Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 34D Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-10-14
Let the Bravais lattice have primitive vectors , and putThe reciprocal lattice has the basisThe scalar triple product and cross product identities giveConsequently every satisfies for every lattice point , and conversely these three conditions force the coefficients of in the reciprocal basis to be integers. This proves that the displayed vectors generate .
In the Born approximation, suppose that the crystal potential is the sum of translates of one atomic potential over the finite set of lattice sites. Its Fourier transform at the momentum transfer factors asThus the single-atom scattering amplitude is multiplied by the crystal lattice structure factor . Writingseparates the sum into three finite geometric series. For this givesWhen the are large, a factor has a sharp maximum when . All three factors are therefore simultaneously large precisely when . These are the reciprocal-lattice peaks of a finite crystal.
For the stated body-centered cubic lattice basis,the reciprocal-basis formula givesEquivalently,The shortest nonzero reciprocal vectors have squared Euclidean norm , so
In elastic scattering, . If and is the angle between and , Euclidean geometry givesThe first possible diffraction peak therefore occurs atas , by the small-angle approximation. This is the elastic Bragg scattering condition for the shortest reciprocal-lattice vector.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 305 3 ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The condition gives , which is even because all hypercharges are integers. The sum and difference have the same parity, so is even. ThereforeSolving the sum and difference equations gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 166 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Consider the fractional partsin . Divide that interval into intervals of length . By the pigeonhole principle, two fractional parts, say those indexed by , lie in the same interval. Thus, for some integer ,Set . Then , and division by gives the Dirichlet approximation theorem
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 166 2 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Choose a number field containing . At every place of , putThe triangle inequality giveswhere at every non-Archimedean place because the coefficients are integers, while at an Archimedean place one may takeRaise these inequalities to the local weights and multiply over all places. The definition of the Absolute multiplicative Weil height and the product formula then giveThis is the height bound for a polynomial evaluation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 166 3 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let be the monic cubic minimal polynomial of the algebraic integer , let be its conjugates, and let be the two conjugates of a nonrational . Because the degrees three and two are coprime, the fields are linearly disjoint, andis a nonzero integer.
AssumeFor large this makes bounded. Since is a quadratic algebraic integer, the height-Mahler measure formula givesand therefore . The two remaining factors with are bounded, while the three factors with are . Consequently
We now use the standard effective norm form consequence of Part (b). Forwhere is an integral basis of , the effective norm-form height estimate supplies effective constants , depending only on and , such thatfor every nonzero . Its proof factors , balances a generator using the Dirichlet unit theorem, and applies the Baker lower bound for a homogeneous linear form in logarithms to the linear relations defining ; the coprime degrees and exclude a unit-family degeneracy.
Apply this estimate to . Since , the height inequalities imply . HenceChoose the effective value . The last inequality bounds effectively. The rational integers are already covered by the stronger degree-three Liouville approximation theorem, and the Northcott theorem leaves only finitely many remaining quadratic integers of bounded height. Taking the minimum ofover this effective finite set gives an effective and provesfor every .
Put , so . By Bernoulli's inequality, , and henceMore explicitly, for choose an integer . For , the right-hand side is less than . Thus the geometric sequence has limit of a sequence zero, either directly by the definition or by the squeeze theorem.
Use the ceiling function to choose positive integer coefficientsBecause , we have andFor , the comparison test for series with the geometric series givesFor , we instead have , so the terms do not tend to zero. Thus the power series has radius of convergence exactly .
All three examples below have positive integer coefficients, so they work under either convention for whether .
For , take . This is the geometric series: it converges for , and its terms fail to tend to zero for .
For , take , using the factorial and . For every fixed , the absolute values of successive terms have ratio . This eventually exceeds two, so the terms grow without bound and the series cannot converge. At it is finite, giving radius of convergence zero.
For , takeusing the floor function. The coefficients satisfyThe upper bound and the comparison test for series give absolute convergence when . The lower bound prevents the terms tending to zero when . Hence the radius of convergence is exactly .
Choose the unbounded function on . It is unbounded because for all integers . For each , the geometric series gives the sum and its remainder after degree :Since ,This proves uniform convergence. Although the first term and the sum are unbounded, the late tails have a bound tending to zero independently of . Uniform convergence concerns those tails and does not require the individual functions to be bounded.
At any division step , an integer divides both exactly when it divides both : one direction uses , and the other uses . HenceStarting with , , the Euclidean division producesThe nonzero remainders form a strictly decreasing sequence of positive integers. Such a sequence must terminate, since there are only finitely many positive integers below . Suppose is the last nonzero remainder, so . The unchanged greatest common divisor at each step givesThe final equality holds because the positive common divisors of and are precisely the positive divisors of . This proves both termination and correctness of the Euclidean algorithm.
