Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We place the definitions and the unheaded preliminary requests here before addressing the first labelled property. The Schwartz space consists of smooth functions with finite seminormsfor every pair of multi-indices. Convergence means convergence in each seminorm. The tempered distribution space is its continuous dual space, with weak convergence tested against every Schwartz function. A continuous functional satisfies a bound by finitely many of these seminorms, equivalently by one sufficiently large weighted derivative seminorm.
Use the Fourier transform conventionDifferentiation under the integral and integration by parts express as a constant of modulus one times the Fourier transform of . Its supremum is bounded by the norm of that function. For , this norm is at most a constant times finitely many Schwartz seminorms, using the integrable weight . Thus is continuous.
For completeness, Fourier inversion follows by inserting in the inverse integral and using Fubini's theorem. The result is convolution with the Gaussian approximate identityIt tends to , while integrability of allows the damping factor to be removed by dominated convergence theorem. Consequently . Reflection preserves every Schwartz seminorm, so the inverse transform is continuous as well. This proves the Fourier transform isomorphism of the Schwartz space.
Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution by transposition,The Schwartz-space continuity just proved makes this a tempered distribution. Its inverse is , where . These maps are continuous for weak convergence, since each pairing is a pairing with a fixed transformed test. They are also continuous for the strong dual topology, because the Schwartz-space maps take bounded sets to bounded sets.
The convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function isSmooth dependence of translated Schwartz functions gives . The finite-seminorm estimate and show that each derivative has at most polynomial growth. In particular, is a smooth function defining a tempered distribution. It need not itself be a Schwartz function; for example .
Writing , its distributional pairing is . The inner convolution is a Schwartz function, and this identity follows by integration in the Schwartz topology, justified by the weighted seminorm estimates. A direct Fubini's theorem calculation gives . HenceMultiplication is well defined because multiplication by acts continuously on .
Now write the Hilbert transform as convolution with , the principal-value reciprocal distribution. The given Heaviside function transform, together with , yieldsThe value of the sign function at zero is irrelevant to its regular distribution. Thus the Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier isApplying Plancherel theorem, whose normalization here is , proves the isometry:The principal-value integral agrees with this convolution: near its singular point subtract , and use odd cancellation; at infinity the Schwartz decay gives convergence. The Hilbert transform has domain , but generally does not take values in , as the tail in part (c) demonstrates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier is bounded, and is integrable for every nonnegative integer . Therefore its inverse Fourier transform can be differentiated under the integral arbitrarily many times:These derivatives are continuous by dominated convergence theorem. Since , the Hilbert transform is smooth and commutes with differentiation:The Fourier proof avoids differentiating a singular kernel without preserving its Cauchy principal value prescription.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let , a Schwartz function. Splitting the inverse Fourier transform at the jump in the Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier givesFor , integration by parts on each half-line showsBoth restricted derivatives are in . The Riemann-Lebesgue lemma makes the bracket tend to zero as . Hence the two-sided tail isHere . The large-distance tail of the Hilbert transform thus depends on the zeroth moment of the input. If that moment is nonzero, the tail proves that the output is not a Schwartz function, despite being smooth and square-integrable.