Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 9 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
It is enough to prove the stronger planar Kakeya maximal function boundWe first work with a -separated net of unoriented directions , with . Write for angular distance modulo . Choose arbitrary length-one, width- rectangles in these directions. The permitted rectangle intersection fact isThe first alternative includes parallel rectangles. Their locations are arbitrary; only separation of their directions matters.
Define , and put . With these weights the adjoint operator is . Since a separated angular net has only a bounded number of directions at each distance scale from , its overlap matrix satisfiesThe diagonal term is of size . Using and symmetry gives the Schur test estimateBy duality of Lp spaces, . This is uniform over every choice of the translated rectangles. For each direction choose a rectangle approaching the supremum for , then take the limit. That gives the same estimate for the discretized Kakeya maximal function.
To recover all directions, partition the direction circle into arcs of length comparable to , each with a net direction. A tube in an arc is contained in a rectangle in its net direction with width and length at most two. A bounded subdivision in the length direction reduces this to the same averaging operators; the wider tubes obey the same overlap estimate with fixed-factor changes. ThereforeFinally for every . The planar Kakeya maximal estimate therefore has the required arbitrary small power loss.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 6 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For , the real Lp space is the vector space of real measurable functions with , identifying functions equal almost everywhere. Its Lp norm is . For , take the essentially bounded real measurable functions, with the same identification and norm . The identification makes each norm definite; absolute homogeneity follows from the Lebesgue integral, and the triangle inequality follows from Minkowski inequality for finite , or directly from the essential supremum for .
Here is a completeness proof valid on any measure space. For , a Cauchy sequence has a subsequence with . Choose measurable function representatives and put . By Minkowski inequality and the monotone convergence theorem,Consequently the series converges absolutely almost everywhere. Define there, and define it to be zero on the measurable exceptional null set. Then , and Fatou lemma applied to each tail gives . The original Cauchy sequence also converges in Lp norm, by the triangle inequality. For , choose the same subsequence using the essential supremum norm. Outside one measurable null set, all the bounds hold and is bounded. The series then converges uniformly there, with an essentially bounded measurable function limit and the same tail estimate in essential supremum norm. Thus all these spaces are Banach spaces.
The duality of Lp spaces says that, for and , the mapis an isometric isomorphism of normed spaces. This form of Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space requires no finiteness hypothesis on . At , a standard version assumes a sigma-finite measure and identifies with through the same dual pairing. That endpoint assertion must not be made without a suitable measure-space hypothesis.
We first prove the required duality of Lp spaces for a finite measure. Let and set . For disjoint measurable , the indicator functions of their partial unions converge in Lp norm to that of their union, so is countably additive. It has finite variation measure: for every finite measurable partition , choosing real signs givesAlso implies . The Radon-Nikodym theorem supplies a Radon-Nikodym derivative with . Linearity gives for simple functions. Uniform approximation by simple functions extends this identity to bounded measurable functions: both their Lp norm errors and the errors in integration against tend to zero.
To establish the correct integrability, test with the bounded measurable function . Since , writing givesThe second inequality is also valid when . The monotone convergence theorem gives and . Density of simple functions in the Lp space, together with Hölder's inequality, now gives on all of . Conversely Hölder's inequality gives . If , testing againstgives and , so . This also proves uniqueness of the representing Radon-Nikodym derivative.
For completeness, the passage to an arbitrary measure space can be made without losing a hypothesis in the reflexive Banach space argument below. On a sigma-finite measure space, exhaust by nested finite-measure sets . The representing Radon-Nikodym derivatives on agree on overlaps by uniqueness. Their glued density has Lp norm by the monotone convergence theorem, and represents because in Lp norm. Every on an arbitrary measure space is supported on a sigma-finite measurable set: the sets have finite measure and their union is .
Use support localization of an Lp functional as follows. For a sigma-finite measurable , let be the operator norm of restricted to functions supported in . The support observation gives . Choose approaching this supremum and set ; then . If a sigma-finite had , functions supported on the disjoint sets have the direct-sum Lp norm. Optimizing their two scalar coefficients by Hölder's inequality, and using functions approaching the two restriction operator norms, would givea contradiction. Thus vanishes on functions supported outside . The density on , extended by zero, represents globally. The case simply uses . This proves the stated Lp duality on an arbitrary measure space.
Finally let and let , where stars denote continuous dual spaces. Compose with to obtain the bounded linear functional on . Applying duality of Lp spaces with the exponents reversed gives with . For the canonical embedding into the bidual , its value on is also . Since is onto, . Its norm is by the same dual pairing norm identity. Therefore , which proves that is a reflexive Banach space through its actual canonical embedding into the bidual.
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 2017 ii Paper 1 22F d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be conjugate to , so , including for . Hölder's inequality implies, for every measurable finite-measure set ,This proves integrability on and gives uniform integrability there. Choose a set with on which convergence is uniform, using Egorov theorem. ThenFirst take and then . Thus even the local difference tends to zero, and in particularFor , simple functions supported on finite-measure Borel sets are dense in . The displayed convergence proves pairing convergence for such functions. Approximate any by a simple and useBy the duality of Lp spaces, these are all continuous linear functionals on , so converges weakly to . It need not converge strongly: converges pointwise to zero but has norm one. For the pairing argument gives weak-star convergence against , rather than asserting weak convergence against every functional in the much larger full dual.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 22F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be the Holder conjugate exponent of . On with Lebesgue measure, the duality of Lp spaces isunder the pairing . Thus , while for the dual exponent satisfies .
A Banach space is reflexive when its canonical map into its bidual is surjective. The spaces are reflexive exactly forFor these exponents, applying duality twice identifies the bidual with . The endpoint spaces and are not reflexive; for example, disjoint unit cubes give closed copies of and , respectively.
Integration gives an isometric embedding , but it is not onto. On the subspacedefine , the limit at infinity. Since , the Hahn-Banach theorem extends to all of . If this extension were integration against some , its vanishing on every compactly supported bounded function would force almost everywhere, but . ThereforeThis is the Dual of L infinity is larger than L1.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 22H d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
No. In the Lebesgue space , letFor every , finiteness of the interval gives , and the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma yieldsThe duality of Lp spaces therefore shows that in . On the other hand,for every . Thus weak convergence does not imply norm convergence in this space; the Weakly null sine sequence in L1 is the required counterexample.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 22I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The continuous dual space consists of all bounded linear maps , withIf with and is the conjugate exponent, then duality of Lp spaces identifies isometrically with , including when . Every functional has the formand .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 168 2 i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Decompose into its homogeneous Fourier levels. The Bonami lemma and the triangle inequality giveApply this estimate to the -fold tensor power . Tensor products multiply both relevant norms and commute with the noise operator on the Boolean hypercube, soTaking th roots and the limit proves the hypercontractive inequality on the Boolean hypercube