Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 2 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The monomials with and form a basis of the given vector space. There are of total degree , soOn that basis the linear operator is diagonal:Both summands of the eigenvalue are nonnegative integers. Their sum is zero precisely when . Thus the kernel is the span of those members of whose total degree is at most . In particular it is for and for ; for it is the constants. The image of a linear map is the span of all the other permitted monomials, since each has a nonzero diagonal eigenvalue and hence is the image of its reciprocal multiple. No excluded monomial can occur in an image because its diagonal coefficient is zero.
The trace is the sum of these eigenvalues. At degrees zero and one all contributions vanish. At degree two the contributions are , summing to four; at degree three they are , summing to sixteen; at degree four they are , summing to forty. ThereforeThis is the diagonal monomial action of a second-order Euler operator.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 3 10G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
(1) True. Over , has an eigenvalue with nonzero eigenspace . Commutativity makes invariant under : . The endomorphism has an eigenvector because its characteristic polynomial has a complex root. This is an eigenvector of both matrices, though their eigenvalues on it may differ.
(3) True. Associativity gives , so is nilpotent. A nilpotent endomorphism of an -dimensional space has index at most : in , equality at a nonzero image would make surjective on that finite-dimensional image, hence invertible there, contradicting nilpotence. Thus dimensions strictly decrease until zero, in at most steps. Therefore .
(4) False. Take on a two-dimensional vector space and . The eigenspace has dimension two, but the minimal polynomial is , in which the root zero has multiplicity one. Eigenspace dimension counts independent eigenvectors; the exponent in the minimal polynomial measures the longest corresponding Jordan chain, not that dimension.
(5) True. Factor the minimal polynomial as , with , and set . If , then satisfies , so . But also gives . Thus , so . The reverse inclusion is immediate from , proving
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 3 16B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
On a common domain where all products are defined, expansion of the operator commutator givesUse the usual quantum position and momentum operators with , the canonical commutation relation , and wavefunctions with the decay/domain conditions needed for adjoints. The cross-coordinate operators commute, soFor an eigenstate , hermiticity gives , hence its eigenvalue is real.
The product identity gives , , , . Thus the commutators with cancel, as do those with , proving . Each oscillator energy eigenspace is finite-dimensional and preserved by ; the Hermitian restriction of can be diagonalized within it. Therefore an energy eigenbasis can be chosen to diagonalize angular momentum as well.
For , differentiation gives , so . Also and , giving ; the same calculation holds for . Directly , henceThe simultaneous normalized states areTheir squared unnormalized norm is . Their inner product vanishes because the integral of is zero: the term is odd and the terms cancel by rotational symmetry.
Put . The new Hamiltonian hasFor a nonzero applied coupling , a common normalizable eigenstate would be killed by the commutator, so . It would have to be supported on the line , a set of zero planar measure, and would be the zero vector in . Thus there are no nonzero common eigenstates in this case. Merely having a nonzero commutator would not prove that conclusion for arbitrary operators; the multiplication operator here has trivial kernel. If , the original simultaneous eigenstates remain.
For the shifted two-dimensional oscillator in a uniform electric field, complete the square:Therefore and have the same shifted energyThe modified angular momentum isIt is angular momentum about the displaced centre, commutes with , and has eigenvalues on the two translated states.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 3 7B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Hermiticity of the Hamiltonian operator gives , soThe distinct eigenvalues force orthogonality for , and the given normalization gives one for . Therefore .
Under the time-independent Schrödinger equation, each energy component acquires its own phase:The sum converges in the state Hilbert space because the squared coefficients are summable. Orthogonality makes its squared norm at every time.
The Born rule for energy measurement givesBoth depend only on squared coefficient magnitudes, so both are time-independent. The expectation follows either by summing energy times measurement probability or by inserting the orthogonal expansion in the quadratic form of .
Normalization alone does not guarantee a finite mean for an arbitrary spectrum. The displayed energy series is finite when . Since the spectrum is bounded below by , a divergent positive tail gives an extended expectation , still independent of time; for example an abstract diagonal Hamiltonian with has this property. No growth assumption on is printed, so finiteness should not be asserted without this qualification.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 12 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Symmetry implies that all eigenvalues of lie between and , so . In particular the bilinear form from part (i) is bounded and symmetric under the printed assumptions. The symmetric elliptic Dirichlet energy with a nonpositive potential isAll its terms are finite. For an admissible variation , its first variation is . Thus stationarity is exactly the weak formulation of .
Here is the direct method in the calculus of variations. Put . Expanding the symmetric quadratic form givesThe Poincaré inequality controls by . Therefore is bounded below on the admissible class, and a minimizing sequence is bounded in . By weak compactness in this reflexive Banach space, a subsequence converges weakly to . The affine closed subspace is weakly closed, so remains admissible.
