the only supported divisor of is one. HenceExpanding and using the distribution of the polynomial roots givesHere denotes the least common multiple. The divisor-square support reaches , although each individual weight is supported only to ; keeping these two levels distinct is essential for estimating the remainder.
The Selberg sieve diagonalization solves the main-term minimization exactly. On squarefree integers putMultiplicativity givesAlso, Möbius inversion gives . Therefore the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality proveswith equality at . Inverting the divisor sums gives the optimizing weightsIn particular and .
These weights have , which supplies a simple rigorous remainder estimate. Indeed, multiply the inner sum by . The terms are for distinct squarefree integers with and , hence form a subset of the sum defining . Since and ,Thus
For this sieve and for odd primes. Here is a direct proof that , sufficient for the upper bound. PutThe Mertens theorem for reciprocal primes implies , by taking logarithms and using the convergence of . Give each divisor probability . Its expected logarithm isby the Mertens first theorem. With this is at most for large . The Markov inequality shows that at least two thirds of the total product weight has . These terms occur in , so . Conversely , proving the claim without treating an untruncated Euler product as a truncated divisor sum.
Choose, for example, . Any twin-prime pair with smaller member greater than survives this sieve; pairs with smaller member at most contribute at most . ConsequentlyThe chosen level is deliberately enough to prove the correct logarithmic order; sharper level and remainder analyses improve the numerical upper-bound constant.
The local correction factor also explains the conjectured main-term constant. Relative to two independent primality conditions, the singular series isThe twin-prime constant is positive and convergent because its logarithm has an absolutely convergent tail. The factor two at records that only one parity is allowed, while each odd-prime factor records the two distinct forbidden residues. The Hardy–Littlewood twin-prime asymptotic conjecture predictsThis is a conjecture, not a consequence of the upper-bound calculation.
The parity problem in sieve theory is the obstruction to reversing the argument. The nonnegative square majorizes all survivors, including composites with sufficiently large prime factors; small-divisor information does not isolate the desired prime-factor parity or force both factors to be prime. Therefore the Selberg sieve establishes the correct upper-bound scale and the arithmetic local factors, but by itself does not prove a positive lower bound for twin primes, their infinitude, or the conjectured asymptotic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 18 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix on a connected compact Riemann surface, and construct its Jacobian variety by periods as in the first solution. For a divisor on an algebraic curve of degree zero, defineChanging the paths adds a period lattice element; changing adds a common integral multiplied by . The Abel theorem for divisors saysEquivalently, effective divisors on an algebraic curve of the same degree have the same Abelian sum exactly when they are equivalent under linear equivalence of divisors.
We need a meromorphic version of the Riemann bilinear relations. Let be a differential of the third kind, with residues at its simple poles, and let be a holomorphic differential form. Choose representatives of the cycles and paths avoiding the poles in the same cut polygon, and let there. ThenHere the equality is an equality of the chosen complex numbers, before taking any quotient. To prove it, remove small disks about the poles. Since on the remaining polygon, its boundary integral is zero. Pairing opposite outer edges gives the left side, just as in the first solution. The clockwise boundary about contributes by the residue theorem. Moving these terms to the other side proves the formula and its sign.
Such an exists whenever . Here is the required existence argument. Let be the reduced support of , and considerLocally the last map takes to . By Serre duality, the obstruction in is dual to restriction of constant functions, so it is the sum of the residues. Thus the kernel of this sum is exactly the image of global meromorphic differentials. Alternatively, the Riemann-Roch theorem gives , and the residue theorem identifies that image with the same codimension-one subspace. Subtracting a linear combination of the normalized holomorphic differential forms makes for every .
Suppose now that . Let with the paths used above. There are integer columns such that . The normalized meromorphic bilinear formula gives . Thereforehas -periods and -periods . Its integrals around the poles are also in . These cycles generate the homology of the punctured surface, sois a single-valued, nowhere-zero holomorphic function away from the support of . Near , write . Then times a nonzero constant, with . It extends meromorphically with order exactly . Hence .
Conversely, if , take . It has residues and every period lies in : continuation of a local logarithm of changes it by an integral multiple of . Write and . Applying the meromorphic bilinear formula to givesThus and , completing both directions without assuming the conclusion as a property of the Jacobian variety.
For completeness, the effective degree- version lives on the symmetric product of a curve . The sum of integrals on is invariant under the finite symmetric group and descends to the Abelian sum map . The quotient is locally described by elementary symmetric coordinates, so repeated points are included. The proof above identifies its fibre over withExplicitly, a nonzero global section gives its effective zero divisor, and two sections give the same divisor precisely when their quotient is constant. These maps are holomorphic in local symmetric coordinates. More intrinsically, a family of effective divisors on an algebraic curve in this fixed class determines a line of sections of , after locally trivializing any line bundle pulled back from the parameter space. Conversely such a line of sections gives its family of zero divisors on an algebraic curve. These operations are inverse and unaffected by that trivialization, proving the identification with the projective space in families as well as on points.
