Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ib Paper 3 11F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The contraction mapping theorem states that a contraction mapping of a nonempty complete metric space into itself has a unique fixed point. More explicitly, if with , iteration from any converges to that fixed point.
To prove this, put . Induction gives , so for the triangle inequality givesThus is a Cauchy sequence, and completeness supplies a limit . A contraction mapping is continuous, so . Two fixed points satisfy , forcing equality of the points. Passing to the limit in the bound also gives the useful error estimate .
For the function space, take nonempty; otherwise the supremum in the printed definition is undefined without a convention. Boundedness of makes the uniform metric finite. Nonnegativity and symmetry follow from ; means at every . Taking suprema in proves the triangle inequality. Hence is a metric.
Suppose is a Cauchy sequence for this uniform metric. At each , , so completeness of supplies a value . Given , choose with for all . Fix and let pointwise; then for every . Thus . The uniform limit theorem makes this limit continuous, so . This proves the completeness of the continuous-map space in the uniform metric.
Finally fix with contraction constant , and write and . Using the fixed point equations,Therefore the fixed-point stability in the uniform metric estimate isChoosing proves continuity of at every . The estimate uses the constant of the fixed map only; it does not require a common contraction constant for all nearby .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 59 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We count periodic orbits whose trajectories remain near the two specified homoclinic orbits; the local hypotheses impose no bound on unrelated distant cycles. Choose the return domain small enough that and are less than one. Each admissible return branch is then a contraction mapping.
A right-lobe periodic orbit is a fixed point with and . For small amplitudes it exists exactly when , and . Similarly, a left-lobe periodic orbit has , , , and exists for . Their Floquet multipliers tend to zero, so both are attracting.
A period-two orbit of the section map corresponds to one flow periodic orbit traversing both lobes. Write its states as and . Its positive amplitudes satisfyThe two-step derivative is , again tending to zero. The asymmetric planar gluing return map therefore gives at most one such attracting two-lobe cycle in the small domain. Its boundaries are obtained by setting one amplitude to zero:For the original flow these are leading equations, with corrections or . On , the negative unstable branch makes both excursions before returning to the positive stable branch; on the positive unstable branch returns to the negative stable branch. Each is a compound homoclinic orbit, with one extra passage near the saddle equilibrium. They are distinct from the primary loop curves and .
The six open regions and their local cycles are:
| Region | Attracting flow cycles |
|---|---|
| Right and left single-lobe cycles | |
| Right single-lobe cycle only | |
| Right single-lobe cycle and two-lobe cycle | |
| Left single-lobe cycle only | |
| Left single-lobe cycle and two-lobe cycle | |
| Two-lobe cycle only |
There is no additional small alternating cycle when both parameters are negative. Indeed the two positive-amplitude equations would imply and , giving , impossible for sufficiently small positive . On each mixed-sign quadrant the contraction equations give the two-lobe cycle precisely on the side of the compound curve toward the positive quadrant.
On , there is the primary right homoclinic orbit, together with a left cycle if or a two-lobe cycle if . On the analogous statement holds with left and right interchanged. On there is a compound homoclinic orbit and the right single-lobe cycle; on there is a compound homoclinic orbit and the left single-lobe cycle. At the two primary loops meet at the same saddle equilibrium. The approach to each homoclinic orbit has a diverging period; it is not a saddle-node collision of two finite-period cycles.
Parameter regions and schematic phase portraits for asymmetric planar gluing
. Details. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 59 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
With reflection symmetry, choose and . The two primary homoclinic orbit curves are then encountered simultaneously at . For the return has two attracting single-lobe cycles; for it has one attracting two-lobe cycle. This is the symmetric homoclinic gluing bifurcation: two cycles meet the two saddle loops and are replaced by a cycle traversing both lobes. Since , the saddle equilibrium contracts strongly enough for the nearby cycles to be stable.
One can also use the signed gluing-map reduction . In the symmetric return map it gives . A negative fixed point lifts to two reflection-related flow cycles; a positive fixed point lifts to one period-two orbit of the two-sheet section map, hence one two-lobe flow cycle. This distinction prevents counting the two section intersections as two different flow cycles.
