Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2007 Section A A1 c Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For the polybutadiene chain in 1,4-dioxane, define from the negative end charge toward the positive one. The electric dipole energy is , so the force conjugate to end separation is , even though the two endpoint forces are opposite. Balancing it against the entropic spring force givesNumerically,The zero-field rms of just the component is , a different comparison. The mean extension is still much smaller than the contour length , consistent with the Gaussian ideal chain force law. This is an end-charged ideal polymer in an electric field; the direct endpoint Coulomb interaction is omitted as stipulated.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2014 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A covalent bond is stabilized by shared electronic states extending across neighboring atomic nuclei. In a simple two-centre description, combining comparable atomic orbitals produces a bonding state with enhanced electron density between the nuclei and an antibonding state with a node there. For equivalent normalized orbitals with real overlap ,Their energy ordering follows from the molecular Hamiltonian; constructive interference and reduced gradients help explain why the bonding combination can be lower. Opposite-spin electrons can occupy the bonding orbital together. The familiar molecular-hydrogen bond is a basic example, while extended covalent networks form solids such as diamond. Orbital shape and hybridization make covalent bonding strongly directional and constrain bond angles. Occupying antibonding states reduces the net bond strength.
Ionic bonding instead emphasizes electric charge transfer and the electrostatic attraction of the resulting oppositely charged ions. Removing an electron from one atom costs ionization energy and adding it to another gains electron affinity; these isolated-atom terms alone need not favor transfer. In a crystal, the electrostatic lattice energy can stabilize the ionic arrangement. For a schematic lattice of singly charged ions at nearest-neighbor distance ,where the geometrical Madelung constant sums attractions and repulsions throughout the lattice. Short-range overlap repulsion prevents collapse and gives an equilibrium separation. Sodium chloride is an example of an extended ionic crystal, rather than isolated NaCl molecules in the solid.
Original schematic covalent electron sharing and the extended charge arrangement of an ionic crystal
. Details. Ideal ionic bonding is comparatively nondirectional, so packing, ion sizes and electric charge balance strongly influence coordination. ions cannot freely migrate in the ordinary solid; melting or dissolution can make ionic electric charge transport possible. Covalent materials do not obey one universal electrical conductivity rule: their electronic bands and filling determine whether mobile electronic carriers are available.
The two descriptions are limiting models, not a sharp classification of every bond. Unequal electronegativities can produce polar covalent bonds with partial electric charge transfer, and a material may contain both covalent groups and ionic interactions between those groups. Chemical bonding reflects a balance of electronic kinetic energy, electron-nucleus attraction, electron-electron repulsion and nuclear repulsion; it cannot be reduced to a force between two assigned point charges in every material.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2014 2 b Solution 2026-10-18
The Drude model treats mobile electric charge carriers as independent particles with density , signed electric charge , isotropic mass , and momentum relaxation time . In uniform steady fields,At zero magnetic field the drift velocity is , giving electrical conductivity and electrical resistivityThe electrical conductivity is positive for either carrier sign. Scattering dissipates directed drift energy into the environment; a finite steady electric current is compatible with a short-lived drift momentum. The independent-carrier relaxation-time approximation omits detailed band anisotropy, quantum interference and microscopic collision correlations.
For electric current along and magnetic field , the magnetic force deflects carriers toward one side of the sample. electric charge accumulates until a transverse Hall field cancels that force in an open transverse circuit. With , , soElectrons have negative in this convention, whereas positive carriers have positive . For a strip of thickness along , the magnitude of the Hall electric potential difference across its width is . Thus Hall measurements determine carrier sign and, within this one-carrier model, density, while combining with determines charge carrier mobility .
Keeping both in-plane electric current components, the resistivity tensor isThis fixes the off-diagonal sign convention and shows that inversion is not componentwise reciprocation. Under the Hall boundary condition , the ideal one-carrier isotropic model gives , independent of magnetic field: there is no ordinary longitudinal magnetoresistance in this minimal model. Multiple carrier types or anisotropic bands can change both this conclusion and the simple inference. Their electrical conductivity must be added before inverting to obtain the total electrical resistivity.
Past exam of the quantum condensed matter course of the University of Cambridge 2016 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Direct exchange is a quantum-mechanical spin-dependent energy arising from the Coulomb interaction and the required antisymmetry of a two-electron state. It requires spatial overlap of the relevant orbitals. It is not the classical magnetic dipole force between two small magnets, and it can be much stronger than that force.
