Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 5D d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 6D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 6D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 3 5E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Choose with stabilizer subgroup . Transitivity means that every point is for some . Its stabilizer subgroup issince exactly when . The kernel of a group homomorphism arising from the group action is the set of elements fixing every point, henceThis is the subgroup core. A group homomorphism is injective precisely when its kernel is trivial. The desired equivalence is therefore exactly the equivalence between a trivial subgroup core and a faithful group action. No finiteness assumption is required in this part.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 3 5E i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
For a group action of on , let be the stabilizer subgroup of , and its group orbit. The orbit-stabilizer theorem is the bijectionIt is well defined because elements in the same left coset differ by an element fixing . Conversely, implies , so the cosets coincide. Surjectivity is the definition of the group orbit. For a finite group, counting the cosets givesTo obtain Cayley theorem, let act on its own underlying set by left multiplication. The map is a permutation, with inverse , and . If is the identity permutation, evaluating at the identity element gives . Thus is an injective group homomorphism. When , labeling this set by letters identifies its image with a subgroup of . Every finite group embeds in the symmetric group on its own elements.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 3 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Work with modulo and modulo . By Fermat's little theorem, in , so the factor is independent of the chosen representative of . The proposed multiplication is therefore well defined on the stated Cartesian product. Its two associative bracketings have the same second component:and both have first component . The identity element is , and the two-sided inverse element isThus the multiplication defines the twisted cyclic pair group, of order .
If , multiplication is coordinatewise addition, so the group is abelian. If , then and both and are available; their products in opposite orders are and . They differ. HenceBoth and contain the identity element and are closed under the multiplication and inverses: they are the cyclic groups of orders and respectively. Conjugation gives, with all coordinates reduced in the appropriate modulus,so is a normal subgroup. For , the corresponding calculation isWhen this lies in . Conversely, for , take , , : the second coordinate is , so is not normal. Thus is normal precisely when .
Finally, the projectionis a surjective group homomorphism because the first coordinates add. Its kernel of a group homomorphism is exactly . At , is the only possibility and the first factor is trivial, consistent with every conclusion. No assumption that generates the multiplicative group of the finite field is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 18 3 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a group homomorphism , the dual morphism is pullback of algebraically trivial line bundles. Translations satisfy , and thereforeAlso and . Dualizing is additive: , since algebraically trivial line bundles obey the Theorem of the square. Apply these identities to the three factors defining . The two diagonal terms cancel in the expansionHence .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 1D Solution 2026-10-07
Lagrange's theorem states that for a subgroup of a finite group , . In particular divides ; the equal-sized cosets partition .
Apply the theorem to inside both subgroups. Its order divides both coprime orders, so . For and , the group commutator lies in by being a normal subgroup, and in because . It is therefore the identity. Thus every element of commutes with every element of .
Define by . The cross-commutation just proved gives , so this is a group homomorphism from the direct product of groups. The product assumption makes it surjective. If , then , so both entries are the identity and the kernel of a group homomorphism is trivial. HenceThis proves the internal direct product theorem in the present coprime-order setting, rather than merely matching the numbers of elements.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 2D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
A cyclic group has one generator of a group: . An abelian group has for every pair of elements. Powers of one element commute because , so every cyclic group is Abelian. The Klein four-group is Abelian but is not a cyclic group: every nonidentity element has order two, whereas a generator of a group for a four-element cyclic group would have order four.
Fix a generator of a group of . A group homomorphism is determined by because , and the relation forces . Conversely, such a defines : exponents differing by a multiple of give the same value, and addition of exponents verifies the group homomorphism law. Thus the homomorphism from a finite cyclic group correspondence isFor , the order of a permutation is the least common multiple of its disjoint cycle lengths. The condition allows identity, transpositions, two disjoint transpositions, and four-cycles. The sixteen homomorphisms are , with the full list of possible generator imagesThe remaining eight elements of the symmetric group are three-cycles and do not qualify.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 5D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Take and let act by left multiplication . Each is a permutation, with inverse . Associativity gives , so is a group homomorphism into . If is the identity permutation, evaluating it at the identity element gives . ThusThis is the Cayley theorem, realized by the left regular action, which is a faithful group action.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 5D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Place the cube's vertices at . Its full symmetry group of a cube consists of signed permutation matrices. To see completeness, a cube symmetry fixes its center of a group and permutes the six face normals, so it sends coordinate axes to signed coordinate axes; conversely every such matrix preserves the cube. Coordinate permutations and sign changes take any edge to any other edge, so this is a transitive group action on edges.
