Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ia Paper 1 1C iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The contracted Kronecker delta is . The other scalar contraction is , while is the th component of the matrix transpose applied to . Hence the resulting vector isBoth terms have the same single free index , as required by the Einstein summation convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ia Paper 1 1C i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The two free indices are the row and column indices of a matrix. The Kronecker delta has value one on its diagonal and zero off it, so the answer is the identity matrix .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ib Paper 4 16H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An isotropic tensor has unchanged components under every proper orthogonal change of basis: for every . Orthogonality gives , so the Kronecker delta is isotropic. The determinant identity gives , so the Levi-Civita symbol is isotropic too. If reflections are included, this last object is a pseudotensor: it changes sign. The question's isotropy convention therefore refers to proper rotations.
For the sphere moment , change variables to . Rotations preserve the sphere and its area measure; inserting the component transformation proves that is an isotropic tensor. For the second moment, half-turns about coordinate axes kill the off-diagonal components, while rotations interchanging axes make the diagonal entries equal. Thus it is a multiple . Contracting the indices gives . Odd moments vanish by , including the third moment. The supplied general fourth-rank form and symmetry under every permutation of the four indices make its three coefficients equal. A double contraction then gives . ThusTo explain the weighted volume integrals, put ; its bilinear square is , without complex conjugation. Separating radial and angular factors givesFor the angular factor is . For it is zero by oddness. For it is . Therefore all three requested integrals vanish, assuming the radial integrals exist. More generally the null-vector cancellation of radial moments follows from rotation about the third axis, which multiplies the integral by without otherwise changing it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ia Paper 3 12A Solution 2026-10-14
A Cartesian isotropic tensor is unchanged by every proper rotation matrix. For a rank-two tensor this means , or . No symmetry of is assumed. For a quarter-turn about the axis,Comparing entries yields , , , and . In particular,The remaining matrix has the form . A quarter-turn about the axis givesInvariance now forces and , proving that an isotropic second-rank tensor isa scalar multiple of the Kronecker delta.
For the final unheaded conductivity identity, let , the orthogonal projection onto the unit vector . Then and the uniaxial conductivity tensor is . The antisymmetric tensor sends a vector to . Applying it twice and using the vector triple product givesConsequentlyThis equals exactly when . Since has rank one and is nonzero, the requested parameter isAt this value conductivity vanishes along ; it is precisely the singular case excluded in part (ii), so there is no conflict with that part's conclusion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ib Paper 3 6A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose the coordinate vectors and in the assumed bilinear identity. It gives for each pair of indices, hence the tensor is zero.
Let be the enclosed region. Apply the divergence theorem to the vector field . Since are constant,ThereforeWriting the left side as and using the initial tensor argument gives the boundary integral of position and normal componentsContract with the Kronecker delta to obtain . Contract with the Levi-Civita symbol to obtainThus the requested integrals are and the zero vector, respectively. These applications require the usual sufficiently regular closed boundary and outward-normal orientation of the divergence theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 82 1 a i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put , , and take a compactly supported Lighthill stress tensor. The isotropic term in that tensor is : the Kronecker delta is implicit in the printed shorthand. Convolving the Lighthill acoustic analogy with the retarded acoustic Green function and integrating twice by parts in the source coordinates givesThe boundary terms vanish because of compact support. For source size , the acoustic compact-source approximation requires . At , we may therefore replace the denominator by and the retarded argument by in the leading source integral. Define . In the radiation region , the leading two spatial derivatives act on the retarded time rather than on or :Thus the leading acoustic quadrupole density isFor the compact acoustic quadrupole Mach-number scaling, let be the source fluctuation speed, , and use the advective source time . With , one has and . ConsequentlyThe fourth power refers to the radiation coefficient with geometric spreading separated. It assumes that the source frequency scales as ; an independently imposed frequency or an independently strong thermal source would change that Mach number estimate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 1 1A ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use suffix notation, summing repeated indices, and the Levi-Civita symbol convention . Contracting the outer symbol with the symbol from the second cross product gives the epsilon-delta identitywhere is the Kronecker delta. ThusThe second term is zero because is symmetric in and the Levi-Civita symbol is antisymmetric. The cyclic rearrangement of the remaining symbol has positive sign. Its contraction is the scalar triple product . HenceThis cross products with a common vector identity requires no independence assumption, so it also covers zero or parallel vectors.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 1 6C ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
In suffix notation, , so the matrix entries areHere is the Kronecker delta and the Levi-Civita symbol. The diagonal determines . Comparing the off-diagonal entries withgives . As is a unit vector and , and . ThusIn this example the transverse scaling is and the axial scaling is two; the rotation angle is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 3 12A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a Cartesian second-rank tensor, writeThe first term is a symmetric second-rank tensor and the second is an antisymmetric second-rank tensor. Taking the trace of the symmetric term and subtracting it gives the scalar, symmetric-traceless and axial tensor decomposition:Here and . To check reconstruction of the antisymmetric part, contract the Levi-Civita symbols:Thus , and the displayed contractions also prove uniqueness. The vector associated with the antisymmetric part is an axial vector under reflections, and an ordinary vector under proper rotations.
