Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 107 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write ; the paper's denotes a norm, not an norm. We use a blow-up compactness proof of an interior Schauder estimate. If the estimate failed for fixed , normalization would produceChoose with and . Since , necessarily . Subtract the quadratic Taylor polynomial at and setThe domains expand to . At zero, vanish; the Hölder seminorm of is at most . Integration along segments gives uniform bounds on each fixed ball. Alsolocally uniformly, since . By compact embedding of Hölder spaces and a diagonal subsequence, converges locally in to an entire harmonic function , with and . The unit vectors have a convergent subsequence; its limit satisfies .
Each second derivative of is an entire harmonic function with finite global Hölder seminorm. The supplied polynomial-growth Liouville theorem for harmonic functions, at growth exponent , makes it constant, and its value at zero makes it zero. This contradicts the nonzero Hessian at , proving the estimate with the small term.
To remove that term, rescale the estimate to all contained balls and apply the Simon absorption lemma. Explicitly, with and , defineFor , apply the rescaled estimate on ; its larger-ball seminorm is controlled by because all points there have boundary distance at least . For more separated pairs use . The result is . Choose and use on to obtainThe forcing's Hölder seminorm cannot be discarded. For integers , takeTheir and forcing supremum norms stay bounded, but the entry of the Hessian matrix differs by two at , giving .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 118 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the usual connected-manifold convention for this assertion. Suppose, for contradiction, that . The Dolbeault theorem gives , and the Hodge decomposition theorem for compact Kähler manifolds and its conjugation symmetry give . Hence every real class in has a real harmonic differential form of type as its representative.
The intersection form is . Its value on the Kähler class is positive: . Every real harmonic form splits uniquely as , with primitive and constant. Indeed, is a harmonic function, hence constant by connectedness, and ; subtracting kills , and part (b) makes primitive.
Part (c) gives , while . ThusThis proves the Hodge index theorem for compact Kähler surfaces in this case: has signature .
On the alleged two-dimensional totally isotropic subspace , the linear functional has a nonzero vector in its kernel. Its harmonic differential form representative is primitive, so the preceding negative-definiteness statement gives , contradicting the vanishing of on . ThereforeConnectedness is essential if one's definition of a manifold allows disconnected spaces. For , with , one has . Take on each component the pullback of the degree-two class from its first factor. Each class has square zero, and their mutual pairing is zero because their supports lie on different components. Their span is then a two-dimensional totally isotropic subspace, disproving the unqualified disconnected version.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let , with three independent standard Brownian motions, and set and . The radial stochastic process is a three-dimensional Bessel process, which never hits zero by the Hitting-zero classification for a Bessel process. In three dimensions is a harmonic function away from zero: direct differentiation gives .
For the stopping times , , the Itô formula givesThe coefficients are bounded by , so each stopped Itô integral is a true martingale on every finite horizon. The stopping times form a localizing sequence; as permitted, its divergence need not be proved here. Thus is a nonnegative continuous local martingale.
To see that is not a true martingale, integrate the three-dimensional multivariate normal density of in spherical coordinates. The angular integral yieldswhere is the standard normal distribution function. Therefore the reciprocal of a three-dimensional Bessel process is a strict local martingale.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 203 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Set for . The singularity is removable, with . Injectivity of the conformal map makes away from zero, and conformality makes as well. Since the disc is simply connected, has a holomorphic logarithm. Therefore is a harmonic function, including at zero, and .
The mean value property for harmonic functions gives, for every ,For general , boundary values mean radial limits, rather than a continuous extension of to every point of the circle. The boundary logarithmic mean of a univalent function justifies taking : the Koebe distortion theorem bounds below by , while the standard integral-mean bound for a univalent function, for , gives uniform integrability of its positive logarithm. Radial limits exist almost everywhere, and passage to the integral follows. Thus, writing for arc length on the unit circle,The expression on the left is the logarithm of the conformal radius of at .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 203 3 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The canonical Dirichlet Green function on the unit disc with its pole at zero is . Conformal invariance of the planar Green kernel therefore givesComparing with yieldsThis also explains the boundary data: when , the correction is . The composition with is harmonic by conformal invariance of harmonicity. Its apparent singularity at is removable because the quotient defining extends to .
