Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 5D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Suppose . Then is a unit modulo n for modulus , and Fermat's little theorem impliesSince is an odd prime number, and are distinct residue classes. Therefore is even, and .
Conversely, put . Pair each integer with in the factorial. Wilson theorem yieldsWhen , is even, so satisfies . This proves the first supplementary law for quadratic reciprocity without assuming a primitive root. HenceThe two solutions are and modulo : their difference is nonzero, and factoring shows that a degree-two polynomial over the field of residues modulo has no further roots.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 6D c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For each positive integer , the positive elements of form an infinite set, and the preceding increasing enumeration gives a bijection on these positive elements. The positive integers have a unique decomposition with , so these sets are disjoint and exhaust the positive integers.
The printed natural numbers include . The trailing-zero count of the representation of is not needed: shift the positive partition down by one and putUniqueness of the trailing-zero count proves the injective function property, and the decomposition of proves the surjective function property. An explicit decimal trailing-zero pairing function, using the increasing enumeration from the previous part, isIndeed, the bracket enumerates , exactly the positive integers not divisible by . This handles both the positive index and the element without silently changing the PDF's convention.
To enumerate the rational numbers, first enumerate the integers by , , for . The function maps onto , and composing with gives a surjective function from . Choosing the first index representing each rational number gives an injective function . Thus is countably infinite; its infinitude follows because it contains all integers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 6D d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For each positive integer , consider the threshold set . If it were infinite, one could choose recursively a sequence of distinct elements from it. Every arithmetic average of that sequence would be at least , contradicting the assumed limit zero. Hence every is a finite set.
Every positive real number exceeds for some , by the Archimedean property. ThereforeA countable union of countable sets is countable, so . In fact, under the stipulated infinitude, is a countably infinite set. Positivity matters: it ensures that these thresholds cover . This is countability from vanishing averages of distinct sequences; ordinary Cesaro convergence of a sequence of one chosen enumeration would not suffice to control the whole set.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 4 1F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For a basis of the real vector space , the Gram-Schmidt process constructs an orthonormal basis successively:The inner product makes orthogonal to all earlier . Moreover , since otherwise would be a linear combination of its predecessors, contrary to linear independence. Induction gives . Starting with a basis of a linear subspace and extending it to a basis of gives the same construction with the first vectors spanning .
The orthogonal complement is . For every , set . Then and . If , then , so by definiteness of the inner product. Thus the direct sum isThis also covers and .
For the polynomial space, the form is immediately a symmetric bilinear form, and . A nonzero polynomial of degree of a polynomial at most two cannot have three distinct roots of a polynomial, so this form is an inner product for . For , the nonzero polynomial has . Therefore, among the stipulated positive integers,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 4 5A ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
This subpart is also present in the original PDF but missing from the local TeX. Put and . Multiply the Legendre differential equation for by , multiply the equation for by , and subtract. The product rule givesIntegrating from to , the boundary term vanishes: , and the Legendre polynomials and their derivatives are finite there. For distinct nonnegative integers , . Thus the Orthogonality of Legendre polynomials isThe vanishing coefficient at the endpoints causes no difficulty here because the solutions are polynomials.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 2 b ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
First exclude the short patterns and in the joint spectrum. In the first pattern, the local spectral rules for Young–Jucys–Murphy elements make act by and by on the same simultaneous eigenvector. The two sides of the braid relation in a Coxeter group then act by opposite signs. The second pattern gives the same contradiction with signs reversed.
Now induct on the length of a spectral vector. A prefix of length is spectral for : decompose the restricted group representation and retain a nonzero component of the simultaneous eigenvector. If differed by neither nor from every earlier entry, move it left using the allowed adjacent interchanges. Encountering an equal entry would contradict the distinctness of consecutive eigenvalues. Otherwise it reaches the first position, forcing . For the original first entry was also zero, so an equal entry would indeed have been encountered. ThusThis argument uses only the stated local rules. In particular, iterating the result from also shows that all coordinates are integers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Necessity is a property of standard Young tableaux alone. The first entry occupies , with Content of a Young-diagram cell zero. Every subsequent cell has a cell immediately above or to its left, of content one larger or one smaller, already present. If two entries occupy the same diagonal, the later cell lies strictly southeast of the earlier. The cells immediately right of and immediately below the earlier one exist and have contents ; their entries lie strictly between the two given entries. This proves all three conditions for content vectors of standard Young tableaux.