For the specified isotropic tensor law, contract the Kronecker deltas first:Write , where and is symmetric and traceless. Transposition preserves its scalar and symmetric-traceless parts and reverses its antisymmetric part. ThereforeUniqueness of the decomposition gives the isotropic elasticity on tensor components relations. Provided their respective coefficients are nonzero, the requested inverses areIf one coefficient vanishes, that strain component has zero stress response: the corresponding stress component must be zero for a solution to exist, and that strain component is not uniquely recoverable. Isotropy by itself does not guarantee invertibility.
If is symmetric then , hence and the stress is symmetric. Equivalently, direct transposition gives . Restricting to this symmetric-strain case givesThis final two-parameter expression uses the symmetry assumption from the preceding request. For a general nonsymmetric array, the transpose term cannot be absorbed into the same coefficient: it acts with on the symmetric-traceless part and with on the antisymmetric part. The stated coefficient is the coefficient of itself; if one instead writes the conventional elastic law with multiplying the strain, that shear-modulus convention is half this coefficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 1 5B a Solution 2026-10-14
In suffix notation, repeated indices are summed from one to three. The Levi-Civita symbol and Kronecker delta contraction isFor distinct free index pairs this follows from the two possible matching permutations and their signs; if either pair repeats an index both sides vanish. ThereforeRecognizing the dot products proves the vector triple product identity:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 3 10C iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The tensor contraction is an isotropic third-rank tensor under proper rotations. It therefore equals . Cyclically permuting three indices is even, so and .
For the given Kronecker delta expression, the term vanishes by antisymmetry, while the and terms give respectively and . HenceThese computations also illustrate isotropic contractions of a fourth-rank tensor.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 3 10C ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The tensor contraction is an isotropic second-rank tensor, because the Kronecker delta and are invariant under rotations. The classification proved above yields for some scalar .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 3 10C i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Both the Levi-Civita symbol and are invariant under proper rotations. Their tensor contractionis consequently an isotropic vector. The introductory proof shows that it must vanish, so .
For the displayed combination of Kronecker deltas, the three terms areIn each term the tensor contraction repeats two indices of the Levi-Civita symbol; each term is zero. This verifies the identity for arbitrary .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ia Paper 3 4B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For Cartesian components, , the Kronecker delta. Differentiating givesPut . Using the product rule and gives the velocity gradientThis is the rate of strain and vorticity of a Stokeslet, apart from the overall physical normalization. Its symmetric and antisymmetric parts of a matrix areHere and , and . Taking the trace gives the divergenceFor the curl, use the Levi-Civita symbol. Because , the symmetric part makes no contribution, andThus . All derivative identities hold away from the singular origin.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 45 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Adjoint double cover from SU(2) to SO(3) is obtained by writing a traceless Hermitian matrix as , where the are the Pauli matrices, and defining . Explicitly,Conjugation preserves , so is orthogonal; connectedness of SU(2) gives . Composition of conjugations makes a group homomorphism. A matrix in its kernel commutes with every Pauli matrix, so is scalar, and unit determinant then gives . Every spatial rotation occurs: induces the rotation through angle about . ThusSince SU(2) is the simply connected three-sphere, this is the universal double cover; the two Lie algebras are isomorphic, although the groups are not.