First recall why the two-variable Bézout's identity follows from the Euclidean algorithm. The initial values are integer linear combinations of . At every subsequent step, is again an integer linear combination of . Therefore the last nonzero remainder, which is their greatest common divisor, has that form.
Put . The preceding argument supplies integers with . Applying the same argument to gives integers such thatAn integer divides exactly when it divides : if it divides , it divides , while itself divides both . Hence . Substituting the expression for provesThusare integers satisfying . This also explains how to construct the coefficients using two applications of the Euclidean algorithm.
For separation of variables, set , with . The side Neumann boundary conditions give . As in the standard Sturm-Liouville problem, integration by parts shows . The zero eigenvalue gives constant , and together with makes constant too.
For positive eigenvalues, the side conditions give , , . The top condition chooses the hyperbolic cosine factor . Normalize it to one at , obtainingThe orthogonality of integer Fourier modes and the permitted interchange of summation and integration giveFor the remaining Fourier coefficients, integrate by parts twice. The sine boundary term vanishes, and with ,The last integral vanishes because and is a positive integer. Thus : only even Fourier modes survive, as expected from reflection symmetry about . Writing givesThe factor involving hyperbolic cosine lies between zero and one on the closed rectangle. Comparison with proves uniform convergence, so the solution is continuous on the entire boundary and takes the prescribed bottom values. On every strip , the Fourier coefficients have additional exponential decay, allowing differentiation and verifying Laplace's equation and all three Neumann boundary conditions.
To justify the endpoint calculation in b, differentiate at , in the interior-edge sense:Subtracting from the hyperbolic tangent leaves an absolutely convergent series. For the remaining part, the power series gives, by taking real parts at and then ,The same formula follows as the limit of the differentiated interior solution, since its leading multiplier is . This establishes the boundary normal derivative used in b. It also explains why the failure of the corner compatibility condition for mixed boundary data affects first derivatives at the bottom corners without spoiling continuity of itself.
The value is twice the signed area of the triangle traversed in that order; it is positive for counterclockwise orientation. Choose points on the parabolaFor , subtracting the first row in the determinant and factoring givesEach of the three factors is positive, proving the required property for every integer .
The euclidean algorithm computes the greatest common divisor of two integers by repeated division with remainder. Start with , , interchanging them if necessary, and repeatedly writeuntil a zero remainder occurs. The positive remainders strictly decrease, so the process terminates. At each step the common divisors of are exactly the common divisors of , because . HenceIf one input is zero, the answer is the absolute value of the other; the usual convention sets . Back-substitution also expresses the greatest common divisor as an integer linear combination of the inputs, as in Bézout's identity.
Write , where is an integer and . The change of variables and the fact that is a periodic function giveSplit at , then substitute in the second piece:ThereforeThis proves translation invariance of an integral over one period without assuming that is differentiable.
Fix . The integer powers of a group element satisfyFor nonnegative integers these rules follow by associativity and counting factors; negative integers are handled by , and opposite signs by cancellation of adjacent inverse elements. All factors are powers of the same element, so no abelian group assumption is involved.
It follows that is a group homomorphism from the additive group of integers to , andThe homomorphism uses ordinary addition on ; composition of the power functions corresponds to ordinary multiplication of exponents.
Suppose there were only finitely many prime numbers. There is at least one, namely , so this finite set would have a largest element . The integer is greater than and therefore has a prime factor : for example, its least divisor greater than must be a prime number, since any proper factor of that divisor would contradict minimality.
By ii, , contradicting the choice of . Therefore there are infinitely many prime numbers, proving Euclid's theorem by orders of group elements in finite multiplicative groups.
The multiplicative group of a finite field has group order : its elements are exactly the nonzero residue classes. For any prime factor of , i and Lagrange's theorem therefore implySince and are positive integers, , and henceThis applies to every prime factor, including repeated prime factors viewed as the same prime number.
Suppose the quotient group is a cyclic group, generated by . For any , there are integers and such thatSince lie in the center of a group, they commute with every element, in particular with each other and with the integer powers of a group element . ThereforeAs were arbitrary, is an abelian group. This is the cyclic quotient by the center.
The Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem states that every bounded sequence of real numbers has a convergent subsequence. It is enough to select infinitely many terms of the tangent sequence that stay uniformly bounded.
For each positive integer , choose , using the floor function. Then . Moreover , so these are strictly increasing indices. By the period and monotonicity of the tangent on ,Thus is a bounded subsequence. Applying the Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem to it gives a convergent subsequence, which is also a subsequence of the original sequence. Such a convergent subsequence therefore exists.