The symmetric square root is measurable and bounded. Since , the two bounded linear mapstake weak convergence to weak convergence. The weak lower semicontinuity of the Hilbert norm shows that is weakly lower semicontinuous. The term is weakly continuous. Hence and attains the minimum. Varying in either sign yields the weak equation.
The sign was used both to make the potential energy nonnegative, hence weakly lower semicontinuous by this argument, and to obtain coercivity. Finally for , since the first variation at vanishes. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 22 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The musical isomorphisms are the pointwise maps induced by the Riemannian metric:In local coordinates they are and . The inverse metric makes these inverse bundle maps, hence inverse maps between smooth vector fields and smooth differential one-forms.
For a covariant two-tensor , its metric trace is in a Riemannian orthonormal frame. The contraction is independent of the chosen frame. There is a terminology distinction here: if is literally an alternating differential two-form, this trace is zero. The object needed below is the covariant two-tensor , generally not alternating. Interpreting that tensor as an alternating form would make the stated divergence construction impossible.
Let be the Levi-Civita connection. The Riemannian gradient, divergence and positive Laplace-Beltrami operator areThus , and in coordinatesThis choice makes the Laplacian eigenvalues nonnegative on a closed Riemannian manifold. The alternative convention reverses all eigenvalue signs, but none of the comparisons below.
For the Riemannian submersion, let and choose orthonormal horizontal lifts of a base frame and an orthonormal vertical frame . The horizontal part of projects to the base Levi-Civita connection; this follows directly from its Koszul formula applied to basic horizontal fields, because their inner products and projected brackets are pulled back from the base. Therefore the horizontal trace of the Riemannian Hessian of is the pulled-back base Hessian trace. Since , its vertical terms areWriting for the unnormalised fibre mean curvature vector givesThe totally geodesic submanifold condition on the fibres makes . Consequently eigenfunction pullback by a Riemannian submersion givesHere the Riemannian submersion is onto, so the map is injective. Its image is exactly the members of the upstairs eigenspace constant on each whole fibre: such a function descends smoothly by local sections of the submersion, and the displayed identity forces the descended function to have the same eigenvalue. In particular, whenever these eigenspaces are finite dimensional, the downstairs multiplicity is no larger than the upstairs multiplicity. The upstairs eigenspace may also contain functions varying along fibres.
A flat torus is with the metric induced by the Euclidean metric, where is a full-rank Euclidean lattice. Its dual lattice is . The characters descend to the quotient and form an orthogonal Fourier basis of on it. Direct differentiation gives the spectrum of a flat torus:with multiplicity equal to the number of dual lattice vectors of each length. In particular zero has multiplicity one.
Let the given four-dimensional isospectral manifolds be and . For , take their products with the same circles of length , equivalently the lattices . The dual lattices are , so their Laplacian eigenvalues areThe given equality of base spectra with multiplicities makes these product spectra identical.
Choose smaller than the shortest nonzero vector length in either original Euclidean lattice. By short-vector cancellation for flat tori, the shortest nonzero vectors in the product lattice are exactly in its new factor. To spell out the nonisometry argument, any isometry of the product flat tori lifts to an isometry of their universal Euclidean covers. This is affine, and its orthogonal linear part maps one product lattice onto the other. It must map the span of their shortest vectors, namely the new -dimensional factor, onto itself; orthogonality then preserves the original four-dimensional factor and maps onto . That would give an isometry of the original flat tori, contrary to the assumption. Isospectral nonisometric flat tori therefore exist in every dimension .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 22 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We construct a family by seven-triangle Dirichlet transplantation. Start with a scalene triangle sufficiently close to an equilateral triangle. Its three side lengths are the three independent parameters; restrict to an open set where its angles are distinct and lie between and . Label the sides opposite the corresponding vertices .
For each of two planar domains, begin with tile and attach the remaining congruent copies by Euclidean reflection across the indicated sides. The attachment tables areFor example, in the first row means to reflect tile across its side to obtain tile . Both attachment graphs are trees: there is a central tile with three arms, each consisting of two tiles. Every side not used in the table is an exterior boundary side.
At the equilateral triangle, these seven reflected tile interiors are disjoint; at each central vertex four sectors of angle meet, leaving an exterior gap . Other boundary vertices have angles or , and distinct nonincident pieces are separated. The positive angular gaps and separations persist under sufficiently small perturbations of the three side lengths. Thus this construction really gives connected polygonal planar domains on an open three-dimensional parameter set. Their only reentrant vertices are the central vertices , with interior angles ; all other boundary angles are one or two triangle angles and are less than .
