Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 64 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The equilibrium isothermal equation of state is . Hydrostatic equilibrium gives , henceHere is assumed. This is the same local harmonic-gravity balance as isothermal vertical structure in stellar gravity.
For , this equilibrium is stably stratified under adiabatic fluid perturbations. Its squared buoyancy frequency isA general perturbation can therefore support acoustic waves restored by compression and internal gravity waves restored by buoyancy, with nonoscillatory entropy or vortical disturbances also possible. The prescribed velocity is purely vertical and horizontally uniform. It describes vertical acoustic waves; it does not contain the horizontally varying circulation required for an oscillatory internal-gravity branch. For zero horizontal wavenumber, that branch has zero frequency. An isothermal equilibrium must not be confused with an isothermal perturbation: the latter would remove the buoyancy restoring force.
Introduce the fluid Lagrangian displacement , so . Use for fluid Eulerian perturbations and for fluid Lagrangian perturbations. The continuity equation and the adiabatic relation areThe fixed external gravitational potential is not perturbed. The vertical linearized Euler equations consequently giveSubstituting the preceding relations, and using and , reduces its right-hand side toSince and , the same equation holds for :The rigid fixed base supplies the essential condition . At infinity the condition is finite kinetic energy, not bounded velocity amplitude; a polynomial can grow while the Gaussian mass density makes its energy finite.
Put and . The equation becomes the Hermite differential equation in its probabilists' convention,For , its recurrence isThe base condition makes and therefore every even coefficient zero. An odd series terminates at degree when . It remains to prove that a nonterminating odd solution cannot have finite energy; termination alone would not establish the requested exhaustion of modes.
For that purpose, set . The finite-energy condition is , and its equation isBecause the coefficients are even and the solution is odd at the base, extend oddly to the whole real line. Define lowering and raising operatorsIntegration by parts gives , so . These identities apply to the square-integrable solution: multiplying its equation by a compactly cut off conjugate and taking larger cutoffs bounds and in , and removes the endpoint terms. The same argument applies to each lowered eigenfunction.
If is not a nonnegative integer, repeatedly apply . Each application lowers by one and remains nonzero whenever its current value is positive, by the norm identity. After finitely many applications it would yield a nonzero square-integrable eigenfunction with negative , contradicting that identity. Thus is a nonnegative integer. At , gives , which is even. Lowering reverses parity, so an initially odd eigenfunction can reach this even ground state only if is odd. Consequently . The recurrence then terminates and uniquely determines the odd solution from .
The complete adiabatic vertical modes of a Gaussian atmosphere are thereforeHere is the Probabilists' Hermite polynomial. For example the first shapes are , , and , with frequencies squared , , and . Either sign of each real frequency gives a time-harmonic solution. Gaussian moments make every displayed polynomial have finite kinetic energy. Without the fixed-base condition, finite energy alone would also admit even polynomials, which is why that condition is necessary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 51 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
In a first-order phase transition, two distinct global minima of the Landau free energy have equal values and exchange stability. The equilibrium order parameter jumps, and a first derivative of the equilibrium free energy is discontinuous. Depending on the direction through the phase diagram, that derivative can be magnetization, entropy or another conjugate quantity; a first-order transition need not have latent heat along every chosen path.
In a continuous phase transition, the equilibrium order parameter changes continuously while the curvature at the critical minimum vanishes. For and , is stable for , but for the stable minima have . The order parameter therefore goes continuously to zero at ; the inverse magnetic susceptibility vanishes there.
For , the sextic term stabilizes the Landau free energy. The nonzero minima can become favorable while still has positive curvature. At they coexist with , so the order parameter jumps to magnitude . Finding a stationary point alone does not locate the transition: equilibrium requires comparing the values of all competing minima. Spinodal boundaries describe loss of local stability, not coexistence.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 51 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , with the Boltzmann constant. For independent Ising spins, the one-site partition functions on the two sublattices are and . Differentiating each logarithm with respect to its local field givesAt , the two sublattices experience opposite fields, so spin reversal combined with sublattice exchange leaves the Hamiltonian invariant and gives .