Evaluating there proves the regular part of the planar Dirichlet Green function formulaOn an unbounded domain, boundary values alone need not specify a unique harmonic function. Here is the correction belonging to the canonical Dirichlet Green kernel, which fixes that ambiguity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 203 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
A Brownian excursion in the upper half-plane from to infinity is killed planar Brownian motion conditioned to stay in , with its entrance law at . Precisely, it is the Doob h-transform for , obtained by starting at and letting . Equivalently,where is standard Brownian motion and the independent process is a dimension-three Bessel process started at zero. The transformed generator is , which explains this representation.
First compute avoidance from an interior point . Let be the exit time of ordinary planar Brownian motion from . The harmonic correctionhas boundary values on and zero on the real axis. The hydrodynamic normalization at infinity gives . Together with the maximum principle for harmonic functions this gives the useful bound . Since ordinary Brownian motion hits the real axis almost surely, the optional stopping theorem applied to this bounded harmonic function givesThe Doob h-transform weights a stopped path by its final height divided by its initial height. Applying this at the first hit of , with bounded-time localization and then a limit, therefore yieldsFor the entrance law the same result follows by conditioning at a small positive time and letting that time decrease to zero: the avoidance function has the boundary limit computed next, and the excursion is initially in a neighbourhood disjoint from .
Because the closure of the hull avoids , the Schwarz reflection principle makes analytic in a neighbourhood of zero, with real and positive real . ThusIn fact, the reflected Taylor expansion gives uniformly as inside the half-plane, so the same limit applies to the entrance process. The map in the question is , so its derivative agrees with . We obtain the restriction probability of a Brownian half-plane excursion:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 329 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write and take to be the dynamic viscosity. The Papkovich–Neuber representation of a homogeneous Stokes flow uses a harmonic vector potential and harmonic scalar potential :These formulas give incompressibility because , and give , the Stokes equation away from forcing.
For a point force represented by a Dirac delta distribution, rotational covariance and the Linearity of Stokes flow suggest a vector monopole proportional to : is a harmonic function outside the origin, and its slow decay gives the required nonzero resultant force. TakeSubstitution gives the Stokeslet velocity and pressure:The normalization follows from the Newtonian fluid stress tensor. Differentiating the velocity gives the rate of strain and vorticity of a Stokeslet:Here . Thus . On a sphere enclosing the origin, its outward traction integrates to , so in the distributional sense. All displayed fields away from the point force have .
For a sphere in a uniform straining Stokes flow, centre the sphere at the origin and write the ambient velocity as , with and . Faxén's first law and Faxén's rotational law give zero translation and rotation. To impose the no-slip boundary condition, use the decaying harmonic dipole and quadrupole potentialsTrace freedom makes harmonic, and each component of is harmonic. The Papkovich–Neuber representation givesAt , the coefficient of must give , while the extra radial term must vanish. Hence and , giving the complete disturbanceThe total velocity vanishes on the sphere and tends to the imposed strain at infinity. This field has no Stokeslet or rotlet contribution, consistent with a force-free, torque-free sphere. Its leading far field is the radial stresslet .
Now put the first sphere at and the second at , where , and let . The first sphere's leading disturbance is its Stokeslet. The rate-of-strain tensor and vorticity incident on the second sphere areThe second sphere translates with the local flow and rotates with half its local vorticity. Its force-free and torque-free conditions therefore remove any reflected force or torque monopole. The incident strain produces the stresslet just obtained. Sinceits velocity at the first centre, using the relative vector , isFaxén's first law then gives the self-mobility correction from a distant force-free sphere:Finite-size terms and further reflections are beyond the leading order retained in this method of reflections for Stokes flow.
Only the imposed force does work, so the viscous dissipation is . With , define and . At fixed ,so the leading change is negative when . The direction is held fixed in taking .
The fixed-force comparison of minimum viscous dissipation distinguishes the prescribed force from prescribed boundary velocity. Indeed,and henceAt the actual reduced velocity, adding the second sphere increases the dissipation relative to an isolated translating sphere at that same velocity, exactly as required by the Minimum-dissipation theorem for Stokes flow. One can extend the two-sphere velocity rigidly into the second sphere, adding zero strain and producing an admissible trial field in the domain without it. The reflected angular velocity of the first sphere contributes only a higher-order squared rotational power to this comparison.