Finally this description identifies the analytic Jacobian variety with . Every degree-zero line bundle has a meromorphic section: after twisting by a sufficiently large effective divisor, the Riemann-Roch theorem supplies a nonzero global section. Its divisor represents the original line bundle. The correspondence to the period quotient is well-defined and injective by the theorem. It is surjective because one may choose distinct points with independent evaluations of holomorphic differential forms; the derivative of the sum of their Abel integrals is then an isomorphism. Hence the subgroup generated by point differences contains an open subset of the connected complex torus, and must be the whole group. Local integration coordinates, or the exponential sequence for , give the same holomorphic identification. This justifies the subsequent use of degree- line bundles as points of a translate of the Jacobian variety.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 18 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a smooth projective curve over , let be an effective divisor on an algebraic curve of degree , and identify a translate of the Jacobian variety with . The precise derivative theorem iswhere is the connecting homomorphism ofThe target is under Serre duality. Its dual is restriction of holomorphic differential forms to the length- closed subscheme :In particular, this includes derivatives of the local coefficients at repeated points, rather than simply evaluating once for each point of the support.
Here is a local proof of all these identifications. Near a point of multiplicity , take a coordinate vanishing at that point. Nearby effective divisors are represented by monic polynomials of degree . A first-order deformation has equationThese coefficients are the elementary symmetric coordinates on the symmetric product of a curve; they give independent tangent directions even at a repeated point. Dividing the variation of the equation by the original equation identifies the tangent direction with the principal part . Doing this at each point gives , a space of dimension .
To see the derivative of the line bundle directly, use the local frame for and the frame outside the small disks. Relative to the frame at , its transition multiplier changes byFirst-order changes of line bundle transition functions have the form ; changing frames adds a Čech coboundary. Thus the tangent space to the Picard group is , and the derivative is exactly the Čech cocycle of these principal parts, namely .
This agrees with differentiating the Abel integrals, including the sign. If and , the sum of at the roots of has derivativeFor example, expand . The first-order Newton identities give for , and zero for , yielding exactly the residue above. Equivalently the same formula follows by differentiating the contour integral for the sum over roots. Serre duality pairs the principal part class with by the sum of these residues. Locally this pairing is perfect between the principal parts and the jets times . This proves the asserted dual restriction map.
The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology now gives the kernel and rank without any reduced-support assumption:By duality,This is the geometric form of the derivative of the Abelian sum map. For distinct points, the image is spanned by the evaluation vectors of the canonical map; at repeated points, the corresponding osculating directions must also be included. The Riemann-Roch theorem confirms the rank as . When , the Abelian sum map is an immersion at . For and , its image is a hyperplane annihilated by the unique nonzero holomorphic differential form vanishing along , which will be the tangent hyperplane to the theta divisor.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 18 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Assume is a connected compact Riemann surface of geometric genus . Work first in , translating back to the Jacobian variety by tensoring with when desired. PutThis is the image of the Abelian sum map from . The Riemann singularity theorem asserts that this image is a reduced Cartier divisor and thatHere multiplicity means the order of a local defining equation in the maximal ideal of the smooth ambient Jacobian variety. Consequently the singular points are precisely the classes with at least two independent sections. We will prove the multiplicity equality, including the nonvanishing of its proposed leading term.
Choose an effective divisor of degree , and a local holomorphic family of degree- line bundles about on , where is a small neighborhood in . Such a family is obtained by varying the Čech cocycles of a line bundle. Since for all , Serre duality gives ; the Riemann-Roch theorem gives . The cohomology and base change for line bundles on a curve then identifiesas vector bundles of rank . Evaluation defines a matrix . For each , its exact sequence isThus vanishes exactly on .
The function is not identically zero. To exhibit a degree- line bundle with no section, choose distinct points giving independent evaluation functionals on . Such points can be chosen successively because a nonzero holomorphic differential form cannot vanish everywhere. For , the Riemann-Roch theorem gives . Choose outside . The unique section of does not vanish at , so has no section. Therefore the evaluation determinant genuinely cuts out a hypersurface. Its support is irreducible, since it is the image of the irreducible symmetric product of a curve .
Fix now , and put , the equality following from the Riemann-Roch theorem. The matrix has an invertible by block. After invertible holomorphic row and column operations, its local form iswhere is by . More explicitly, eliminate the invertible block by its Schur complement; the discarded determinant is a holomorphic unit. Hence is a unit times . Every entry of lies in the maximal ideal, so its order is at least .