For the antiferromagnetic Ising model, take sites, equal sublattice sizes and neighbors per site. There are bonds counted once. The two-sublattice Ising mean-field approximation expands each bond asand drops only the product of fluctuations. Summing the remaining terms givesThe printed constant omits ; for a total Hamiltonian with unnormalized spin sums, this factor is necessary. Applying the independent-spin calculation now givesThe mean-field approximation is favored by large coordination number: averaging many neighbors reduces local relative fluctuations. The size of critical fluctuations still has to satisfy the Ginzburg criterion; high dimension is a reason for validity, not permission to discard every correlation in every regime.
Antisymmetric solutions and the transition. At , putting makes both equations reduce to . A zero-field continuous transition concerns as well: nonzero explicitly selects the staggered sign and rounds this critical bifurcation. Put . The graphical intersections of and give only for . For there are additionally two nonzero intersections : on , is strictly concave, initially increases, and is negative at , so there is exactly one positive root. Spin reversal supplies the negative root. The origin becomes unstable in the staggered direction, whereas the nonzero roots have and are stable. Expanding about the bifurcation givesThus turns on continuously, with and order-parameter critical exponent .
Uniform solutions. At , imposing instead gives . The function has derivative , is negative at and positive at , and consequently has exactly one zero for every positive temperature. At this zero is . Antiferromagnetic exchange opposes uniform polarization, so the uniform branch has no ferromagnetic ordering bifurcation. This does not remove the antisymmetric solutions below , or exclude transitions of staggered order in the full problem at nonzero uniform field. In particular, uniqueness on the diagonal is not uniqueness of all solutions.
Free energy and stability. The appropriate off-shell two-sublattice Ising variational free energy is the energy minus temperature times the independent-spin entropy. DefineThere are bonds and spins of each kind, so the free-energy density per site isSince , stationarity givesand the analogous equation for ; these are exactly the two mean-field self-consistency equations. On a stationary solution, the identity gives the equivalent on-shell expressionThe entropy form must be used to compare off-shell variations; treating this latter auxiliary expression as the variational potential would give spurious stability conclusions.
Using and , givesThis includes the requested quadratic expansion and first-order field terms. The positive quartic coefficient verifies a continuous phase transition in when the staggered quadratic coefficient changes sign at . The uniform quadratic coefficient remains positive.
Susceptibilities and a printed error. On a stable zero-field ordered branch let and . Since the derivative of is , differentiating the two equations with respect to the uniform field givesTheir sum and difference yieldThe difference equation is ; stability implies for . Symmetry also explains the zero result: a uniform perturbation changes the two sublattice magnetizations equally to first order, and hence does not linearly change the staggered magnetization. This is a cross response to , not the magnetic susceptibility to the staggered field .
The displayed in the source instead contains . It cannot follow from differentiating the stated equations. A decisive limiting check is : vanishes exponentially and the actual uniform response tends to zero, whereas the printed expression tends to . Above , and the same linear system givesFor comparison, the actual staggered susceptibility is , becoming above . Its divergence, rather than a divergence of the uniform response, detects antiferromagnetic criticality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 61 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-20
Use natural units, assume negligible neutrino chemical potentials, and approximate neutrino decoupling as occurring before electron-positron annihilation in cosmology. At high temperature, weak interactions maintain a common temperature for neutrinos, antineutrinos, electrons, Positrons and photons. Since , the reaction rate eventually loses against expansion. Decoupled relativistic neutrinos then free stream; their momenta redshift as , so their distribution retains a temperature parameter satisfying .