Finally hold the second sphere's angular velocity at zero. Faxén's rotational law requires the applied coupleThe resulting rotlet adds at the first centreThis is the additional rotational constraint correction to sphere mobility. Including the strain reflection, the total leading change relative to the isolated velocity isFor motion parallel to the line of centres the constraint adds nothing at this order; for transverse motion it supplies an extra resisting correction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 332 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Take in the injection direction and along the flat interface. The specified must be a Darcy velocity, so the pore-fluid velocity and unperturbed interface speed are . Write the perturbed interface as , with , and choose the normal from fluid 1 into fluid 2. The background pressure gradients from Darcy law are .
By incompressibility and uniform permeability of a porous medium, pressure perturbations are harmonic functions. A transverse Fourier mode with positive wavenumber has the decaying formsThe kinematic boundary condition and equal normal Darcy flux implyWithout capillarity the pressure is continuous at the displaced interface. Its linear perturbation is thereforeConsequently the planar viscous-fingering dispersion relation reduces toThis is the Saffman–Taylor instability: less viscous fluid advances preferentially through protrusions. Without a short-wave regularizing mechanism the idealized rate has no finite maximum.
For the prescribed apparent capillary pressure, the chosen normal is , so . Subtract the flat-front pressure jump . Linearization of the jump at givesThere is no first-order product of the surface-tension perturbation and the perturbed macroscopic curvature. ThusUsing the capillary number convention and , this isIf is measured from the unperturbed front and denotes its local apparent tension, set to obtain the usual fixed-coefficient expression. For a physically fixed spatial gradient, and the displayed rate is an instantaneous, generally time-dependent growth rate; the amplitude solves , rather than one constant exponential law for the entire displacement. The parameter has dimensions of inverse length; the absolute tension gradient is .
Assume , as required for positive apparent surface tension, and define . If , unstable modes satisfy . Differentiating the cubic dispersion relation gives the fastest-growing modeWhen , every nonzero mode decays, with a neutral zero-wavenumber translation in the infinite-domain limit. For , surface-tension-gradient stabilization of viscous fingering suppresses the instability entirely at positive injection speeds satisfyingIf , no positive injection speed eliminates every long-wave unstable mode in an unbounded interface. The prescribed wetting variation is treated as an effective normal pressure law for porous-media flow.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ia Paper 3 12B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
For a spherically symmetric function , the Laplacian in spherical coordinates isIntegrating from zero to and using regularity at the origin gives
For the stated density, integration and the boundary condition giveThe two pieces and their first derivatives agree at . If another solution existed, its difference from would be harmonic with zero boundary data, so part (a) proves Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem.
On the shell , normalize the outer radial part to obtain the harmonic functionBy the Dirichlet principle, this function minimizes the energy among all with the same boundary values. Sinceits energy isTherefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 107 1 ii Solution 2026-10-03
Fix . Solvability of the Dirichlet problem on a ball gives a unique harmonic function with on . Both and have the mean value property for harmonic functions, so has it as well and vanishes on .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 107 2 i Solution 2026-10-03
Let the exterior ball be , tangent at . Then on , with equality only at . Choose and defineIn two dimensions, is a harmonic function away from , so in . Moreover and on . Thus is a barrier for the Dirichlet problem, and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 201 4 c Solution 2026-10-03
Fix a closed ball and let be its first exit time. By the Strong Markov property, conditioning at givesThe orthogonal invariance of Brownian motion implies that is uniformly distributed on the sphere . HenceThus has the mean value property on every ball compactly contained in . Since , the mean-value characterization of harmonic functions yieldsThis function is the harmonic measure of viewed from .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 328 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Wirtinger derivative is holomorphic, since by the Laplace equation. The conformal map takes the quadrant to the complex upper half-plane. Integrating the prescribed tangential boundary derivatives, choose a common corner value and define the real boundary functionThe decaying data are bounded under the usual regularity at the corner, so . Thus its Poisson integral converges. A holomorphic function whose real part is that Poisson integral is supplied by the regularized Schwarz integral formula:For , the chain rule gives . Apply integration by parts to obtainSubstituting and gives the requested particular integral representation:Both integrals converge absolutely for an interior point of the quadrant. The Sokhotski–Plemelj formula gives on the horizontal edge and on the vertical edge, verifying the prescribed derivatives.