For sufficiency, build the Young diagram one cell at a time. All coordinates are integers, because each new coordinate differs by one from an earlier coordinate, starting at zero. Cells of any fixed content are ordered northwest to southeast. For their positions are , ; for they are .
At the first occurrence of a positive , the candidate is . The occurrence of earlier would already force a cell of content in its row, so the neighbor condition must instead supply the content . This supplies the left predecessor. The negative case is symmetric, supplying the upper predecessor, and the first zero gives .
At any later occurrence of , take the next position on its diagonal. The preceding occurrence already supplied all but the next necessary predecessor on each neighboring diagonal. The repeated-entry condition supplies both and after that preceding occurrence, so those next predecessors are present. More explicitly, for and the th occurrence, the left predecessor is the th cell of content , and the upper predecessor is the st cell of content . For both are the st cells on their respective diagonals; for the roles are reversed. These are exactly the predecessors supplied by the two new neighboring occurrences.
The new cell is therefore an addable node of a Young diagram. Induction produces a partition of an integer at every stage, and filling the added cell by its insertion time gives a standard Young tableau. No choice was possible because addable nodes of a Young diagram have distinct contents. Thusand the construction also proves uniqueness of the tableau with a specified vector.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 6 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Specht module construction gives a nonzero inclusion over the complex numbers: a polytabloid has coefficient one at its original tabloid, because the row and column stabilizers have trivial intersection, and its span is the corresponding irreducible representation. This establishes without using the multiplicity-one conclusion. Similarly .
By the corrected tensor identity for induced representations and the conjugate-partition sign twist, the multiplicity of in is . The character inner product already computed is the sum of products of multiplicities of common irreducible representations. ThusBoth are positive integers, so . In particularThis deduction avoids assuming the full Young's rule, which would already contain the answer. Alternatively, the permitted one-dimensional R-module homomorphism space gives the same character inner product immediately.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 114 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use integer coefficients. The mapping-torus homology from Mayer–Vietoris works for every continuous map , without assuming that the mapping torus is a fiber bundle. Project to the time circle and choose two open arcs, one containing the seam and one away from it. The inverse image of the seam arc is a mapping cylinder neighborhood with a deformation retraction to its target copy of ; the inverse image of the other arc is a product with a deformation retraction to . Their intersection has two components, each with a deformation retraction to . Label the upper component first. With the convention that the second inclusion in the Mayer–Vietoris sequence has a minus sign, its homology map isIndeed, the upper component includes into the seam neighborhood by the identity, while retracting the lower component across the seam applies . Put and , and replace target coordinates by . The map becomes . Negating gives a direct sum of and an isomorphism. Canceling the latter summands in the long exact sequence yieldsIn particular, there is a short exact sequenceNo splitting of this short exact sequence is assumed at this stage.
For the torus, take the coordinate loops and as the basis of . Their lifts to have endpoint displacements . Applying changes those displacements to its columns, soThis also follows from the identification of the first homology group with the abelianization of the fundamental group. The Künneth theorem gives , with generator the product orientation class. If are the dual degree-one cohomology classes, then evaluates to one on this generator, andThus the degree-two homology map is multiplication by , as in homology of an integer torus endomorphism. The claim that the torus map is a homeomorphism requires to be a unimodular matrix, equivalently an integer inverse or ; nonsingularity over alone would only give a covering map of finite degree. The particular matrix here is unimodular.
For this matrix, andIts kernel is zero and its Smith normal form is , so its cokernel is . The maps on and are zero. Substituting into the short exact sequences, and splitting the degree-one extension because its quotient is free, gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 114 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For the sphere homology calculation use singular homology, homotopy invariance of homology, and the reduced Mayer–Vietoris sequence, not cellular homology. For a point, its chain group for singular homology is in every nonnegative degree, and its boundary operator is multiplication by , hence alternately zero and one in positive degrees. Its homology is therefore in degree zero and zero above. Singular chains of a disjoint union split into the summand chain complexes. Start with , the disjoint union of two points: , all positive groups vanish, and . For , remove the north and south poles to obtain an open cover of . Each member is contractible, while has a deformation retraction to , including the disconnected intersection when . The reduced exact sequence therefore suppliesAlso is connected, so its reduced degree-zero group vanishes. Induction givesThe separate calculation avoids conflating its two degree-zero generators.