The still-coupled electromagnetic bath receives the entropy of annihilating electrons and Positrons. Its effective number of relativistic entropy degrees of freedom is initiallywhere the two photon polarizations count as bosonic states and the four electron-positron spin states have the fermion entropy weight . After the pairs disappear, . Cosmological entropy conservation in this coupled bath gives . The three already decoupled neutrino species are excluded from this bath's entropy count. At decoupling , henceSubsequent expansion preserves this ratio in the idealized history. Residual interactions during annihilation give small corrections to the instantaneous-decoupling approximation. If a relic species later becomes massive, here remains the redshifting momentum-distribution parameter; it need not be its nonrelativistic kinetic temperature.
A single ordinary neutrino species includes one populated neutrino helicity and one antineutrino helicity. For negligible chemical potential, integration of the Fermi-Dirac distribution givesTherefore the number density of a relativistic neutrino relative to photons, with the antiparticle included, isThe factor is the fermionic number-density weight, distinct from the energy and entropy weight . This relation continues to hold after this species becomes nonrelativistic if its comoving particle number is conserved.
Under the proposed matter-dominated, spatially flat model, the Friedmann equation requires the present relic-neutrino energy density to be approximately the critical density. Using the unreduced Planck mass givesThus the critical-density mass of a thermal relic neutrino isTaking the paper's rounded values, , and , givesFor , this is of order -- with these approximate constants. More precise constants change the coefficient, not the requested mass scale. This mass is much larger than the present momentum scale , validating the nonrelativistic energy density approximation. The result assumes that one thermal relic species dominates the matter density; it is conditional on that model rather than a measurement of a neutrino mass.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 70 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Buoyancy and the convective criterion. Consider a small fluid parcel displaced outward by . Assume that sound waves keep its pressure equal to the ambient pressure, while heat exchange is slow enough that its displacement is an adiabatic process. Composition is uniform, so the parcel and its surroundings have the same mean molecular weight. For an ideal gas, , and an adiabatic parcel obeys . If is the pressure change on moving outward, thenThe density excess of the parcel at its new location is thereforeIf , this excess is negative: the outward-displaced parcel is lighter and accelerates farther outward. A downward displacement similarly continues downward. Conversely, a smaller gradient gives a restoring buoyancy force. The Schwarzschild criterion is thus stability for and instability for , where the adiabatic temperature gradient is . For a monatomic gas,A composition gradient would require the additional density effect in the Ledoux criterion; it is absent in this calculation.
Opacity and pressure. The supplied opacity is characteristic of a cool hydrogen-rich stellar atmosphere dominated by negative hydrogen ion opacity. Mostly neutral hydrogen can attach electrons supplied by partially ionized metals; bound-free and free-free absorption involving the resulting ions produces a steep positive temperature dependence. The weak density dependence and strong temperature sensitivity can be represented by local power-law fits. At fixed composition the given pressure form is equivalent to , because . This is an approximate fit over the relevant cool-atmosphere regime, not an exact opacity law at all temperatures; molecular opacity or hydrogen ionization eventually changes the regime.
For a geometrically thin atmosphere take the surface gravity of a star to be constant, . Combining with gives hydrostatic equilibrium in optical depth,The grey atmosphere relation gives . With negligible external pressure, , integration yieldsAn imposed nonzero external pressure would add ; the boundary assumption is what fixes the integration constant here.
The factor in parentheses is . HenceThe grey-atmosphere convection onset with eighth-power temperature opacity occurs when this reaches , soThe radiative continuation below this boundary would be unstable. Efficient convection instead keeps the deeper star approximately adiabatic.