The linear term of is the cup-product mapTo verify this, deform the transition functions as and try to lift a section to . Its first-order gluing equation has right side , whose Čech cohomology class is exactly the obstruction to the lift. The kernel-to-cokernel derivative of the evaluation matrix gives that same obstruction. Under Serre duality, if and are bases of and , thenWe must show that this matrix is invertible for some ; otherwise the lower bound on multiplicity would not be an equality.
For each of these two -dimensional section spaces, there are distinct points with independent evaluations. Choose them successively, using a section in the remaining kernel to find the next point. The set of such -tuples is a nonempty open subset of . The two open sets intersect because is irreducible, and we may avoid their diagonals. Choose in that intersection and trivialize and there. Both matricesare invertible. Let be the sum of the evaluation functionals at these points, with any nonzero weights . Thenis invertible. It follows that the degree- polynomial is nonzero, so . This proves the needed invertible cup-product direction for a line bundle on a curve by an explicit construction.
We still need to identify this determinant hypersurface with the reduced image, rather than a multiple of it. Choose distinct points imposing independent conditions on . For their sum , the Riemann-Roch theorem gives . At its class, the calculation above gives order one. The determinant hypersurface has irreducible support, so its sole divisor on an algebraic curve coefficient is one everywhere. A local hypersurface in a smooth space with these divisor on an algebraic curve coefficients is reduced. Thus it is exactly the reduced image , and the multiplicity formula holds for that image itself.
The argument gives the useful additional descriptionFor , its nonzero linear equation is . This agrees with the derivative of the Abelian sum map: if , then is the unique holomorphic differential form vanishing along . For , the local equation has no linear term and the point is singular. When , is the single trivial line bundle in , with multiplicity one; the argument includes this case using the empty effective divisor. In genus zero there is no of effective divisors on an algebraic curve, so that hypothesis is necessary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 18 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Torelli theorem concerns a connected smooth projective curve over and its canonical principal polarization of a complex torus. Its conclusion isThe polarization of a complex torus is part of the hypothesis. We will reconstruct the curve intrinsically from the Jacobian variety and the theta divisor, using the Gauss map of a theta divisor, and prove the reconstruction in both the nonhyperelliptic and hyperelliptic curve cases. The needed biduality and ordinary-tangency facts about projective dual varieties are the general projective-duality results permitted here.
First explain why the polarized data determine the theta divisor up to translation. On , take integral one-form classes dual to the symplectic cycle basis. Pullback by the degree-one Abelian sum map identifies them with the corresponding classes on ; the Riemann bilinear relations giveOn , the sum map pulls each one-form back to the sum of its pullbacks from the factors. It has generic degree onto : the Abel theorem for divisors and the existence of classes with give a unique effective unordered representative, and ordering gives the factorial. Integrating a wedge of basis one-forms over the product, only terms assigning a matching pair to each factor survive. Dividing by gives integral one when precisely one matching pair is omitted, and zero for all other basis wedges. Hence the Poincaré dual class of isThis is exactly the integral form of the canonical principal polarization of a complex torus constructed by periods.
Its associated line bundle has one-dimensional section space. One can check this without any theta multiplicity assumption: in normalized period coordinates a representative has sections satisfyingExpand the first periodicity in a Fourier series . The second periodicity forces . Positive definiteness of makes this series normally convergent, so the section space has dimension exactly one. Other line bundles giving the same polarization of a complex torus differ by a degree-zero line bundle. The map is an isomorphism from to its dual abelian variety for a principal polarization of a complex torus: on lattices it is the unimodular alternating form. Thus all these line bundles are translates, and so are their unique zero divisors. In particular the given polarized data recover the reduced divisor on an algebraic curve up to translation. Translation does not change tangent hyperplanes after identifying tangent spaces with .
Put and . At a smooth class , the Riemann singularity theorem says . The derivative of the Abelian sum map identifies the translated tangent hyperplane with . Thus the intrinsic Gauss map of a theta divisor isIn particularWe will see that this map is dominant and generically finite. Its function-field extension therefore determines an intrinsic finite cover: normalize in , obtaining . Normalization in a finite extension is finite here. Let be its reduced codimension-one branch locus. Using this finite cover avoids counting omitted points of the rational Gauss map of a theta divisor as ramification. Everything in this construction is determined by the polarized Jacobian variety.
