Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 103 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the normal ordering identity for up and down operators, placing every before every . The commutator from part (a) impliesby induction on . Multiplying the normal-ordered expansion on the left by therefore giveswhere negative indices have coefficient zero and .
We prove that unless and for some integer , and otherwiseThe formula holds at . For the next step with , the three contributions in the recurrence, after factoring out , are respectively , , and . Terms with a negative index or are simply absent. Their sum is , giving the required numerator. Parity and nonnegativity exclude every remaining case. This proves the coefficient formula.
Apply the identity to the empty partition. Since , only terms with survive. To finish at , only can contribute, and its coefficient of is , by the Young branching graph correspondence with standard Young tableaux. For ,Here is the odd double factorial, with . ThusThe operator counts oscillating tableaux, allowing both upward and downward steps. A strictly upward path to level would necessarily have length ; the printed operator specification is what determines when .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2005 Paper 1 7 c Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Separate the even factors from :The double factorial therefore satisfies . Applying the same fit consistently gives
Use integration by parts in , writing the integrand as . Since an antiderivative of is ,The boundary term vanishes because the Gaussian exponential function decays faster than any fixed power. These improper integrals are absolutely convergent, justifying the limiting integration by parts.
Starting from the permitted Gaussian integral , the Gaussian moment recurrence gives and thenMore generally, iteration gives , using the double factorial with .
For , the coefficient of isFactoring the bracket gives the recurrence relationFor this is . Iteration and yieldFor , the recurrence is , givingHere the double factorial products are one at , consistent with the chosen normalization. Recognizing the cosine and sine power series, for positive one may also write the two Frobenius solutions asThe constants multiplying the two independent solutions may be chosen separately.