For an explicit fixed-orbital illustration, take orthonormal spatial orbitals . Orthonormality means ; it does not require their spatial densities to occupy disjoint regions. The normalized spatial states areThe symmetric spatial state combines with the antisymmetric spin-one-half singlet state, and the antisymmetric spatial state combines with a symmetric spin-one-half triplet state, so that the complete fermionic state is antisymmetric.
For Coulomb potential , distinguish the direct electrostatic integral and exchange integral:The Coulomb exchange splitting of two orbitals givesThe repulsive Coulomb potential makes in this model. Thus the triplet is favored when the orbitals have nonzero exchange overlap. Its antisymmetric spatial wavefunction suppresses close electron encounters and reduces their repulsion. Since the Coulomb interaction contains no explicit spin operator, the spin dependence enters through the allowed spatial symmetry.
For dimensionless spin operators , whose pair eigenvalues are in the triplet and in the singlet, the same splitting is represented byThis explicitly states the sign convention: positive here favors parallel spins. A convention would instead have .
In a crystal, direct exchange therefore depends sensitively on orbital extent, overlap and interatomic spacing. It often decreases rapidly as localized orbitals separate. The fixed-orbital example does not prove that every material must be ferromagnetic: orbital rearrangement and competing kinetic or virtual-hopping processes alter the singlet-triplet balance. In particular, antiferromagnetic superexchange through an intermediate ligand is a different mechanism and should not be confused with direct overlap exchange.
In a deterministic local hidden-variable model, write or without an argument for the remote splitter setting. That omission is the parameter independence assumption: the local response for a fixed complete hidden state does not change when the other wing changes its apparatus. Measurement independence also requires the hidden-state ensemble to be independent of the freely selected settings, allowing the same assignments to be compared across configurations.
The zero probabilities derived above then constrain those assignments, apart from sets of hidden states of zero measure:
- Case requires .
- Case requires .
- Case requires .
For a trial with , the last two implications force , contradicting the first condition. Thus these deterministic local assignments predict zero probability for the double- event, whereas quantum theory predicts . This is Hardy's paradox, an inequality-free ideal contradiction. With imperfect apparatus the zero-event conditions become small nonzero rates and require a statistical inequality rather than declaring a contradiction from one imperfect detection.[ref]
Quantum mechanics, local realistic theories, and Lorentz-invariant realistic theories by Lucien Hardy. 1992 abstract: a two-particle proof of Bell's theorem without inequalities
The logical contradiction combines counterfactual hidden-variable assignments; it does not assign simultaneously observed path properties to a quantum state. Nor does it allow a message to be sent by changing a distant splitter: the observable local marginal obeys quantum no-signalling. For example, fixing the plus-side splitter to gives for either minus-side setting in the results above.
photon orbit and the Newtonian limit. Write and . For a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic,The denominator tends to zero at , so the energy per unit rest mass diverges as a massive circular orbit approaches that radius. The corresponding local orbital speed measured by a static observer satisfies and tends to one. This suggests a null circular orbit, but one must not simply insert into a massive-particle formula. For a photon, the radial effective potential is proportional to ; its derivative vanishes at and its second derivative there is negative. Thus the photon sphere is at , and its circular null orbits are unstable.
At , expansion givesThe second term is the total Newtonian circular-orbit energy, kinetic plus potential; the relativistic energy also includes rest energy. Here is the conserved energy referred to a stationary observer at infinity, not the local kinetic energy.
The stable inner edge. At fixed angular momentum, write . The timelike radial geodesic equation can be writtenThe circular condition gives . Substituting into the second derivative taken at fixed givesTimelike circular orbits exist for ; they are stable against radial perturbations for and unstable for . ThereforeThe boundary orbit is marginally stable. Differentiating also gives a minimum there, consistently with this fixed-angular-momentum stability calculation.
accretion efficiency and black-hole spin. Matter supplied slowly from far away initially brings rest energy . A radiatively efficient, zero-inner-torque thin disk releases the binding energy down to the innermost stable circular orbit; the remaining energy is carried into the hole during the plunge. ThusHere denotes the efficiency called in this question. The ideal relation assumes negligible additional dissipation during plunge and neglects photon capture and advection. A hot radiatively inefficient flow need not have this efficiency.