Suppose first that and is nonhyperelliptic. Its canonical map embeds it as a nondegenerate curve . For clarity, this follows directly from the Riemann-Roch theorem: on a positive-genus curve, so has no base point. If a length-two effective divisor had , a nonconstant meromorphic function with poles bounded by would give a map of degree at most two to . Degree one forces genus zero, and degree two is the hyperelliptic curve case. Hence , and the Riemann-Roch theorem gives . The canonical sections therefore separate every pair of points and every tangent direction, proving the embedding.
Let be the open set of hyperplanes transverse to . A hyperplane in cuts out distinct points. These points span the hyperplane: if a second independent canonical section vanished at all of them, its zero divisor would have to equal the same degree- divisor, and the ratio of the two sections would be a constant. Consequently some of the intersection points are independent. For the divisor formed by such a subset, and .
We need to know that every -subset of a general hyperplane section has this property. Here is the monodromy argument, with its essential steps. The incidence space choosing one intersection point is a projective bundle over before restricting to , so it is irreducible. The incidence space choosing two distinct ordered intersection points is likewise a projective bundle over minus its diagonal, with fibre ; it too is irreducible. Restricting to transverse sections preserves irreducibility and hence connectedness of these covers. Thus the monodromy action of a covering space on the intersection points is two-transitive. A general tangent hyperplane has just one contact of order two, by characteristic-zero projective biduality theorem; locally its intersection equation is together with the other simple points. A small loop in exchanges exactly those two points. Two-transitivity conjugates this transposition to every transposition, so the monodromy is the full symmetric group .
It follows that the finite étale cover of choosing a -subset is connected and irreducible. The condition of dependent evaluations is closed on that cover. It is proper because we have exhibited an independent subset; its image under the finite map is therefore a proper closed subset of . Outside that image every subset is independent. By the Abel theorem for divisors, distinct such subsets have distinct Abelian sums: means there is only one effective representative of its class. Thus the subset cover is birational to with its Gauss map of a theta divisor, andMore precisely it is exactly the restriction of over , since this étale cover is normal and has the same function field.
There can consequently be no branch component over . Its complement is the irreducible hypersurface of tangent hyperplanes, the projective dual variety of . Around a general point of , the transposition of two roots acts nontrivially on -subsets: choose a subset containing exactly one of those two roots. Hence the finite cover is ramified there. This proves the exact identityThe quoted biduality theorem now recovers as an embedded curve, and the canonical map identifies with . This proves reconstruction in the nonhyperelliptic case, including special curves rather than only a general curve in moduli.
Now suppose that is a hyperelliptic curve of genus . Let be its degree-two map. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula gives branch points . Choose an affine coordinate with no branch at infinity and writeThe forms are holomorphic and independent; their orders at the two points at infinity show there are exactly of them. Thus the canonical map factors as followed by the degree- rational normal curve embeddingWrite .
A general hyperplane section of consists of distinct points avoiding the branch points. The corresponding canonical divisor on consists of the pairs . Choosing one lift from each pair gives an effective divisor with : the evaluation matrix of the canonical forms has Vandermonde rank . If instead a degree- sub-divisor contains an entire pair, it has at least two sections, because that pair is a fibre of and moves in a pencil. Every choice not taking exactly one point from each pair contains an entire pair. Therefore the generic smooth theta points over the hyperplane are exactly the independent choices of one lift in each pair, andThe cover of these choices is again the restriction of to the open set of transverse sections of avoiding the : the identification on a dense open follows from the Abel theorem for divisors, and the choice cover is finite étale and normal. Its components would correspond to components of the function field of the irreducible theta divisor, so it is connected.
There are precisely two types of codimension-one branching. If a simple root crosses a branch point , its two lifts exchange, giving nontrivial monodromy on the choices. This yields the hyperplaneIf two roots collide away from the , a local transverse parameter gives roots . Trivialize the two sheets of near . Choices selecting different sheets for the two roots are exchanged when the roots exchange; hence this also causes branching. Its locus is , the hypersurface of tangent hyperplanes to . Away from these two loci all roots and all their lifts vary locally without branching, so there are no other branch components. ConsequentlyFor , is irreducible and nonlinear. Indeed, hyperplane sections of the degree- rational normal curve are binary forms of degree , and the repeated-root hypersurface is their irreducible discriminant of degree . Thus intrinsically separates into its single nonlinear component and its linear components. Biduality recovers , while dualizing recovers the point on .
These data recover the double cover uniquely. Identify with and move infinity away from the recovered branch set. Its function field isAny other quadratic extension with the same simple branch points has a defining rational function whose ratio to this product has even valuation everywhere. On such a rational function is a constant times a square, and every nonzero complex constant is a square. The quadratic extensions are therefore isomorphic; their smooth projective models are isomorphic. This proves the hyperelliptic reconstruction. The branch locus also distinguishes the two cases: the nonhyperelliptic locus has one irreducible branch hypersurface, whereas the hyperelliptic locus has the additional linear components.