Because these three reentrant angles are distinct, an isometry of the two planar domains would send each labelled central vertex to its counterpart. A planar isometry is the restriction of a Euclidean rigid motion: its differential preserves the Euclidean connection, hence is constant on the connected domain. After aligning the central triangles, such a motion fixes three noncollinear points and is the identity. But the domains are not identical. On the arm attached to side , the point construction attaches the last tile across side , whereas the line construction attaches it across side . The former side is therefore interior in one domain and exterior in the other. This proves the two domains are nonisometric throughout this three-parameter family.
Two noncongruent seven-triangle domains with identical Dirichlet spectra; matching colours label matching sides
. Details. We now prove equality of the Dirichlet Laplacian spectra, including multiplicities. Index by the nonzero binary vectors , with integer label . The transformationsare involutions over . Their point permutations are precisely the transpositions in the left attachment table, with the remaining points fixed. On covectors the inverse-transpose transformations give permutations with exactly the right table. Let be the point-line incidence matrix of a set system of the Fano plane:The incidence relation is invariant under transforming and its covector contragrediently, so for all three sides. Each point lies on three lines, and two distinct points lie on exactly one common line. Consequentlywhere is the all-ones matrix. Its eigenvalues are once and six times, so is invertible.
The Dirichlet boundary condition requires a sign change at an unglued side. Give each tile the sign and putThe signs alternate across each glued side in both domains. The signed side matrices are thereforeThey have entry across a glued pair and entry on a fixed exterior tile. The invertible seven-triangle Dirichlet transplantation matrix satisfiesThis is an actual Dirichlet boundary condition intertwiner, not merely the unsigned incidence relation.
To justify the spectral conclusion even at the reentrant corners, use the closed Dirichlet energy form. Pull a function on either domain back to its seven reference triangles and write its components as a vector . The form domain consists of components whose side traces agree on glued pairs and vanish on exterior sides; equivalently on each side for the point domain, and for the line domain. These trace conditions exactly characterize of the glued polygon. Both its norm and its Dirichlet energy are the sums of their seven reference-tile integrals.
Since the signed side matrices are symmetric, the intertwining identities also give . Thus commutes with every , and the polar factoris an orthogonal matrix with . Multiplication of the component vector by this constant matrix preserves the inner product and the integrated squared gradients, and maps the two form domains bijectively. The self-adjoint operators associated with these forms are consequently unitarily equivalent, so their eigenvalues and multiplicities agree. The eigenfunctions are smooth in the interiors; no unwarranted smoothness at polygonal corners is required. We have proved
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 22 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator on a compact Riemannian manifold without boundary. Its heat kernel is the smooth integral kernel , , of the solution operators for the heat equation:The last condition holds, in particular, in for smooth initial functions. The heat trace isThe heat invariants are the coefficients in the small-time heat kernel expansion of this trace:Equivalently, the local diagonal coefficients integrate to ; is the scalar curvature. Some normalizations absorb into the coefficients. These definitions here use the displayed normalization consistently.
To prove uniqueness, let satisfy the heat kernel conditions and let be the difference of their solutions with the same smooth initial function. It solves and tends to zero in as . The heat equation energy identity, using integration by parts on the closed manifold, gives for Integrating from to gives ; sending proves . Thus for every smooth test function ,For fixed positive and , smoothness makes this difference a smooth function of . Taking its conjugate as test function shows its squared norm is zero. The heat kernel is unique.
The compact elliptic spectral theorem for the self-adjoint elliptic Laplace-Beltrami operator gives a complete orthonormal basis of smooth eigenfunctions , with discrete eigenvalues counted with multiplicity. Solving the heat equation for initial data gives , so the unique heat kernel has its eigenfunction expansion and its heat trace isThe series converges for every . This proves that the spectrum with multiplicities determines the heat trace.
Conversely, its large-time behaviour recovers the distinct eigenvalues and their multiplicities successively. The multiplicity of zero is . After subtracting the already determined terms, letbe the positive remaining sum, and let be its smallest remaining eigenvalue. ThenIndeed, after factoring , the next distinct eigenvalue is separated from by a positive gap. The remaining tail tends to zero: for fixed its absolute sum is bounded by a constant times , using finiteness of . Induction recovers every spectral term. Thus the heat trace and the spectrum with multiplicities determine one another.