Choose an orientation of , with , and let be its fundamental class. The mapping degree is the integer determined by . To define the local degree at , set and require to be isolated in . Choose an open neighborhood containing no other point of that fiber. Then defines a map of pairsThe degree- relative homology groups on both sides are , by a manifold chart and excision. The local orientation of a manifold chooses their generators. The induced map multiplies these generators by an integer, denoted . Excision and naturality show independence of the choice of . Differentiability is unnecessary; if is smooth and is invertible, the inverse function theorem gives relative to the orientations. Without isolation in the fiber this pointwise definition need not apply.
For the degree as a sum of local degrees, assume has finite fiber . Disjoint coordinate neighborhoods and excision identifyThe absolute fundamental class maps to the tuple of local orientation generators. Under the relative map induced by , the th generator goes to times the generator at , and the resulting map from the direct sum adds these contributions. On the other hand, naturality says that first applying the absolute map and then passing to the local group at gives times that generator. ThusIf the fiber is empty the sum is zero: the map factors through the contractible punctured sphere and has degree zero. If every point of a fiber is isolated, compactness makes that closed fiber finite, so the theorem applies. In particular, a regular value of a smooth map gives the signed count of its inverse images. For , define a mapping degree on the reduced generator : the identity has mapping degree one, the swap of the two points minus one, and either constant map zero. With local orientation signs positive at and negative at , the same sum formula holds. The connected-sphere convention above is the standard positive-dimensional one.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 129 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the usual convention that a three-term arithmetic progression must be nonconstant. There is a genuine small-case defect in the printed statement: for , , and , neither conclusion can hold with . We prove the intended Roth density-increment step for every odd integer , including the small values of , rather than silently treating as covered. Counting constant arithmetic progressions would make the first alternative vacuous for every nonempty .
Suppose that has no nonconstant three-term arithmetic progression, and let be its actual density of a finite subset. Thus . Put , , and embed in the cyclic group . A congruence with is an equality over the integers, since . Thus this embedding creates no extra three-term arithmetic progressions. Since is odd, multiplication by two permutes .
Use normalized Fourier analysis on a finite abelian group, with and . For the normalized trilinear arithmetic progression count, character orthogonality givesIndeed, expanding each function in its inverse Fourier transform, averaging in forces , and averaging in then forces . The Parseval identity in this normalization is .
Let , , and , the balanced indicator function of a finite subset. Then . Only constant arithmetic progressions contribute to , whereas summing over centers counts ordered three-term arithmetic progressions in . HenceSet . Telescope by changing one factor at a time:In the Fourier transform formula for each term, bound the Fourier coefficient of by and apply the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to the other two factors. The permutation preserves the required squared sums. Since and , this givesIf , then , so the difference in the other direction is at least . Consequently Fourier detection of a progression-free subset of an interval gives a nonzero frequency with
To turn this into a density increment, take . The Dirichlet approximation theorem, proved here by placing into equal intervals modulo one, gives such that . DefineFor , the inequalities and show thatUse a progression partition with nearly constant linear phase: every residue chain of modulo has at least points. Split each chain into blocks of consecutive chain points, merging any remainder into its last full block. This partitions into arithmetic progressions with and common difference .
On a block with first point , the linear phase satisfiesLet . Freezing the linear phase on each block introduces error at most . ThereforeThe block sums total zero. Their positive part consequently totals at least . Since all block lengths total , some block has . Its density of a finite subset is at least .
For the remaining , divide into disjoint consecutive triples and a remainder of at most two points. A three-term-arithmetic progression-free uses at most two points of each triple, so ; the largest ratio occurs at . Any singleton set from then has density of a finite subset one, which is at least . We may therefore use the explicit constantsIn the large case the constructed arithmetic progression has length at least ; in the small case its length one does too. Thus these constants prove the intended result for all odd integers .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 129 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write for the edge density of a bipartite graph between nonempty disjoint vertex sets. A regular pair of vertex sets is -regular if whenever , , , and .
The Szemerédi regularity lemma says that for every and positive integer there is such that every finite simple graph on vertices has a set partitionwhere have equal positive size and at most unordered pairs , , fail to be regular pairs of vertex sets. The version requiring only sufficiently large is equivalent, since the finitely many smaller admissible sizes can use singleton sets as classes. It suffices to prove this for : reducing a larger parameter to gives stronger conclusions.