For a Kerr black hole, an equatorial prograde disk has a smaller innermost stable circular orbit and greater binding-energy efficiency than the Schwarzschild value; a retrograde disk has the opposite trend. The formal extremal prograde limits are and . These are ideal limiting values, not a universal realized efficiency. photon capture and the accretion geometry affect the achievable black-hole spin and escaping radiation.
radiation force and the limiting luminosity. For isotropic luminosity , the outward radiation momentum flux at radius is . In fully ionized hydrogen, Thomson scattering acts mainly on the electron, while electrostatic coupling makes the electron and proton move together. Neglecting the electron mass, one electron–proton pair experiencesEquating them yieldsThis Eddington luminosity uses electron-scattering opacity, spherical or isotropic force balance and negligible relativistic corrections at the force-comparison radius. Composition, other opacity, anisotropy and photon trapping can change the relevant limit.
Exponential growth and doubling. Distinguish rest-mass supply from black-hole mass growth :At the Eddington limit,Using the printed scattering cross section gives . The Salpeter time is an e-folding time; the Eddington-limited doubling time isfor the Schwarzschild thin-disk efficiency. If one approximates , the factor is dropped and the estimate is about . The retained-energy version is the mass-conserving expression.
The efficiency bound. A growth factor requires e-folds. Eddington-limited accretion is the fastest growth allowed by the adopted luminosity bound at fixed efficiency, so growth within a time requiresThis efficiency upper bound from Eddington-limited growth is an upper bound: higher efficiency radiates more of each supplied rest mass, and the luminosity ceiling therefore allows less mass to enter per unit time. A duty cycle below unity or sub-Eddington luminosity tightens it. The approximate convention would instead give ; both figures refer to the same effect, with different treatment of the radiated mass deficit. Mergers, super-Eddington growth or a different seed history would change the premises.
Coherent prograde accretion spins up the hole, moves the inner edge inward and increases . For fixed the mass-growth e-folding time then grows, so the logarithmic growth curve becomes less steep; one cannot simply retain the initial Schwarzschild efficiency throughout. Episodic misaligned accretion can have a different black-hole spin history. In general,
energy available to affect the galaxy. Let denote galaxy mass, keeping it distinct from black-hole mass. At constant efficiency, negligible seed mass and no merger contribution, the emitted energy in building isFor and the nonspinning efficiency this is approximately . The common small-efficiency approximation gives , and a fiducial would give about with retained mass included. These differences do not alter the conclusion: the available accretion energy substantially exceeds the stated galactic binding-energy estimate.
Only a coupling fraction of order one percent would then be energetically sufficient to affect the gas strongly. radiation, winds or jets can heat gas, drive outflows and suppress further cooling and star formation, providing active-galactic-nucleus feedback and possible self-regulation of black-hole growth. energy availability alone does not prove that the whole galaxy is expelled: most radiation can escape, jets can be collimated, heated gas can cool, and collisionless stars couple differently from gas.
Original comparison of Eddington-limited growth at fixed efficiencies, including the radiated mass deficit
. Details. Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2013 Paper 1 1 b Solution 2026-10-20
For geodesic motion of uncharged dust, use the pressureless stress-energy form, and . stress-energy conservation expands toContracting with kills the second term, since . Hence , and wherever ,On a flow line , so this becomes . Each relativistic dust element therefore follows a timelike geodesic with proper time as an affine parameter. pressure gradients or external nongravitational forces would add an acceleration term.
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 2 a Solution 2026-10-20
inertial mass sets the response to force, . Passive gravitational mass sets the response to a given gravitational potential, ; active gravitational mass describes a body's gravitational sourcing. Universality of the passive-to-inertial mass ratio makes freely falling trajectories independent of composition. torsion balance comparisons and differential free-fall experiments test this weak equivalence principle by searching for composition-dependent acceleration, with environmental forces and instrumental asymmetries controlled.
The Einstein equivalence principle further says that local nongravitational experiments in a freely falling laboratory obey special relativity, independent of the laboratory's location and velocity. A local inertial coordinate system can remove Christoffel symbols at one event, but cannot remove a nonzero Riemann tensor throughout a finite region. Relative acceleration of separated freely falling particles reveals tidal gravity. Thus a uniformly accelerating laboratory in flat spacetime can mimic a local gravitational field, while extended tidal measurements distinguish genuine curvature. Equality of the measured mass responses does not make every gravitational field globally equivalent to acceleration.