Finally the leading coefficient among the heat invariants is positive, soThe common heat trace of isospectral manifolds therefore forces them to have the same dimension. Once the dimension is recovered, its leading coefficient also recovers their common volume.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 27 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First the eigenvalues of Hecke operators are real. Here is the needed Petersson inner product argument: unfold the finite coset sum defining into its correspondence domain, then change variables by each matrix. The determinant-normalized slash action preserves in the paired integrand, and transfers a representative to its inverse. Multiplying that inverse by the positive scalar gives its adjugate without changing the slash action. Adjugation reverses the integer determinant- correspondence, so the resulting sum is again . Consequently . Taking proves reality of , since .
Fix one prime and set and . The Hecke multiplication relations proved in (a) give , and . The distinct-root assumption excludes .
If , write , . Solving the linear recurrence gives . If is rational, infinitely many satisfy , hence . If it is irrational, density of the corresponding irrational rotation gives infinitely many in the open arc where .
If , let be the real roots of , choosing . Then . Its even-index terms are positive and tend to infinity, whether is positive or negative. Thus the prime-power coefficients of a level-one eigenform are often large and positive, and in either case
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 27 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The stabilizer of an interior point of in is conjugate to the compact rotation group. Its intersection with a discrete subgroup is finite: otherwise compactness gives accumulating elements, and their quotients accumulate at the identity. Thus has finite order in the projective group. Its eigenvalues then satisfy for some positive integer , forcing . Hence . This is a necessary condition only.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 42 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The canonical anticommutation relations realize the internal states as a fermionic Fock space . Choosing a Clifford vacuum annihilated by all , the states are functions multiplying , , with , or . Thus the four fermion-number sectors in supersymmetric quantum mechanics arewith internal dimensions . The fermion number operator has value on . The sectors have even fermion parity, and have odd fermion parity.
Write , so that the supercharge is . The commutator is zero because the two mixed partial derivatives of agree. The canonical anticommutation relations then imply andThe Hamiltonian operator preserves each sector, while raises and lowers its degree by one. For a state in its operator domain, , so the spectrum is nonnegative. If with , then is a state of the same energy and opposite fermion parity, and . This is an odd involution pairing bosonic and fermionic states and proves equal even and odd multiplicities at every positive eigenvalue.
There is also a more precise adjacent-sector pairing. On the positive-energy eigenspace,The two summands are orthogonal since . A state in the image of obeys , , so maps it to a normalized partner in the next sector, with inverse . Thus positive-energy doublets lie in , , or . In particular, every positive-energy state of has a partner in , and every one of has a partner in ; the remaining middle-sector states pair with each other. There is no requirement that all four individual sector spectra coincide. Zero-energy states satisfy and can be unpaired. No confinement assumption was given: a continuous spectrum is possible, with the same even/odd pairing on its positive spectral subspaces.
For real , the adjoint operator is . In , every vanishes; in the one-dimensional internal space of , it equals . The two scalar Hamiltonian operators are consequentlyThese are the extreme sectors of the gradient superpotential Hamiltonian in supersymmetric quantum mechanics.
For radial and a normalized state with , and . The radial superpartner in three-dimensional supersymmetric quantum mechanics therefore has the simple formIt belongs to ; follows from , and its wavefunction normalization follows from . Also . At the origin the formula is interpreted by regular extension; its degree-one components carry the radial unit vector rather than being three independent radial scalars.
For a zero mode in the fermion-vacuum sector, the factorization of gives . Hence , or . The requested wavefunction isA nonzero normalizable wavefunction exists only if this integral is finite. The positive sign in the exponential is fixed by the given convention .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 50 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the orthogonal projection onto the code, and let be the specified error operators, including their linear span. The necessary and sufficient Knill--Laflamme condition iswhere the scalar matrix is independent of the encoded state. In an orthonormal basis of the code this meansThere must be one recovery quantum channel which corrects every allowed error channel, rather than a different recovery chosen using the unknown logical input.
The scalar condition means that any information carried away by the errors depends on their labels but not on the encoded amplitudes. To see how recovery works, diagonalize the positive semidefinite matrix and take corresponding linear combinations of the errors. Then . For each positive , the map is an linear isometry into an error-image subspace, and these subspaces are mutually orthogonal. Measuring their label and reversing the associated linear isometry recovers the logical state without measuring its amplitudes. Zero eigenvalues correspond to errors that annihilate the code. This also explains why the condition corrects arbitrary coherent combinations of the listed errors.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 50 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Fix a basis for the transposition map . If , write . ThenThus transposition is a positive linear map and also preserves the trace.
For dimension , apply it to one subsystem of the maximally entangled state from part (a):where is the swap operator, . It satisfies and , so its eigenvalues are on symmetric vectors and on antisymmetric vectors. In particular,A positive input has therefore acquired a negative expectation value after adjoining an identity channel. Transposition is positive but not completely positive in dimension at least two. The one-dimensional case is the identity map and is completely positive; the dimension qualification is necessary.