Finally handle the small genera. In genus two, the theta divisor is , the image of itself. The Abelian sum map on is injective because a principal divisor with would give a degree-one map to . Its derivative is nonzero since the canonical bundle has no base point, so this compact injective immersion identifies with . In genus one the same argument identifies with its Jacobian variety after choosing an origin. In genus zero the Riemann-Roch theorem supplies a function with one simple pole, giving . These cases complete the proof: the canonically polarized Jacobian determines the curve in every genus.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 29 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A weight- modular form gives an invariant tensor differentialbecause cancels its automorphy factor. Assume first . At an ordinary quotient point this differential is holomorphic. At an elliptic point of order , use and from part (a), and write the pullback as , with holomorphic. Its invariance says , so a nonzero term has . Sincethe exponent in the descended coefficient is the integer . With , it is at least . At the modular cusp, and has a power series with nonnegative exponents, so has a pole of order at most .
Consequently the linear map injects into the meromorphic sections of with poles bounded byThis section space is . It is finite-dimensional on a compact Riemann surface by the Riemann-Roch theorem. Concretely choose one nonzero meromorphic section of the line bundle; dividing by it identifies these sections with a Riemann-Roch space with a fixed finite divisor bound. This proves the requested finite-dimensionality by compact-surface theory.
In fact the injection is an isomorphism. If a descended coefficient has order at least , its pulled-back exponent is nonnegative; the modular cusp pole bound likewise gives a holomorphic Fourier expansion of a modular form. These pullbacks therefore recover modular forms. Since is the Riemann sphere, , and a line bundle of degree on the sphere has sections. HenceFor negative , the valence formula excludes a nonzero holomorphic modular form because all its orders would be nonnegative but their sum would be ; the space is zero. The mechanism behind finite-dimensionality is modular forms as meromorphic differentials on X(1), with explicit elliptic and modular cusp pole bounds.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 29 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An eigenform is understood to be nonzero; the zero form would put no constraint on the alleged eigenvalues. The coefficient of in is , since . Comparing with the coefficient in givesThe constant coefficient comparison gives , so
For completeness derive the operator multiplication law underlying the last relation. On formal Fourier series defineThese auxiliary maps need not separately preserve modularity, but coefficient identities are valid and . Part (a) givesMultiplication on the left by yields the sum and, from for , the remaining sum . HenceInduction on the smaller exponent, applying this recurrence and cancelling its two overlapping sums, now givesTo make the induction explicit, write and assume . Substituting the formulas already established for and into givesThe last term is exactly the missing term. The cases are the identity operator and the prime recurrence above.
For distinct primes, their and maps commute, and the divisor formula in (a) factors independently at each prime. It follows that for coprime . Multiplying the prime-power identities therefore gives the general Hecke multiplication relationsApply this identity to the same nonzero eigenform and cancel the vector , obtainingThis reasoning does not silently divide by , which is important when considering noncuspidal weight-zero forms.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 29 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Pass to the effective subgroup . Its index is : adjoining halves the original index precisely when . The natural map of compactified modular curveshas degree , since a generic orbit has that many lifts. It branches only over the order-two elliptic orbit, the order-three elliptic orbit, and the modular cusp. Away from these, the modular quotient charts are genuine unramified covering charts.
Over , a lift with its own effective stabilizer of order two is unramified; there are such lifts. Every other lift has ramification index two. As the sum of all ramification indices in that fibre is , their number is and their contribution to the ramification divisor is . Similarly, over there are unramified elliptic lifts and lifts of ramification index three, contributing .
At a modular cusp of width , the local parameters are upstairs and downstairs. Thus and the ramification index is . Summing the widths gives , so all modular cusps contribute to ramification. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula now givesThereforeThe effective index and the projective modular cusp widths ensure that the formula also applies when the original subgroup does not contain ; no spurious factor of two is introduced.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ii Paper 2 23H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A divisor on a compact connected Riemann surface is a finite formal sum with integer coefficients; its degree is . A canonical divisor is the divisor of zeros and poles of a nonzero meromorphic differential. Two divisors are linearly equivalent when their difference is the divisor of a nonzero meromorphic function. Such principal divisors have degree zero, but equal degree does not generally imply linear equivalence of divisors.
For example take distinct points on a genus-one surface. If were principal, its function would define a degree-one meromorphic map to the sphere, since it has just one simple pole. A degree-one map between compact Riemann surfaces is a biholomorphism, contradicting their different genera. Thus these degree-one divisors are not equivalent.