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2014 Paper 1 2 b Solution 2026-10-20
Use coordinates , signature , and the convention , . The antisymmetric electromagnetic field tensor combines six field components:It transforms as . Lowering indices changes the time–space signs: , while . The covariant tensor instead uses the inverse coordinate Jacobian on each lower index.
For a frame moving with velocity relative to the original one,Electric and magnetic fields therefore mix under a boost; they are frame-dependent parts of one tensor. For example, a purely transverse electric field acquires a magnetic field in a boosted frame. The electromagnetic field invariants and restrict which fields can be eliminated by a frame change. The covariant force law guarantees consistent particle dynamics in all inertial frames.
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 2 a Solution 2026-10-20
The weak equivalence principle states that freely falling, sufficiently small test bodies have the same motion in a given gravitational field irrespective of composition or mass, neglecting their own gravity and nongravitational forces. In the Newtonian limit, makes this universality equivalent to a universal gravitational-to-inertial mass ratio, conventionally set to one.
The Einstein equivalence principle adds that local nongravitational experiments in a freely falling, nonrotating laboratory have the laws of special relativity, independent of the laboratory's position and velocity. At an event one can choose a local inertial frame with and . A freely falling observer feels no supporting force, while a supported observer can model a locally uniform gravitational field by an accelerated laboratory. This explains why freely moving particles follow timelike geodesics and light follows null geodesics when other interactions are negligible.
The locality qualification is essential. The Riemann curvature tensor generally remains nonzero; separated freely falling bodies have tidal relative acceleration, measured by geodesic deviation. A finite-size experiment can therefore distinguish a curved gravitational field from a merely accelerated coordinate description of flat spacetime. Equivalence alone also does not select the complete Einstein field equations.
A useful weak-field consequence is the upward photon shift over laboratory height . In an upward-accelerating laboratory the receiver gains recession velocity during the light flight, giving the same leading redshift. The Pound-Rebka experiment tested this with resonant absorption of 14.4-keV gamma rays over about 22.5 m. A controlled source velocity calibrated the Doppler sensitivity; interchanging source and absorber reversed the gravitational contribution while retaining an intrinsic source–absorber offset. Monitoring their temperature difference was essential because lattice-motion shifts could mimic the small signal.[ref]
Apparent Weight of Photons by Robert Vivian Pound and Glen Rebka. pp. 338–340, baseline, velocity calibration, reversed source/absorber positions and temperature corrections
This verifies a gravitational clock-shift prediction; by itself it is not a unique test selecting general relativity over every alternative metric theory. Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 1 3 Solution 2026-10-20
Use signature , coordinates and four-velocity normalized by . The derivative is the metric-compatible Levi-Civita connection. Fix the curvature sign by . Then the required contractions areWith , the contracted Bianchi identity gives . The Einstein field equations , with constant , therefore require covariant conservation of stress-energy. This is a consistency relation between geometry and the total matter/field source. It does not mean in arbitrary coordinates, nor guarantee a global conserved energy in an arbitrary curved spacetime. The geometric identity alone, without the field equations or matter dynamics, is not an equation of motion for a freely specified material source.
For relativistic dust, is proper rest-mass density, measured in the fluid rest frame, and is its timelike four-velocity with the normalization above. In a local Cartesian inertial frame , soAccordingly is momentum density and is energy flux in direction . The equality of momentum-density and energy-flux components after the appropriate factors of reflects the symmetry of the stress-energy tensor. In the comoving frame the spatial stress is zero, as required for pressureless matter.
Expand the dust conservation equation by the product rule:Contract with . metric compatibility and constant normalization give , leaving . Substitute this rest-mass continuity law back and divide by nonzero :This proves geodesic motion of uncharged dust along each fluid flow line. pressure forces or another exchange of momentum would change the argument; at zero density there is no dust worldline to constrain.
The electromagnetic field tensor is antisymmetric and has six independent components. In the stated local inertial coordinates choose and , givingThe fields are those measured by that local observer; changing observer mixes them through the Lorentz transformation of . With and , two independent quadratic contractions areThe second is a pseudoscalar: it is invariant under proper Lorentz transformations and changes sign under an orientation reversal. Opposite choices for the orientation tensor change its written sign. A nonzero null electromagnetic field can have both contractions zero, so the two numbers do not determine whether the tensor itself vanishes.
