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 71 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier is bounded, and is integrable for every nonnegative integer . Therefore its inverse Fourier transform can be differentiated under the integral arbitrarily many times:These derivatives are continuous by dominated convergence theorem. Since , the Hilbert transform is smooth and commutes with differentiation:The Fourier proof avoids differentiating a singular kernel without preserving its Cauchy principal value prescription.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 7 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Consider the operators on all of or , extending the displayed positive-function formula linearly. Here is the space of continuous functions vanishing at infinity. The multiplier has modulus at most one, so , and multiplication of exponentials gives and . For strong continuity on , choose a compact outside which is small. On the continuous is bounded, making uniform; outside , . For , use pointwise convergence and the dominated convergence theorem with bound . Thus both are contraction semigroups, even when is unbounded.
The generator of a multiplication semigroup isIndeed pointwise difference quotients converge to . A norm limit therefore forces the displayed domain condition, using an almost-everywhere convergent subsequence for the case. Conversely , so the dominated convergence theorem proves the limit when . In write the error as times , with the value at supplied by continuity. That second factor tends uniformly to zero where is bounded and has modulus at most one; the compact-set and small-tail argument applied to proves uniform convergence. To prove directly that is a closed operator, take and . Pointwise limits in , or a common almost-everywhere convergent subsequence in , give . Thus is in the appropriate generator domain and . In the domain is dense because ; in compactly supported continuous functions are a dense subspace contained in the domain.
A real multiplication operator on its maximal domain is an unbounded self-adjoint operator. One direct verification is to test the adjoint relation against functions supported on . If is in the adjoint operator domain with representing vector , those tests force on each such set, hence . The converse follows by integration. On the sigma-finite measure spaces used below, the spectrum of a real multiplication operator is its essential range; spectral values are detected by unit vectors supported where the multiplier is arbitrarily close to that value, while outside the essential range its reciprocal is a bounded resolvent multiplier.
For the heat semigroup on , take the normalization . The unitary Fourier transform converts it to multiplication by , and converts the semigroup to multiplication by . ConsequentlyThe Sobolev space domain is exactly . The continuous spectrum comes from the full essential range of , not from square-integrable Fourier eigenvectors.
For the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup on standard Gaussian measure, the normalized Probabilists' Hermite polynomials form an orthonormal basis. The construction below gives and , so the Hermite coefficient map turns it into a real multiplication operator on . ThereforeFinally, the heat semigroup on the whole real line has no positive spectral gap, whereas the standard Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup has gap one. For the first claim, take a nonzero smooth compactly supported and set . Then , but . This disproves a uniform whole-line Poincare inequality ; one can also choose . Lebesgue measure here is infinite, so it has no normalized probability mean to subtract. For Gaussian measure, the Hermite expansion instead gives the sharp Gaussian Poincaré inequalityEquality holds for affine functions. The identity on the right is interpreted on the energy-form domain, which is larger than the full operator domain.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 7 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
On the polynomial subspace of , the Gaussian creation and annihilation operators are and . Gaussian integration by parts makes them adjoints there and gives . The Gaussian number operator isThe Probabilists' Hermite polynomials are . Their generating function is , giving . The commutator also yieldsThe orthogonality follows by repeated integration by parts; the leading coefficient is one, so these polynomials span every polynomial. By the allowed density assumption is an orthonormal basis. Define the closed number operator by on . This diagonal multiplication operator is self-adjoint and positive semidefinite; polynomial truncations show it is the closure of the polynomial operator.
The Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup is , or . It also has the Mehler formula for the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroupTo verify the formula, apply its right side to : the Gaussian moment-generating function makes the result , proving the eigenvalue identity on every Hermite polynomial. Positivity and invariance of Gaussian measure give contraction by Jensen inequality, so polynomial density extends the equality to all . The coefficient expansion givesFor continuously differentiable with bounded derivative, differentiate the Mehler expectation by the dominated convergence theorem to get the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck gradient commutation identityThe same identity extends to the Gaussian Sobolev form domain. Mehler's formula also gives pointwise convergence to the Gaussian mean for such , since bounded derivative permits at most linear growth.
The Gaussian Dirichlet energy is the energy form of :For polynomials this follows from , and closure extends it to the form domain. For the given continuously differentiable , Gaussian integration by parts yields , so Parseval identity proves the derivative-energy equality directly. Bounded derivative puts in the Gaussian Sobolev space, hence in that form domain; it need not be in the full operator domain, so is not always a legitimate initial definition.