Define and . The Riemann-Roch theorem statesSince all holomorphic functions on the compact surface are constant, . Setting gives . Multiplication by a fixed meromorphic differential identifies with holomorphic differentials, so their dimension is . Setting then givesFor , choose a nonzero holomorphic differential, whose effective canonical divisor has degree two. Since , contains a nonconstant meromorphic function. Its pole divisor is bounded by that effective , proving existence of a nonconstant function with total pole multiplicity at most two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 21 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here the degree-zero Picard group of a curve uses tensor product as its group operation. The map is the Abel map of a pointed smooth projective curve. If , then is trivial. By the divisor description of line bundles, there is a nonzero rational function with principal divisor .
If , this function has exactly one pole, of order one. It defines a nonconstant morphism of algebraic varieties : locally at a pole one uses as the target coordinate. The degree of a morphism of curves is the total pole degree, so it is one. The map is finite, since a nonconstant map of projective integral curves has finite fibers and is proper, and a degree-one finite map to the normal projective line is an isomorphism. Algebraically, on a target affine chart the finite coordinate algebra lies inside the common function field and is integral over the integrally closed coordinate ring, so it equals that ring. Thus and its genus is zero, contradicting . ConsequentlyThis spells out why a principal divisor with one simple zero and one simple pole cannot occur on a curve of positive genus.
If , the chosen point is enough to identify with , even over a nonclosed field. By the Riemann-Roch theorem, , since the complementary canonical twist has degree and no nonzero section. Besides constants there is a rational function with its sole pole a simple pole at , giving the same degree-one isomorphism. On , every degree-zero divisor is principal: over an algebraically closed field write a product of powers of linear forms for its finite point coefficients, with the degree-zero condition giving the coefficient at infinity. Over a general field the same construction uses irreducible polynomial factors for closed points, weighted by their degrees. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 21 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be any degree-zero line bundle on the genus-one smooth projective curve. The twist has degree one. The Riemann-Roch theorem givesThe second line bundle has degree , so it has no nonzero section: the zero divisor of such a section would be effective of negative degree. Hence . A nonzero section has an effective zero divisor of degree one, which is a single point . It is a -rational point even over a general field, since a degree-one effective divisor has residue degree one. Thus and .
This proves surjectivity; part (a) gives injectivity. Hence is a bijection, as in the Abel-Jacobi map of a genus-one curve. DefineTensor product of line bundles is associative and commutative, so this is an abelian group law on . Its identity is , since . Equivalently, is the unique point with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 21 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First use the algebraically closed field convention. Every line bundle on a smooth projective curve has a nonzero rational section of a line bundle: trivialize it on a nonempty open set and take its generic generator. The orders of its zeros and poles give a finite divisor , and the local trivializations identify the line bundle with . For a degree-zero line bundle writesince every closed point is a -point. ThereforeOnly finitely many factors occur, and negative tensor powers mean dual line bundles. This provesFor genus zero the group is trivial, so the conclusion remains valid.
For a general field, a closed point need not be rational, and its contribution to degree is weighted by its residue degree. Consequently rational points need not generate the degree-zero Picard group of a curve. Here is an explicit counterexample to that stronger reading. Let be the smooth projective curve over obtained by completing the affine equationThe polynomial is irreducible over : a function has even pole order at infinity when it has a pole there, while the right side has pole order five. Its affine model is smooth because the partial derivative with respect to is one. The normalized projective completion is therefore a geometrically integral smooth projective curve.
There is exactly one point above infinity, and it is rational. Indeed the map has degree two. At a point above infinity put , where the ramification index is at most two. The equation forces and . Hence and . The degree formula then leaves exactly one point of residue degree one. Thus and have pole orders two and five there. There are no affine rational points: for either , the right side is one, while for every . Hence and the image of its Abel map of a pointed smooth projective curve is trivial.
The equations , define a degree-two closed point , since vanishes modulo . The divisor has degree zero but is not principal. To prove this, a function with poles bounded by is regular on the affine curve and hence has a unique expression . The possible pole orders of its two terms are and , of opposite parity, so they cannot cancel. The pole bound forces and . But no nonzero over vanishes at , whose residue class of has irreducible quadratic minimal polynomial. Thus no function has principal divisor , proving its class is nonzero. This establishes the rational points need not generate the degree-zero Picard group qualification with a complete obstruction, while the generation proof above supplies the intended algebraically closed-field answer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 27 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A weight- meromorphic modular form satisfies , while . The factors cancel in , giving a -invariant meromorphic n-differential on the complex upper half-plane.
Away from elliptic points and cusps, descend this differential through local inverse branches of the quotient map. At an elliptic point of effective stabilizer order , choose a coordinate in which the stabilizer acts by , and use downstairs. If the lifted coefficient has order , invariance forces to be divisible by . The descended differential has integer orderIndeed pulls back to . At a modular cusp of width , the coordinate gives . ThereforeBoth formulas provide meromorphic extensions over the omitted points, producing the unique differential with the prescribed pullback on the compactified modular curve.