For charged relativistic dust, insert into the force-density equation:Contraction with again gives the continuity law, because by antisymmetry. After removing the continuity term,In a local inertial frame the spatial components reduce to and the temporal component gives . This is the relativistic Lorentz force, with gravity represented by the connection. The force is orthogonal to and preserves the rest-mass normalization. Matter alone now exchanges energy and momentum with the electromagnetic field; adding the field tensor's stress-energy restores zero divergence of the combined source.
Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Section B B4 Solution 2026-10-18
Local equivalence and tides. In Newtonian mechanics, inertial mass measures the response to a force, whereas passive gravitational mass couples to an imposed Newtonian gravitational field. A freely falling body obeysThe observed composition independence of free fall says that this ratio is universal. With a common choice of units it is one. This is the Newtonian content of the weak equivalence principle for test particles; it does not by itself specify all nongravitational physics.
The Einstein equivalence principle further says that local nongravitational experiments in a sufficiently small freely falling laboratory have the form predicted by special relativity, independently of the laboratory's location and motion. In such a local inertial frame, the metric tensor is locally the Minkowski metric and the Christoffel symbols vanish at the selected event. The strong equivalence principle extends the universality claim to local gravitational experiments and bodies with significant gravitational self-energy. None of these statements removes measurable tidal forces across a finite apparatus.
In an ideal small freely falling lift, a released ball initially floats relative to the cabin, because both undergo the same free fall. Two separated balls, however, need not retain their separation: they sample different parts of the gravitational field. For a point source, linearizing across a small separation gives the tidal tensor predictionA radial separation stretches with coefficient , whereas a transverse separation is compressed with coefficient . Initially parallel velocities therefore develop relative motion even though the individual bodies experience zero proper acceleration.
The relativistic statement is geodesic deviation. With the Riemann curvature tensor conventiona connecting vector between neighboring freely falling worldlines satisfiesHere is the covariant derivative along the reference geodesic, and its four-velocity. Curvature can be nonzero where the Christoffel symbols have been made zero. In the weak, static, slow-motion limit this equation reduces to , recovering the tidal tensor above. A finite falling lift can detect gravity through these relative accelerations; local equivalence does not imply a globally uniform field.
Weak-field connection and potential. Take and the metric signature. There is an index error in the printed formula for the Christoffel symbols: its first differentiated metric component must be , not . The correctly contracted expression isThe offending term vanishes under the stipulated time independence, so this correction does not change the intended calculation. Write and treat both and its derivatives as first order. To that order , , and . A stationary metric tensor givesFor the temporal component the inverse-metric coefficient is already first order, soFor a spatial component the zeroth-order inverse metric contributes:The time component of the approximate geodesic equation says that is constant to the retained order. In its spatial component, convert the proper time derivatives to coordinate-time derivatives and cancel :Comparison with the Newtonian equation identifies . For an isolated source, choose the gravitational potential to tend to zero at infinity and normalize the time coordinate there, giving . ThusThe quantity is the Newtonian gravitational potential, or gravitational potential energy per unit mass, in . For a point source, . A static clock has , connecting the Newtonian limit with gravitational time dilation.
Frequency of the orbiting source. Treat the gas blob as a test particle on a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic, with pressure and other nongravitational forces negligible. Treat our very distant location as infinity, so the observer's own gravitational potential is negligible. These are the assumptions that make a unique answer in terms of possible.
Put and use a local static observer at the emission point as an intermediate measuring frame. The remote observer lies on the symmetry axis of the orbit. A ray arriving on that axis has zero conserved axial angular momentum, so its local direction is perpendicular to the emitter's azimuthal velocity. Bending within a meridional plane does not alter this orthogonality. The transverse relativistic Doppler effect therefore giveswhere is the orbital speed measured by that local static observer. The gravitational redshift between static Schwarzschild observers then givesA gravitational circular orbit has in the weak-field limit, so . Expanding both factors,Solving for the emitted frequency givesThe gravitational part is and the transverse kinematic time dilation contributes another ; the absence of line-of-sight motion does not remove this second effect.
As an exact check, the local speed on a timelike circular Schwarzschild geodesic satisfies , where . Therefore the face-on frequency shift of a circular Schwarzschild source iswhose expansion agrees with the boxed answer. If the gas is supported or accelerated by pressure or magnetic stresses rather than following a geodesic, its orbital speed is not fixed by the mass and radius alone; the appropriate first-order result is instead , with supplied independently.