The printed conditions alone do not determine uniquely. The general answer adds a holomorphic function satisfyingEquivalently, write , where is holomorphic in the complex upper half-plane with real boundary values on the nonzero real axis. An antiderivative of has a harmonic real part with zero tangential boundary derivatives. For example, contributes without changing either datum. If the two edge constants differ by , the angular harmonic function contributes . The boxed expression selects the Poisson integral representative with equal edge constants; regularity and suitable growth conditions can be used to select that representative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 23H e Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Use the Poisson integral to choose a smooth harmonic function on the unit disk whose boundary value is . Seek in the form , which is the standard homogenization of Dirichlet boundary data. Then and, since ,Part (d) gives a unique such , and henceis the unique weak solution with boundary value .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 2 12B b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
SetThen is entire and never takes a real value. The continuous function is nowhere zero; because is connected, it has one sign everywhere. Thus either or is a positive harmonic function. Part (i) makes it constant. The Cauchy-Riemann equations then force the real part of to be constant as well. Hence and therefore are constant.
On , the nonnegative harmonic function dominates the boundary data on : at a point of , for example, and . The maximum principle for harmonic functions, or equivalently Brownian motion stopped on the union, givesComparing the coefficients at infinity proves
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 220 3 b Solution 2026-09-28
Set . This is a nonnegative harmonic function on , has boundary value on the hull boundary, and tends to zero on the real boundary. If is the first exit time of planar Brownian motion from , the optional stopping theorem givesThe hydrodynamic expansion yields , and therefore the Brownian representation of half-plane capacity
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 329 2 Solution 2026-09-29
More surfactant is encountered on the side toward which the far-field concentration increases. Adsorption lowers the surface tension there, so the resulting Marangoni stress drives interfacial flow toward the cleaner, higher-tension side. The reaction force propels the bubble along the concentration gradient; this is chemophoresis.
The bulk concentration obeys the advection-diffusion equationAt ,equates the outward bulk diffusive flux to minus the net adsorption rate: favors desorption into the bulk, while favors adsorption onto the interface.
With advection neglected, is harmonic. Rotational symmetry about and the imposed far-field gradient select the dipolar formWhen , the boundary flux is smaller than the characteristic diffusive flux, so the leading boundary condition is at . This gives , and hence
For an interface with unit normal directed from the bubble into the exterior liquid, the interfacial stress balance with variable surface tension may be writtenwith signs tied to the stated curvature convention. Put and . The constant part of the normal traction is balanced by the uniform bubble pressure. Since andthe remaining exterior traction isIts resultant vanishes becauseand therefore the integrals of the two terms cancel. This is required because the bubble and its interfacial stresses exert no external body force on the combined bubble–fluid system.
The traction is a first spherical harmonic, so the decaying, force-free Stokes flow has no Stokeslet and is generated by the indicated Papkovich–Neuber representation. Comparing the supplied tractionwith the capillary traction givesIn the convention for these potentials, the normal velocity at is . The kinematic boundary condition for a translating sphere is , so
Linearize the surface transport equation about by writing and neglecting products of small perturbations. The tangential velocity relative to the translating bubble obtained from the same potential isUsing the identities supplied in the question,The bulk result gives on the surface. The linearized equationthen yieldsThus
Increasing strengthens exchange with the imposed bulk gradient, so and increase toward a saturation value. Increasing smooths surface-concentration differences and decreases . Increasing strengthens advective redistribution of the background surfactant; the resulting feedback opposes the imposed dipole, so decreases.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 1 24F a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Suppose first that is harmonic. Sincethe Cauchy-Riemann equations show thatis holomorphic on . An open disc is a simply connected domain, so has a holomorphic primitive . If , thenThus has zero gradient and is constant on the connected disc. Subtracting that real constant from gives
Conversely, if for a holomorphic , differentiating the Cauchy-Riemann equations givesHence is harmonic. This proves the harmonic function as the real part of a holomorphic function criterion on .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 2 26F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The map is an immersion when has rank two, equivalently and are linearly independent. It is isothermal when its first fundamental form hasIn general the mean curvature isThe surface is minimal when . In isothermal coordinates the Laplace-Beltrami operator identity isThus exactly when each coordinate function is harmonic.
Forthe isothermal conditions areand harmonicity givesConsequentlyand the isothermal equation reduces toThese are all the solutions for which never vanishes. When they parameterize a catenoid, up to translations, reflection and scaling. The limiting cases , , with exactly one of nonzero, parameterize a punctured plane.