For the character-valued question, write and let be the chosen nonzero meromorphic form. The quotient of two forms with the same weight and Dirichlet character is a meromorphic function on . At an interior point with effective elliptic order (one at ordinary points), let be the vanishing order of the lifted . At a cusp let be its order in the width coordinate; this can be fractional because of the character multiplier. Multiplying by a meromorphic function changes these orders by and , respectively. Interior holomorphy requires a nonnegative order, while cusp vanishing requires a strictly positive order. The exact divisor is consequentlyOnly finitely many coefficients are nonzero. The order inequalities are equivalent to . Division by proves the reverse inclusion, so the Riemann-Roch space givesThis extends the cusp-form divisor presentation to elliptic points and character multipliers.
Choose a nonzero meromorphic one-differential on , and let be its weight-two pullback. For , the interior order is and the cusp order is . The elliptic orders are one, two or three, so adding six to changes each interior floor by , and each cusp ceiling by . The valence formula for the modular group for says , where . ThusThe degrees tend to infinity. For sufficiently large , the Riemann-Roch theorem therefore givesThe periodic formula obtained this way is an eventual formula. For small , the exact answer includes the Riemann-Roch correction ; it should not silently be discarded without the large-degree hypothesis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 4 23G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a smooth projective curve of genus , the Riemann-Roch theorem stateswhere is a divisor, a canonical divisor, and . In particular, applying it to and gives and .
For a nonconstant morphism of degree in characteristic zero, choose local parameters with up to a unit at a point of ramification index . Pulling back a differential multiplies its local order by and adds , because and in the field. ThusThe degree of a divisor of a pulled-back divisor is times its degree. Taking degrees and using the Riemann-Roch theorem gives the Riemann-Hurwitz formula
A smooth plane cubic has genus one by the genus-degree formula. In the displayed normal form, with : otherwise divides and the cubic is reducible. Therefore the line meets the cubic in the divisor , and . The elliptic curve group law identifies with the degree-zero divisor class . Order three means . Consequently and has a section with zero divisor .
Every section of is the restriction of a linear form: ambient linear forms form a three-dimensional space and restrict injectively, while Riemann-Roch theorem gives , since forces the dual term to vanish. Thus this section is some nonzero , proving , with intersection multiplicity three. This is the three-torsion points are flexes of a plane cubic property.
Projection forgetting defines a morphism : its only possible indeterminacy point does not satisfy the second equation. It is a double cover. Away from the zeros of , its two square roots are distinct. Each line intersects in three simple points, since it is nowhere tangent; the two triples are disjoint because the lines do not meet on . In a local trivialization near any of these six points the covering equation is with , so the ramification index is two. There is no other ramification. The Riemann-Hurwitz formula therefore gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 3 23H i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a divisor on the smooth projective curve,This is a -vector space of rational functions with the prescribed pole bounds. A nonzero rational function on a projective curve has divisor of degree zero. Thus if there can be no nonzero element of .
For any point with coefficient in , use a local parameter at . The linear map sending to the residue-field value of has kernel and target , since is algebraically closed. Therefore . If , successively subtract a point times. The final divisor has degree and no nonzero sections, givingEquivalently the universally valid bound is . The PDF states the unqualified bound ; literally this is false when , because its right side is negative. For example has .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 4 23H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a divisor on a smooth projective curve, let , and write . The Riemann-Roch theorem stateswhere is the genus, is a canonical divisor given by a nonzero rational differential, and the degree of a divisor is the sum of its coefficients since is algebraically closed.
For genus one, a nonzero regular differential has a nonnegative divisor of degree , hence no zeros; therefore . Negative-degree divisors have no nonzero sections. Thus for , , and for .
Choose and . Their unique poles have orders two and three respectively. Distinct pole orders prove linear independence in the following complete list:Since also lies in the last six-dimensional space, it satisfiesThe coefficient cannot vanish because only among the displayed basis has a sixth-order pole available to cancel the leading pole of . Homogenizing gives a plane cubic relation, valid also in characteristics two and three without completing squares or dividing by three.