Matching to the convective interior. Write . Eliminating density using the ideal gas law givesat fixed composition. Since is a fixed number, the matching temperature is proportional to , while the matching pressure satisfies . ConsequentlyThe polytropic mass-radius relation for index gives . Raising the matching relation to the ninth power and using therefore givesFinally the Stefan–Boltzmann law yields the Hayashi relation with eighth-power temperature opacity,Composition and the opacity normalization are fixed in this comparison. The entropy coefficient is spatially constant in each convective model, but need not be the same for stars with different masses or radii.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 70 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Mechanical balance and equipotentials. Let be the Newtonian gravitational potential and the cylindrical distance from the rotation axis. For rigid angular velocity , a fluid element at rest in the rotating frame has no Coriolis acceleration. The centrifugal acceleration is , so hydrostatic equilibrium becomesUsing the Poisson equation for gravity and gives
On any regular connected equipotential surface, every tangent displacement satisfies and therefore . Locally , with . This makes a function of as well. Equivalently, taking the curl of the hydrostatic equation gives . Thus and are constant on each surface. The last conclusion follows from the modified Poisson equation; it does not constrain the magnitude of the first derivative to be constant there.
For uniform composition, an equation of state determines uniquely at fixed in the usual stellar regime. For the gas-plus-radiation equation, the derivative with respect to is positive. Hence , and the opacity and radiative conductivity are also functions of .
Surface flux and the requested sketch. Define , positive for the outward radiative flux. ThenOn an outer equipotential surface, is constant and the outward normal is parallel to . Its effective gravity is , so . The Stefan–Boltzmann law gives the radiative gravity-darkening law,A rapidly rotating star is oblate. Centrifugal support reduces the effective gravity near the equator, which is therefore cooler and dimmer; the poles are hotter. The original sketch below uses a subcritical Roche model of a uniformly rotating star to show this geometry and the corresponding temperature variation. The material temperature on an interior equipotential is not the same quantity as the emergent effective temperature defined by surface flux.
Why purely local radiative balance fails. Differentiating the flux givesOn one equipotential, and the proposed source are all constant, but generally varies with latitude. Unless or there is another special cancellation, no single value of can match this flux divergence at all points on the surface. This is the radiative-equilibrium obstruction in a rotating barotropic star. Slow stellar meridional circulation can transport heat to compensate; it is distinct from abandoning hydrostatic balance at leading order.
Integrated energy balance with circulation. The steady continuity equation is . Combining the entropy–enthalpy relation with hydrostatic balance givesIntegrate the energy equation over and apply the divergence theorem:Uniform composition makes constant on the enclosing equipotential, and is constant there by definition. Pull out of the last integral; the remaining net mass flux is zero by steady continuity. Thus the equipotential luminosity conservation with stellar circulation isThis does not require pointwise on : inward and outward circulation may cancel in the net mass flux.
Finally, is constant on and the divergence theorem applied to the effective potential givesTherefore . Since ,The mass is the mass enclosed by this surface, not necessarily the total stellar mass. The denominator is positive for the regular hydrostatic surfaces used here; near loss of centrifugal confinement the assumed stellar model must be reconsidered. The derivation uses slow circulation, retaining hydrostatic/equipotential thermodynamics to leading order while allowing a nonzero advective heat flux.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 78 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let and use a fixed arbitrary material subvolume in the reference configuration, with outward unit normal . The reference mass density is time independent. The global momentum conservation law isThe divergence theorem, differentiation under the integral, and arbitrariness of give
The global conservation of energy law includes both internal energy and kinetic energy:Here is outgoing heat flux per reference area. Localizing givesSubtract the scalar product of the local momentum conservation law with . Since , this proves the Lagrangian internal energy balance
For positive temperature , the global entropy inequality isIts local excess is a nonnegative production density . Expanding the divergence of proves the Lagrangian entropy inequality in the requested equality form:No constitutive assumption on the heat flux was needed for these balance identities.
For the reference-configuration jump balances, make the orientation convention explicit. Write and let point from the minus side to the plus side. Let be the actual interface speed in direction . A signed level function with the plus side obeys on the interface. For , the singular time derivative is ; the singular reference divergence of is . Thus a local conservation law bounded sources has the Rankine-Hugoniot conditionThis is also the shrinking moving-pillbox calculation of the global law: finite volume supplies have no surviving surface term.