Without reflection symmetry the two splitting parameters are independent. The primary loops occur separately, and the two compound curves bound small coexistence wedges where a single-lobe and a two-lobe cycle are both stable. Thus the six-region picture is the generic two-parameter unfolding of the symmetric gluing event. The simultaneous encounter of both primary loops is codimension two for a general planar flow but codimension one in the reflection-symmetric family. The contraction argument applies to the small return domain; it makes no assertion that a globally arbitrary system has only these cycles everywhere.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 59 4 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The normal form is invariant under . This continuous rotational symmetry makes the axis invariant and reduces the nontrivial geometry to two amplitude variables. The axis connection from to persists without parameter tuning, while rotating the outer connection produces a family of connections from back to . A two-dimensional autonomous amplitude flow cannot by itself produce the proposed saddle-focus return chaos: symmetry reduction hides the phase-dependent reinjection needed for that mechanism.
Generic higher-order terms need not retain this exact rotational symmetry. A normal form can preserve it to a finite truncation order while the full equations have small symmetry-breaking remainders. These unfold the special connection geometry into phase-dependent returns; nearby parameter curves can contain homoclinic orbits to a saddle-focus, and the Shilnikov bifurcation mechanism becomes available. Their exact placement depends on the omitted terms and is not fixed by the displayed truncation alone.
For example, at the perturbed positive-axis saddle, the real unstable eigenvalue is and the stable complex pair has real part . Near the calculated connection curve , the contracting ratio isThis is the positive-saddle-value regime, explaining why the relevant saddle-focus return can be expanding.
In the Shilnikov return map, take a positive return coordinate and , with nondegenerate . At the connection parameter , the fixed point condition isThe right side tends to zero, whereas the phase passes through infinitely many oscillations as . Hence there are infinitely many positive fixed points accumulating at zero, with logarithmically spaced amplitudes. For these points,whose magnitude tends to infinity along the accumulating fixed-point sequence. They represent long-period saddle periodic orbits of the full return, with period growing like , rather than infinitely many stable cycles.
Successive turning branches of this oscillatory return can stretch and fold across suitable intervals. The full saddle-focus Poincaré return map then admits invariant Smale horseshoes and chaotic itineraries near a generic homoclinic orbit at a Shilnikov bifurcation. Varying unfolds accumulating saddle-node and period-doubling events. Whether any resulting invariant set attracts trajectories depends on the other return direction and the omitted terms; the leading scalar map alone does not prove a chaotic attractor for every perturbation. Its domain also excludes negative iterates, which leave the chosen return branch. The degeneracies or would remove the oscillatory mechanism, so the conclusion uses generic, genuinely saddle-focus reinjection.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ib Paper 3 16F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The contraction mapping theorem states: if is a nonempty complete metric space and satisfies for a fixed , then it has exactly one fixed point and the iteration from every starting point converges to it.
To prove existence, choose and let . Induction gives . The triangle inequality and geometric sum then imply, for ,The iterates are a Cauchy sequence; completeness supplies their limit . The contraction is continuous, so . If is another fixed point, forces equality of the points. The same estimate gives geometric convergence from every initial point.
For the particular map, the original PDF gives , which is a closed, complete subset of the real line. For positive , the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality gives , proving . FurthermoreThe mean value theorem therefore gives , a genuine contraction. The fixed-point equation is , and only the positive root belongs to , soThe printed square-root endpoint is essential: the TeX transcription loses it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 23 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An adjunction induces the monad with unit and multiplication . The Eilenberg-Moore comparison functor sends to . A monadic adjunction is one for which that comparison is an equivalence of categories. Iterating comparisons, when their left adjoints exist, gives a tower; its monadic length is the number of steps until equivalence, with length zero for an equivalence and length one for a monadic adjunction that is not already an equivalence.
The precise monadicity theorem says that a right adjoint is monadic exactly when it reflects isomorphisms and creates coequalizers of pairs whose images admit split coequalizers.
Write for one-step forgetting. For , the free extension of nested partial unary operations is the familiar set , with and unit . A map into a set with endomorphism extends uniquely by .
For , letKeep and all its old operations, and adjoin the disjoint set . On the new points define ; every old operation with is undefined there. Define the new top operation only at the old eligible points, by for .
These domains satisfy the defining rules of the nested partial unary operation category: the new points have no -fixed points, so none has any higher operation defined. Given , extend it byThe expression is defined because sends eligible points to eligible points and is total. It preserves every defined operation; preservation of at old points determines , and preservation of determines the whole chain. Thus it is the unique extension, proving .
The free new operation sends each eligible point to a new value with a free chain under the first operation
. Details. For monadicity, reflects isomorphisms: an isomorphism of the lower structures takes bijectively to , so the inverse of a map preserving the new operation preserves it too.