Use the entropy functional . Begin with bounded smooth bounded away from zero, and put . Invariance and Gaussian integration by parts give the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck entropy dissipation identityThe gradient identity and the permitted weighted Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, applied with weight , implyThe entropy tends to zero as by Mehler's formula and bounded convergence. Integrating in time and using invariance yields . Set to obtain the sharp Gaussian logarithmic Sobolev inequalityFor the stated possibly unbounded , apply the argument to smooth positive clipped approximations with a common positive lower bound and uniformly bounded derivatives. They can converge pointwise together with their derivatives and have a common linear-growth bound. Since Gaussian measure integrates every polynomial moment, dominated convergence theorem passes both the entropy and the derivative energy to the limit. This also justifies use of the supplied inequality when itself is unbounded. The normalization concerns , and does not imply ; the second term in the entropy definition must be retained.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 76 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For nonzero , a sufficient step-size condition for strong convergence of relaxed Landweber iteration isFor the unrelaxed iteration, this reads . The data must also admit a minimum-norm least-squares solution ; for the exact problem, is sufficient. More generally, the projected-data condition in part (a), or the Picard criterion , ensures the required solution.
Every positive singular value satisfies , so for fixed ,This is the correct inverse coefficient. For exact data with a least-squares solution, the norm error isThe summable majorant is precisely the Picard criterion, so the dominated convergence theorem proves strong convergence, despite the absence of a uniform contraction constant when the singular values approach zero. Initialization at zero selects the solution orthogonal to . At , a top singular mode of a nonzero compact operator has multiplier and can oscillate indefinitely; the strict step bound avoids this failure.
Pointwise convergence of filters alone is not a full noisy-data inverse-problem regularization proof. For each finite , put ; the step restriction gives , andThis proves the uniform noise bound for relaxed Landweber iterationTogether with the exact-data convergence,whenever and . Equivalently, the a priori regularization parameter choice satisfies and . For example, works as . The sharper familiar bound is available when .
Thus finite iteration followed by an appropriate stopping rule is a convergent regularization of an inverse problem. Taking for fixed noisy data is not the same operation and can amplify the small-singular-value noise without bound. If , the zero starting iterate stays zero and is the minimum-norm least-squares solution for every datum; the step restriction is needed only for nonzero .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 1 23J b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The dominated convergence theorem states that, on a measure space, if measurable almost everywhere and almost everywhere for one integrable , then is integrable and . In particular, . The statement applies to real or complex functions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 1 23J d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For each , if , and remains one if . Continuity gives pointwise convergence to off and to on . The functions are measurable and bounded by , an integrable constant on a unit-length interval. The dominated convergence theorem therefore givesHere is Lebesgue measure. This convex combination belongs to , without requiring to be monotone.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 19G b iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The integration functional satisfies . If never vanishes, its sign is constant and attains equality. In general use the continuous functions , of supremum norm at most . Thenby the dominated convergence theorem. Therefore . Every bounded subset of its finite-dimensional target is relatively compact, so is compact, including when .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 30E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Write . Since ,A Schwartz function is bounded and uniformly continuous. Given a tolerance, first choose so the tail integral of is small. On , uniform continuity makes the difference uniformly small for every when is small. On the tail it is bounded by . This proves uniform convergence, without assuming , and is the approximate identity argument.
For the radial regularization of the three-dimensional fundamental solution of the Laplace equation, direct differentiation givesThe radial integral is . This even approximate identity therefore gives for .
The function is locally integrable and determines a tempered distribution. We have , and is integrable near zero and infinity for a Schwartz test function. Integration by parts and the dominated convergence theorem giveThus , proving that is a fundamental solution of a linear differential operator. In this last part the test-function space is ; the printed in the three-dimensional integral is understood with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 22J b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Weak convergence means that for every bounded continuous real function on ; it is a statement about their distributions, not their coupling.
The central limit theorem says that for independent identically distributed real variables of finite mean and variance , . For this is equivalent to convergence of to the standard normal distribution. For , every variable equals almost surely and the limit is the point mass at zero.