To match the displayed positive-sign momentum jump in the paper, use its speed parameter as , so the interface travels in direction . Assuming continuous and no surface force or energy supply, the jump laws are thenand, from ,The last inequality is nonnegative entropy production concentrated on the interface. Temperature and flux in the entropy term are the traces on their respective sides; one cannot take a common temperature outside the jump unless it is continuous.
If is instead defined as the interface speed in direction , all three terms above acquire a minus sign. In particular the printed positive-sign momentum formula requires the opposite speed convention; changing just the order of the jump does not remove this convention issue. If reference density is discontinuous, replace by the jump of the complete conserved density.
An equivalent internal-energy jump follows by subtracting the kinetic-energy jump using , where :The averaged traction appears because ; using a one-sided traction would generally be incorrect.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 2 34D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a reversible change of a simple compressible system with fixed composition, the first law isAn adiabatic change exchanges no heat. A reversible adiabatic change is isentropic, ; adiabatic alone does not imply constant entropy for an irreversible process.
Define the Helmholtz free energy . Then . Equality of its mixed partial derivatives gives the Maxwell relationHolding fixed in the first law and using this relation givesFor equilibrium radiation, and , so this identity reads , or . Integrating givesFinally in a reversible adiabatic expansion, becomes . Dividing gives , hence is constant. This assumes equilibrium radiation throughout the expansion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 4 33B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-20
In the nondegenerate regime, lies well inside the gap, with and . Then conduction occupations are approximately , while the hole probability in a valence state is approximately . Using the near-edge density of states and the supplied gamma integral givesThereforeThis assumes the edge approximations are valid over the thermally populated ranges. For an intrinsic semiconductor , so each carrier density is proportional to . Both mobile conduction electrons and holes contribute to conductivity, with mobilities . The exponentially varying carrier densities explain strong temperature dependence even when the mobilities vary only algebraically.
Donors supply electrons and acceptors remove electrons to create holes. With complete ionization and negligible minority carriers, the majority densities are on the n side and on the p side. The corresponding isolated chemical potentials areCarrier diffusion at contact leaves positively charged donors and negatively charged acceptors in a depletion layer. At equilibrium the electrochemical potential is constant; the electron energy shift is . Hence the n-minus-p electric potential isAll quantities must have a consistent normalization: if are state densities per volume, are dopant densities rather than bare atom counts. The formula neglects incomplete ionization, degeneracy and changes in band structure.
At a common temperature the two equilibrium junction/contact effects do not drive a perpetual current. At different junction temperatures, electrons and holes transport entropy differently, giving different Seebeck coefficients on the two sides. The loop has a thermoelectric electromotive force, oriented as , and therefore generally carries current when closed. This is the Seebeck effect: energy is supplied by heat flow from hot to cold. The temperature dependence of the junction barrier is useful intuition, but an exact terminal voltage is not obtained simply by subtracting two equilibrium built-in potentials; it also depends on bulk transport and contact conditions. The given equilibrium density-of-states data do not determine the numerical thermopowers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 4 34D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The classical one-particle partition function, with phase-space cell , isFor the homogeneous trap, rescale . The spatial measure contributes , soHere , as specified; the last integral is .
Using the printed convention , the free energy isThis convention treats the particles as labeled. For indistinguishable classical particles, adds to . It changes the entropy by but leaves the following force, energy and heat capacities unchanged. This normalization qualification is required to distinguish the printed expression from the usual Gibbs-corrected gas free energy.
The generalized force conjugate to the external parameter is , henceIt is the same equation of state as a hard-wall ideal gas, although now dilates a soft confining potential rather than being the occupied geometric volume.
Writing , thermodynamic differentiation givesThe mean kinetic energy is and the trap potential contributes . At fixed , , so . ConsequentlyThe same result follows from enthalpy . These identities describe the classical ideal gas in a homogeneous soft trap.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 4 4J Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Reliable transmission at rate means that there is a sequence of binary block codes of lengths , message counts with , and decoding error probabilities tending to zero. The Shannon second coding theorem identifies the supremum of reliable rates with the channel capacity.