Next prove the split-coequalizer lifting for a fixed-point-domain operation. Let be -morphisms and suppose their lower images have a split coequalizer , with , satisfyingEquip with on its required eligible domain. The lower-structure maps preserve eligibility. For eligible ,so preserves the top operation. If coequalizes , its lower factor satisfiesThus it is a morphism of the full structures. Uniqueness of the lifted operation follows from the eligible section and surjectivity of . This creates the specified coequalizer, so the Beck monadicity theorem proves each one-step adjunction is monadic.
Finally, every free top operation just constructed has no fixed points: for it shifts the free chain, while for it sends old eligible points to new distinct points and is undefined on the new points. Freely adjoining any further operation therefore changes nothing, since its required domain is empty. For , the monad induced on by the long free-and-forgetful adjunction is consequently the same monad, including unit and multiplication, as that for .
The first comparison category is thus equivalent to . Its algebra action evaluates the new formal value by , so the comparison from retains precisely that next operation and is the remaining forgetful functor. Iteration recovers one additional operation at each step. These remaining comparisons are not equivalences while an operation is still forgotten: take a two-element set with all retained operations equal to the identity, and choose the next operation to be the identity in one extension and the transposition in another. Higher operations can be identities in the first case and undefined in the second. The identity on the retained structure is not a morphism between these extensions, so the forgetful functor is not full. This includes .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 60 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let a scalar fixed point have magnitude . If , then and have the same sign; the two lifts are the fixed points and . If , their signs are opposite, and the lift is the period-two orbit . The scalar fixed-point multiplier isThe two-return fixed-point multiplier of the period-two lift is , so in either case dynamical stability requires . The negative fixed point represents one of two mirror-related single-lobe periodic orbits in the flow, whereas the positive fixed point represents a double-lobe periodic orbit.
For , the nearby fixed point is and its fixed-point multiplier tends to zero. Thus two stable single-lobe limit cycles for glue into one stable double-lobe limit cycle for . Their periods diverge as the separatrix is approached; is not a finite-period limit cycle.
For , the small branch instead satisfies and its fixed-point multiplier tends to infinity. Hence one unstable double-lobe limit cycle on splits into two unstable single-lobe limit cycles on . Additional finite-size stable branches depend on the surrounding map; near the resonance with they are resolved by the saddle-node bifurcations in part (c).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 60 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a fixed point write . A saddle-node bifurcation requires both and . For these conditions giveThe second derivative is nonzero at either nonzero saddle-node bifurcation, making it an ordinary saddle-node bifurcation. For , defineThe saddle-node bifurcations occur at and , and three scalar fixed points coexist for . The two outer branches have fixed-point multiplier below one and are stable, while the middle branch is unstable. Negative points lift to two symmetry-related limit cycles, so these scalar branch counts need not equal the number of flow limit cycles. The cusp records coexistence of distinct return-map branches; even outside it a negative branch represents a symmetry-related pair of flow cycles.
If , , thenThis exponentially narrow region ends in a gluing-map cusp at . At its boundaries the graph of is tangent to the diagonal at or , as shown below. At exactly , and gives one stable fixed point for nonzero .
For , the formal saddle-node bifurcation radius is , and the corresponding saddle-node bifurcation parameters also diverge. Thus the near-origin gluing-map cusp lies on the side; the formal large saddle-node bifurcations of the power-law formula on the other side are outside the local gluing-map approximation. They must not be drawn as a second small gluing-map cusp near the origin.
Exponentially narrow gluing-map cusp, tangencies at its two fold boundaries, and stable and unstable fixed-point diagrams on either side of delta one
. Details. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 60 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For , the graph of has a positive maximum at and a negative minimum at . The central branch is stable, while the formal outer branches are unstable. Near the gluing point only the stable central branch is relevant: it crosses from negative to positive , representing the stable two-to-one gluing described in part (b). The formal full power-law diagram has three fixed points between its two large saddle-node bifurcations.
For , the positive branch has its minimum at , while the negative branch has its maximum at . The inner pieces are unstable and outer pieces stable. In the gluing-map cusp interval there is a stable negative branch, a stable positive branch, and an unstable central branch; the unstable branch passes through the singular gluing point with opposite sign to . Outside the gluing-map cusp just one stable outer branch remains. The lower panels of the figure plot these diagrams in fold-scaled variables; dashed lines denote instability and solid lines dynamical stability. Neither diagram has a flip bifurcation, since the scalar derivative is positive wherever defined.