For the proof when , put . Its characteristic function has expansion . To justify this using only a second moment, subtract the first two Taylor terms of and use dominated convergence theorem, with the second-order remainder bounded by a constant times . Independence gives the characteristic function of the normalized sum as . The Lévy continuity theorem says that pointwise convergence of characteristic functions to a characteristic function continuous at zero implies weak convergence. Since is the characteristic function of , the result follows.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 29E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For smooth periodic initial data, Fourier expansion reduces the equation to . Therefore define the Fourier multiplier solution operators byTheir Sobolev norm satisfies , so they extend to contractive linear operators on . Multiplication of the Fourier factors gives and . Finallyby dominated convergence theorem, dominated by four times the summable norm terms. This proves a strongly continuous contraction semigroup for every requested ; the semigroup property extends continuity from zero to other times. For smooth data, termwise derivatives converge and recover the original Cauchy problem for a partial differential equation uniquely.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 2 2A a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Start from . Differentiation under the integral sign givesThis interchange is justified locally around any by the dominated convergence theorem: the differentiated integrands are bounded by an integrable polynomial times . Successive derivatives of giveThis is also the integer case of the Gamma function integral after scaling the integration variable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 106 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Radon-Nikodym theorem for positive measures says: if and are sigma-finite measures on the same measurable space, and is absolutely continuous with respect to , then there is a nonnegative measurable function , unique -almost everywhere, such thatHere sigma-finiteness means that the space is a countable union of measurable sets of finite measure; absolute continuity of measures, written , means that implies . The function is the Radon-Nikodym derivative. For a finite signed or complex measure of finite total variation norm of a measure, absolutely continuous with respect to a sigma-finite , the corresponding density belongs to . This follows by applying the positive theorem to the positive and negative parts of the real and imaginary parts of .
For every measure space and , is isometrically , where . We use the complex-linear pairingWith the convention , the same identification is conjugate-linear in . By Hölder's inequality, is a bounded linear functional with . If , setinterpreting the numerator as zero where . The identity gives and . ThusIt remains to represent an arbitrary , rather than merely produce functionals from .
We prove Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space without imposing sigma-finiteness on . Write . For every measurable set with , define a complex measure on byIt is countably additive: for disjoint , the partial sums of their indicator functions tend in to , because the measure of the omitted tail tends to zero. It is absolutely continuous with respect to , since indicator functions of null sets represent zero in .
Its total variation norm of a measure is finite. For any finite measurable partition , choose scalars of modulus with . ThenTaking the supremum over partitions gives the variation bound. Since is finite, the Radon-Nikodym theorem supplies with . By uniform approximation with simple functions,for every bounded measurable supported in .
To improve from to , test with the bounded functionIf , thenThus when , and the same bound is trivial when it is zero. The monotone convergence theorem givesIf both have finite measure, the densities agree almost everywhere on : their integrals over every measurable subset of the intersection equal the same functional value. This is uniqueness in the Radon-Nikodym theorem.
We now perform support localization of an Lp functional. SetChoose finite-measure sets whose displayed integrals tend to , and let , . If , take . Compatibility allows us to define a measurable function on by taking on the disjoint measurable sets , and put off . It agrees almost everywhere with on every . Moreover,Indeed each integral is at most , and it is at least the integral over , which tends to .
For any finite-measure set , compatibility on the disjoint union givesLetting forces almost everywhere. For an arbitrary finite-measure set , compatibility on and the preceding conclusion on show that almost everywhere on . Consequently for every simple function supported on a finite-measure set.
Those simple functions are dense in even for this arbitrary measure space. To see the needed finite-support property, for the sets have finite measure, bounded by . First truncate to such sets and to bounded values, then approximate by simple functions; the discarded integral tends to zero. Continuity of and Hölder's inequality therefore extend the representation to every .
We have constructed with , and the previously proved norm identity gives . It also proves uniqueness: if , then . This completes the isometric duality of Lp spaces.
The dominated sequence actually converges to zero in norm, and hence weakly. The assumptions give and almost everywhere. The dominated convergence theorem yieldsFor every , . Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 108 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Work with a probability measure-preserving system, so . PutThe maximal ergodic theorem, also called the maximal ergodic lemma, says that for real ,No ergodic transformation or invertibility assumption is needed for this maximal ergodic lemma.
Here is a proof of the maximal ergodic lemma. Set and . These are integrable: . Splitting off the first summand givesOn , this implies . Outside the right side is . ConsequentlyIntegrating and using the measure-preserving transformation property gives . Since increases to , the dominated convergence theorem, with dominating function , proves the infinite-supremum assertion of the maximal ergodic lemma.
For example, applying the maximal ergodic lemma to yields the useful maximal boundIndeed on the latter set , the maximal ergodic lemma gives .
The pointwise ergodic theorem states that for a probability measure-preserving system and ,where is the invariant sigma-algebra. The conditional expectation is invariant and has integral . If is an ergodic transformation, this conditional expectation is the constant . The assertion applies to real or complex integrable functions; it is the Birkhoff ergodic theorem.