It remains to prove that the map actually embeds the curve. For , Riemann-Roch gives , for every point , and , including . The first equality makes the linear system base-point-free; the second separates distinct points, and the double-point case separates tangent directions. Therefore is very ample and is a closed immersion into . Its pullback of a line has degree three, so its image has degree three. The displayed cubic equation consequently defines the image, which is smooth because it is isomorphic to . Thus . The affine expression extends across to by the pole orders.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 29 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let be the Möbius function. Its Möbius divisor-sum identity isIndeed, for the sum is the expansion of ; nonsquarefree divisors contribute zero. Thus, for arithmetic functions ,To prove Möbius inversion, substitute the first formula into the second and collect the coefficient of . It is , which is one for and zero otherwise. Conversely the same divisor interchange recovers from the displayed formula for . In Dirichlet convolution notation this is simply , where is supported at one.
The Prime number theorem with classical zero-free-region error states that some absolute satisfiesHere is the Von Mangoldt function. An equivalent prime-counting form, after decreasing if needed, is . The contributions of proper prime powers are and can be absorbed into this error. We use to keep it distinct from the Fourier transform appearing in Question 5.
Here is a direct deduction of the requested Mertens bound from a log-integrable Chebyshev error from the stated Prime number theorem. First, the divisor identity givesSecond, the exact Dirichlet convolution identityfollows from : multiplication of a Dirichlet convolution by differentiates its two factors, so applying it to and convolving again with gives this formula. Summing it yieldsThe last harmonic sum is . To see this without an endpoint approximation, split into dyadic ranges . In each range , and its exponential factor is at most . Their sum over converges. The finitely many terms with obey the same estimate after adjusting the constant in the prime-number-theorem error. ThereforeFor the Mertens function ,The second sum has absolute value at most , by an integral comparison or the Stirling formula. ConsequentlyThe absolute value in this conclusion is present in the original PDF.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 29 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a prime , the divisor sum defining the real weight is . If , the second term vanishes and the first is one. Thus , while for every integer because is real and the sum is squared.
Put . With the Fourier transform convention in the question, Fourier inversion givesThe function is smooth and has compact support. Using integration by parts times, with zero endpoint terms, provesChoose an integer to obtain for . In particular every polynomially weighted absolute integral of is finite.
For the double integral, useDifferentiating the second formula gives . absolute convergence from the rapid decay permits Fubini's theorem. The derivative energy constant for a smooth sieve cutoff is thereforeThere is no complex conjugate in this integral: the two factors both become , which is real. The constant is positive; in fact the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality applied to gives .
Here is the basic structure of the smooth divisor-square sieve asymptotic, with enough uniform estimates to specify the error. Write and . Expand the square and count multiples of the least common multiple in an arbitrary interval of length :The sum is effectively restricted to . Each count is , independent of the interval's position, so the total error is .
The Fourier representation of a smooth Selberg weight readsHence, with ,The four local terms correspond to the prime dividing neither divisor, only the first, only the second, or both. This is the Euler product for a smoothed divisor-square correlation. Factor it aswhereThe local factors of are when for small fixed . Thus is a holomorphic function near , and evaluating each local factor at zero gives exactly one. Consequently and there.
The pole expansion now yieldswhen . Integrating the error against the rapidly decreasing transforms gives . The complementary tails are harmless uniformly: absolute values in the original divisor series giveAny prescribed power decay of is available, so these tails and the tails of the limiting kernel are after choosing sufficiently many applications of integration by parts. The same absolute bound justifies the original exchanges of infinite sums and integrals. Using the evaluated double integral,We conclude, uniformly over all interval locations,This proof does not assume that the interval starts near the origin.
Finally choose this one fixed smooth cutoff. primes above in contribute one each to the nonnegative weight, and at most primes lie below . Thereforefor all sufficiently large , uniformly in . The bounded range follows by increasing the fixed constant and using the trivial interval bound . Thus the short-interval prime upper bound from a smooth divisor weight is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let denote the Frobenius isogeny of an elliptic curve and write . Its degree of an isogeny is . The isogeny of elliptic curves has differential equal to the identity because , so it is a separable isogeny. Its kernel consists precisely of the rational points fixed by , giving
We use the degree parallelogram law for isogenies of elliptic curves, with degree zero assigned to the zero map:One explanation of the first identity is the divisor proof of the degree parallelogram law: on , the zero divisor of is the sum of the diagonal and the graph of negation, while its pole divisor is twice each coordinate copy of . Pulling the associated line bundle identity back by and taking degrees gives the identity, including exceptional cases by the line-bundle formulation. This works for a general Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve, including characteristic two; is the quotient coordinate for negation. Polarization therefore makes degree a quadratic form on the endomorphism ring of an elliptic curve.
Set , the Trace of Frobenius. The cross term is determined by , giving, for all integers ,If , the real degree-two polynomial is negative on a nonempty open interval. That interval contains a rational , contradicting the displayed nonnegativity after multiplication by . Thus . Hasse's bounds areThe argument proves the Hasse theorem for elliptic curves without assuming its bound in advance.