Here is a complete energy proof, including restoration of equal class sizes. For a set partition with exceptional set , use the following version of equitable regularity energy, omitting pairs incident with :For , define using the ordered adjacency indicator function, with diagonal entries zero. Thus the same formula works on every rectangle. The refinement variance identity for regularity energy iswhere run over the refined cells. Expanding the square proves the identity because their weighted mean edge density of a bipartite graph is . In particular, refinement never decreases the energy. If a union of refined cells has discrepancy greater than , the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality bounds its contribution below by . For an irregular equal-class pair of size , witnesses have sizes at least , so the increase exceeds in each orientation.
Choose so large that . Initially partition into equal classes and fewer than exceptional vertices. For sufficiently large this exceptional set has size at most . Suppose there are more than irregular unordered pairs at a subsequent step, with equal class size . Choose one witnessing pair of subsets for every such pair. Split each class according to membership in all its witness subsets; each class produces at most atoms. The preceding refinement variance identity for regularity energy shows that the energy increase exceedsas long as the exceptional set has size at most .
Apply equalization with a controlled exceptional set. Set , cut every atom into blocks of size , and send its leftover points to . Provided , the new number of classes satisfiesThe lower bound holds because every old class retains at least one full block: its leftovers total less than . The discarded fraction is at mostCutting blocks is a further refinement before discarding. Discarding changes only ordered pairs with at least one discarded vertex, so it loses at most in the energy. The net increase is therefore at least .
There can be fewer than such strict energy increases, because the energy stays in . Through steps the exceptional fraction is at mostThis also verifies the exceptional-set bound used at every preceding step. Iterating the finite recursion at most times bounds all class counts by some . Choosing sufficiently large in terms of , for instance with and , guarantees throughout. Thus the process terminates with the desired regular pairs of vertex sets. Choose a finite integer threshold for these requirements and set . For , use singleton sets; every pair is regular because its only admissible nonempty subsets are the whole pair. This completes the Szemerédi regularity lemma for all admissible .
For the half graph, a class of size has exactly elements with fewer than predecessors, and the same number with fewer than successors. Thus its boundary contains at most elements. Let be the numbers of classes. The boundary rank obstruction in a half graph gives the union boundbecause . There is therefore an index away from both boundaries. In its classes , all four subsets , , , have at least one tenth of their respective class sizes. These subsets are taken within , which need not be intervals.
In the half graph, and . If were a -regular pair of vertex sets, both values would be within of , implying , a contradiction. At least one class pair is not -regular.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 130 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the product topology on , with discrete, and the left shift . A basic cylinder set specifies finitely many coordinates. This is a compact metric space, and is a homeomorphism. Write for the forward orbit closure. A minimal point means that is a minimal dynamical system, equivalently that every point of has a dense forward orbit in ; it need not be a fixed point.
There is a convention needed in the source: the bounded-gaps property concerns every finite integer interval , hence every finite word over an alphabet. Literally allowing would make the displayed condition impossible for finite , although a constant coloring is a minimal point. Under the standard finite-word interpretation, the property is precisely uniform recurrence.
Suppose first that is a minimal dynamical system. Its nonempty compact forward-invariant subset must equal . As the ambient left shift is invertible, all integer translates of belong to . Let have length , and let . This is a nonempty clopen set. Each forward orbit in meets , so covers . By compactness, finitely many suffice; let be the largest index in this finite cover. For any integer , the point lies in , so some satisfies . The prescribed word therefore occurs at positions , entirely inside . Taking proves the bounded-gaps property for every interval of length at least .
Conversely suppose is uniformly recurrent. Every finite word from any integer translate of occurs arbitrarily far to the right, so every such translate belongs to . Moreover, the property that every length- block contains a specified word of passes to every : a finite block of is a limit of blocks of forward translates of , and the finite discrete alphabet forces eventual exact agreement on that block. Given , look for its word inside . An occurrence starts at for some , so agrees with on . Taking for arbitrarily large proves that belongs to the forward orbit closure of every . That closure is a closed forward-invariant subset of , so it also contains every forward translate of and hence all of . Every forward orbit is therefore dense in , provingThe same conclusion holds if orbit closure is defined using all integer iterates: the bounded-gaps condition makes the forward and two-sided closures equal.