For a nonnegative measurable , if , the pointwise ergodic theorem already proves the required conclusion. For the remaining case, let , . Each is integrable on the probability measure-preserving system. The pointwise ergodic theorem and ergodic transformation property give, on a single set of full measure obtained by a countable intersection,Since , every such satisfies for all . The monotone convergence theorem gives . Thus the nonnegative ergodic averages with infinite integral tend to , rather than merely having an unbounded subsequence. Combining the two cases,Nonnegativity is what makes truncation a lower bound. The probability normalization is also essential to the displayed value: for a finite measure of total mass , the corresponding constant is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 201 5 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The domain is the union of the horizontal and vertical strips. The four connected components of its boundary carry the constants in the northeast, northwest, southwest and southeast, respectively.
The cross-shaped domain, its four boundary values, and the auxiliary upper strip used for the limit at infinity
. First justify finiteness of . A small open ball around lies outside the domain. By part (b), planar Brownian motion visits that ball almost surely in finite time. A continuous path from to that ball must meet first. Hence almost surely, and by continuity.
The harmonic function is smooth inside . The Itô formula, localized on relatively compact subdomains, makes a local martingale. Its boundary definition uses the continuous extension of . Since is bounded, this stopped process is a true martingale with uniform integrability: pass through the compact exhaustion using bounded convergence theorem. In particular .
Now almost surely as . The dominated convergence theorem, boundedness of , and its continuous boundary values give the bounded harmonic representation with almost sure Brownian exit:Almost sure exit and boundedness of the harmonic function are both used. The domain's unboundedness causes no loss of expectation here because the stopped function values are uniformly bounded.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the closure of the simple predictable processes in the Hilbert space . Common refinement of deterministic partitions makes these processes a vector space. To prove density of simple predictable processes for finite measures, suppose . Since is a finite measure, the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives , sodefines a finite signed measure. The indicator of each predictable generating rectangle, including each time-zero rectangle, is a simple predictable process; hence vanishes on these rectangles.
Finite intersections of the rectangles are again rectangles or empty. Add the whole space to this pi-system. Its -mass is zero because is simple and converges to in by the dominated convergence theorem. The zero sets of form a lambda-system now that its total mass is zero. The Pi-lambda theorem therefore gives for every . Taking the sets where and gives -almost everywhere.
Thus and the orthogonal complement criterion for a closed subspace of a Hilbert space yieldsOmitting the time-zero term would make this conclusion false when is concentrated at time zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Lévy characterization of Brownian motion states that an adapted continuous real process with is standard Brownian motion relative to if and only if it is a continuous local martingale and . The multidimensional version replaces the bracket identity by .
For the converse direction, a standard Brownian motion is a continuous martingale, and its independent centered increments give quadratic variation . Distinct independent coordinates have zero quadratic covariation.
For the substantive direction, fix a vector . The Itô formula applied toshows that its drift is zero: the second-order term is and cancels the time derivative. Thus is a complex local martingale. On its modulus is the deterministic value ; localization and the dominated convergence theorem make it a true martingale. HenceThis conditional characteristic function is the deterministic characteristic function of . For , multiplying by and taking expectations, then using uniqueness of characteristic functions, proves that has this multivariate normal distribution and is independent of . Iterated conditioning gives independent increments with Gaussian distributions. Continuity, the zero initial value and these increment laws are the definition of standard Brownian motion. The case proves the requested statement; the vector form will also be used below.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 6 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We prove the extension from spatial test functions to time-dependent test functions for a diffusion martingale problem directly, without assuming a driving Brownian motion. Fix and a deterministic partition . For each , lies in . The defining martingale problem givesCall the sum . Telescoping separates the spatial and temporal changes:The sample path is uniformly continuous on and has compact range. Joint continuity of , the spatial first derivatives, and the spatial second derivatives therefore gives, as the mesh tends to zero,almost surely. For bounded and bounded derivatives of , both integrals are uniformly bounded on this finite horizon, as are the two endpoint terms. The dominated convergence theorem permits passage to the limit in the expectation against . Thus is integrable and for every , provingAdaptation and continuity follow from the formula, so is a continuous martingale. Under the more general integrability condition in part (a), the same proof uses an integrable bound proportional to ; positive semidefiniteness bounds every off-diagonal entry by the diagonal ones. With only local assumptions this reasoning proves a local martingale, and an integrability hypothesis is needed to upgrade that conclusion.