Choose the edge . A symmetry stabilizing it must preserve its axis direction and its midpoint . It can swap the first two coordinates and independently reverse the third coordinate, but cannot change the signs of the two fixed coordinates. HenceThere are twelve edges and four elements of the stabilizer subgroup. The orbit-stabiliser theorem therefore gives , including orientation-reversing symmetries, not just the twenty-four rotations.
The action defines a group homomorphism . If an element fixes every edge as a set, it fixes every vertex, since each vertex is the unique common point of its three incident edges. A cube isometry fixing all vertices is the identity. Thus this is a faithful group action, and the cube symmetry action on edges embeds as a subgroup withIt is not a normal subgroup. Central inversion belongs to and swaps the twelve edges in six opposite pairs. In , all permutations of cycle type are conjugate, and their number isIf were a normal subgroup, it would contain this entire conjugacy class, impossible for a group of order forty-eight. This avoids relying on a classification of normal subgroups of the symmetric group.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 3 6D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Write the matrix as . Direct multiplication and inversion giveThe identity is and all determinants are one, so these formulas verify the subgroup criterion inside . This is the real Heisenberg group.
The map is a surjective group homomorphism to the additive group of real numbers; its kernel is exactly . Hence is normal and the first isomorphism theorem givesTwo matrices commute exactly when . Requiring that relation for every forces , while is unrestricted. ThereforeFinally is a surjective group homomorphism to the additive group with precisely this kernel of a group homomorphism, giving . The central coordinate records noncommutativity: the group commutator is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 22 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
At the tangent slope is zero. The elliptic-curve addition formula givesThe chord from to has slope , so its sum has -coordinate and -coordinate . Thus .
Reduction at the good prime seven gives . For , the right sides are respectively . There are respectively choices of . Including the point at infinity gives . Its nonzero torsion points of an elliptic curve of order two are , so it cannot be cyclic. Its two-primary component is and its three-primary component is cyclic of order three; henceIn particular its exponent is six.
The reduction of an elliptic curve is a group homomorphism defined on every -point by projectivity. Thus reduces to the identity for every rational . A finite point with integral coordinates reduces to an affine point, whose projective last coordinate is one, so it cannot reduce to the identity at infinity. Therefore every nonzero finite point has nonintegral coordinates. If , it has no affine coordinates at all. This is the reduction exponent obstruction to integral multiples.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 8 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write the finite abelian group additively. A character of a finite abelian group is a group homomorphism . We first prove that there are exactly such characters of a finite abelian group, without assuming a structure theorem.
Use extension of a character across a cyclic quotient. Given a subgroup and , let be the least positive integer with . The subgroup has cosets of . If is a character of a finite abelian group on , choose any of the roots and defineThis is well-defined: two representations differ by an integer multiple of , and the root equation exactly cancels that difference. It is a character of a finite abelian group, and every extension arises from one of the choices of . Build a chain from the trivial subgroup to by adjoining elements. The character of a finite abelian group count multiplies by the same factor as the subgroup order at every step, so .
For a nontrivial character of a finite abelian group , choose with . Translating the group sum showsso the sum is zero. Applied to , this provesThe orthogonal nonzero characters of a finite abelian group therefore form a basis of all complex functions on , a vector space of dimension .
With the unnormalized Fourier coefficients , expansion in that basis gives the Fourier inversion on a finite groupUnder a normalized forward-transform convention the prefactor would instead be one. Thus the unspecified constant is determined by the convention, and the inversion itself follows directly from character of a finite abelian group counting and orthogonality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 1D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose a positive common denominator so that and with nonzero integers . Put . Every element of the generated subgroup has the form , so it lies in . Conversely, Bezout identity gives integers with , so belongs to the generated subgroup. ConsequentlyThis map is a bijective additive group homomorphism. It is the two-generator instance of a finitely generated subgroup of the rational additive group being an infinite cyclic group.
For the real example, take and . The group homomorphism from onto the generated subgroup is injective because is an irrational number. Thus this subgroup is isomorphic to . More directly, if a single real number generated it, then and for integers , giving , a contradiction. The choice generates a noncyclic additive subgroup.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 6D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
If a nonidentity power belongs to , reduce modulo so that . There is an integer with , and therefore , a contradiction. ThusNow suppose that is abelian and finite. Start with , and whenever , choose . The multiplication mapis a group homomorphism because all elements commute. It is surjective by construction and injective because the intersection of its two factors is trivial: implies lies in that intersection. Hence , and its order is times the previous order. Strict growth and finiteness ensure that the construction ends at . Thereforewhere is the number of factors, possibly zero. This is an elementary abelian group, obtained by an explicit direct product of groups construction.