Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 130 4 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Let be the vertex set of a regular polygon and let the cyclic rotation group act transitively on it. The finite invariant-colouring lemma says that for every number of colours there are positive weights with such that every colouring of the weighted Cartesian powercontains a monochromatic setFor completeness, prove the lemma along a cyclic composition series for . For a prime cyclic quotient, refine each colour to the finite vector of colours obtained by applying the quotient elements in every active coordinate. The Hales-Jewett theorem supplies a variable block on which this vector is constant. Assign that block squared weights summing to the squared weight of the coordinate it replaces. This makes the quotient orbit monochromatic without changing any orbit distance. Iterating through the cyclic factors proves the lemma for the finite cyclic group .
Because rotations commute, for each coordinate satisfiesfor a fixed vertex . Hence the squared distance between the two corresponding product points isThe monochromatic orbit is therefore isometric to . This proves that every regular polygon is a Euclidean Ramsey set.
Now consider the edge-colouring definition. If all pairwise distances in are equal, then is a regular simplex. Take a sufficiently large regular simplex of the same side length. The ordinary finite Ramsey theorem gives a monochromatic -vertex complete subgraph, and every such vertex set is isometric to . Thus is an edge Ramsey set.
Conversely, if has two distances, let and be its least and greatest distances. Colour every Euclidean edge by whether its length equals . Every isometric copy of contains both an edge of length and one of length , so no copy is monochromatic. Hence the edge Ramsey sets are exactly the equidistant finite sets.
Allowing similar copies does not change the answer. If , colour an edge of length by the parity ofIn every similar copy, the images of a shortest and a longest edge have lengths and , whose displayed integers differ by one. They receive opposite colours. Thus no non-equidistant is edge Ramsey even up to similarity, while the regular-simplex argument already supplies an isometric copy.