For a binary symmetric channel, the conditional entropy of the output given any input bit is . The output entropy is at most one bit and attains one for uniform input, so the maximum mutual information isAll rates strictly below are achievable, and rates above are not reliable; this states the supremum without claiming achievability of every boundary rate under every convention.
For very small , the capacity is close to one, with . At , the output is independent of the input and capacity is zero. For , flipping every received bit converts the channel to crossover probability ; its capacity is unchanged because . At the deterministic bit flip is perfectly reversible.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 62 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Chemical equilibrium for implies , because equilibrium photons have zero chemical potential. Dividing the three nonrelativistic Maxwell-Boltzmann number densities therefore givesThe Hydrogen binding energy is in natural units. For ground-state hydrogen, with hyperfine splittings unresolved, and , so the degeneracy ratio is one. Equivalently one can omit nuclear-spin degeneracy consistently from both the proton and atom. Excited hydrogen levels are exponentially suppressed at recombination temperatures. Also , so its effect in the prefactor is negligible. ThusThe sign of the exponential follows from the smaller rest mass of the bound atom: cooling favours neutral hydrogen once translational entropy no longer compensates the binding energy.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 70 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Integrate any conservation equation from part (a) through a vanishingly thin control volume moving with shock speed . Its singular terms require . The stationary shock has , so all five fluxes are continuous. Substitution gives the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas:Let the common mass flux be . Dividing the transverse conditions by proves and . Dividing the energy condition by shows that is unchanged. Thus tangential kinetic energies cancel when solving for the normal shock compression. No global equality of the entropy parameter across the shock has been assumed: physical dissipative shocks increase that parameter.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 70 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Set . Mass and normal momentum conservation implyAfter cancelling the unchanged tangential kinetic energies, the energy condition is . With and normal Mach number , rearrangement factors it asThe first root is the no-shock solution. The nontrivial perfect-gas shock jump conditions therefore giveIts density and pressure ratios arePhysical admissibility selects a compressive, entropy-increasing shock. This can be verified directly: with , define . The derivative of after inserting these ratios iswhere pressures are positive, and at . Thus the entropy increases precisely on the branch ; the positive-pressure expansion branch decreases entropy. Since the normal speed is positive,The endpoint one is the zero-strength limit, not a finite shock. The downstream normal Mach number obeys .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 70 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let , and . Steady smooth adiabatic flow has with the entropy parameter fixed by infinity, andThe second expression follows by integrating the radial momentum equation with and imposing the outer rest condition. Differentiate continuity to give , and substitute into momentum. This yields the Bondi accretion wind equationAt a smooth positive-radius sonic point, and both sides' vanishing factors require . Evaluate the Bernoulli relation there:Both the squared sound speed and sonic radius must be positive and finite. HenceFor no finite-radius regular sonic crossing is possible; the critical solution discussed next approaches sonic speed only at the central limit.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 2 10D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An adiabatic change of box size preserves the mode labels, whose momenta scale as . Since , differentiation gives . Occupation numbers are fixed under this slow mechanical change, so summing the changes in the individual particle energies givesComparison with at fixed entropy and particle number yieldsThe integration notation means summing over the original momentum-mode labels; it does not assume that the density in momentum space is unchanged after rescaling. In the ultrarelativistic limit , so and .
Adiabatic radiation obeys , giving energy density proportional to . Equilibrium photon energy density is proportional to , so . Therefore the photon number in a comoving volume, , is constant. Its entropy is also constant: photon entropy density is . Photon number is not a microscopic conserved charge, but equilibrium processes maintaining the spectrum do not alter this comoving-number scaling in adiabatic expansion; entropy-producing processes would invalidate the assumptions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 4 10D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
In the nonrelativistic dilute regime, and the Fermi-Dirac distribution reduces to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. HenceDifferentiating the Gaussian integral with respect to its coefficient gives . ThereforeThe degeneracy factor here is the one in the supplied integral, namely one. Substituting , and dividing by the supplied photon density givesAt this is about . The relic is already nonrelativistic at decoupling and becomes still colder as its momenta redshift, making it a possible cold dark matter component if it is stable and interacts sufficiently weakly with light.
For orientation, write . Ignoring subsequent entropy transfer, its density relative to baryons would be . With the cosmological baryon-to-photon ratio of order , this is of order four, demonstrating the right cosmological scale. The measured dark-to-baryonic density ratio is likewise of order five; an observational reference is arxiv.org/abs/1807.06209 . This is a candidate abundance argument, not an exact relic-density calculation: photon heating after decoupling changes , and stability and interaction properties were not specified. The supplied mass and freeze-out parameter alone therefore do not establish a precise fit.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 4 34D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Statistical temperature is defined by , with entropy . Maximizing total entropy when two systems exchange energy makes their derivatives equal, explaining why equal temperature characterizes thermal equilibrium and why a thermometer can measure another system.
For a dilute monatomic ideal gas, Gaussian integration of momenta gives the classical partition function , with . Differentiating its logarithm givesAt fixed volume, gas pressure is proportional to absolute temperature; at fixed pressure its volume is proportional to temperature. A low-density gas thermometer therefore supplies an absolute calibration independent of the gas species in the ideal limit. A liquid-in-glass column responds to the difference between liquid and glass thermal expansion, which need not be exactly linear. Calibration against gas temperatures and correction for expansion nonlinearities improve a simple two-point column scale; an ideal-gas law is not a law of the liquid itself.
For blackbody radiation, the electromagnetic mode density is per volume and frequency interval, including two polarizations. For one photon mode, summing its occupation numbers gives . Differentiation of gives mean energy , so the Planck distribution follows. Converting to wavelength gives spectral radianceAt its maximum, satisfies , whose positive root is . Thus the Wien displacement law isThis calibrates a wavelength-based radiation thermometer and avoids identifying a subjective colour with a universal temperature. A peak per frequency interval has a different numerical location, so the spectral convention must be stated. Real objects require emissivity and atmospheric corrections; fitting a measured spectrum is more informative than choosing its visually brightest colour. Integrating the Planck distribution also gives energy density proportional to and radiative flux proportional to , supplying the complementary Stefan–Boltzmann law calibration.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ii Paper 4 38C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a physical adiabatic ideal gas one has ; the following algebra also holds for positive . Compression work implies , obtained by differentiating the total internal energy at fixed mass. With the stated pressure law this integrates toThe term proportional to mass is an arbitrary energy reference; set . Mass flux is , momentum flux is , and dividing the energy flux by mass flux givesfor steady flow.
Work in the shock's rest frame. If the shock speed in the laboratory is , upstream speed relative to it is and downstream speed is , where . Conservation of momentum gives . Conservation of specific total enthalpy givesEliminating and using yieldsIts weak-shock expansion is , exactly the expansion of through second order. Thus the adiabatic pressure-density relation agrees to order ; entropy production first affects this comparison at higher order. The same isentropic constant is not exactly preserved across a finite shock. The wording allows , but the printed enthalpy formula is then undefined. The compression calculation instead gives , and the specific enthalpy is . Thus the requested formula containing requires ; its physical ideal-gas application uses .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 65 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , andHere is the outward radial velocity; are dimensionless. The relationsare sufficient for the reduction. In smooth post-shock gas the spherical continuity equation, Euler equations and adiabatic pressure equation areFor example, the mass density material derivative is , and the velocity material derivative is . After cancellation of the dimensional factors the spherical blast wave in a power-law ambient density obeysPrimes here mean . In the pressure equation the scale derivative explains the constant term. Once the profiles are found, their finite energy integral fixes throughNo global constant in is assumed: the shock wave generates different entropies in shells swept up at different times.