Define the conjugate fundamental spinor of SU(2) by . Regard as a row, so unitarity givesConsequently is an invariant Hermitian pairing. The basic invariant tensors are the Kronecker delta and the alternating tensors and . Choose , , so that . The unit-determinant identity makes invariant; its inverse gives the corresponding upper-index invariant. These contractions generate the tensor invariants of the defining representation. In particular transforms by , showing that the conjugate representation is equivalent to the defining one. The antilinear map squares to , so this is a pseudoreal representation, rather than a real structure.
For Representation theory of SU2, take , with acting on every index of a symmetric tensor. Its independent components are determined by the number of indices equal to , so there are of them. Equivalently, the homogeneous polynomial representation of SU2 has basis , , withThe basis weights are , and the raising operator and lowering operator connect consecutive basis vectors with nonzero coefficients until their endpoints. Any nonzero invariant subspace contains a weight vector, by applying polynomial spectral projections in . Raising it reaches , and lowering then obtains the entire basis. Thus is an irreducible representation, of spin . The classification of finite-dimensional representations of SU2 gives every finite-dimensional complex irreducible representation in this way. The central element acts on a rank- tensor as , so descent of an SU(2) representation to SO(3) gives
For the tensor contractions in the SU2 Clebsch-Gordan decomposition, contract indices of with indices of using , and symmetrize all the remaining free indices:Each is an irreducible symmetric tensor in . To prove these are precisely the constituents, use two sets of formal variables . The highest-weight vectorsare killed by the total raising operator and have weights . The determinant factor is invariant; lowering the remaining factor gives an irreducible string of dimension . Distinct highest weights give inequivalent summands. The unitary representation on this tensor product makes invariant complements available, and the dimension checkexhausts the space. Hence the contractions above are its irreducible projections, up to normalization, and the Clebsch-Gordan decomposition for SU2 is
For the decomposition of three SU(2) spinors, write and . The contractionstransform as defining spinors. Alternation in three indices in dimension two vanishes, giving ; there are exactly two independent contractions. An explicit inverse, with the epsilon convention above, isSymmetrizing this expression gives , while its first two contractions give , which verifies the decomposition. Thus
In the quark model, three spin- quarks therefore have total quark spin or . The two spin- copies correspond to coupling the first pair to spin or spin before adding the third quark. For ground-state baryons with orbital angular momentum , total : the nucleon has and the Delta baryon has . These two coupling copies alone do not assert two unrestricted physical baryon families. The antisymmetric three-quark colour singlet, the spatial wavefunction and flavor symmetry must also satisfy the Pauli constraint on three-quark flavour multiplets; orbital excitations can give other total angular momenta.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 43 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the defining SU(3) representation. A mixed SU(3) tensor representation belongs to , with transformation lawThe unrestricted tensor has dimension . The upper and lower counts are independent; setting them equal would lose part of the printed generality.
For an irreducible tensor, impose the appropriate Young symmetrizer on each set of indices and subtract all upper-lower contractions. Antisymmetric pairs can be converted using the invariant alternating tensor, since and . A full alternating triple is a singlet because . Traces use the invariant Kronecker delta and yield lower-rank tensors. Repeating these operations gives invariant irreducible subspaces, with multiplicities retained.
An explicit algorithm for the complete decomposition starts at , tensors with exactly times, and then with exactly times. At each step applyomitting terms with negative labels and adding multiplicities of coincident terms. The first is the sl3 highest-weight tensor rule: a Young diagram of row lengths gains a box in one of its three rows. The third-row term loses a determinant column of height three, leaving labels . The second rule follows by conjugation, which exchanges and . Thus the procedure determines all constituents of the general tensor, not just one selected symmetry type.
The separately symmetric, traceless component has labels . Before imposing traces its dimension is . The contraction map has target the separately symmetric tensors of degrees and is onto: in polynomial coordinates it is , the adjoint of multiplication by in the monomial-factorial inner product. Multiplication is injective, so the adjoint is surjective. Hence the symmetric traceless SU(3) tensor representation has dimensionFor or the subtracted term is zero. The highest tensor is trace-free and has highest weight . The three positive-root factors in the Weyl dimension formula are , and , giving exactly the kernel dimension above. Thus the whole symmetric traceless kernel is that irreducible constituent.
There is a genuine distinction between this highest-weight constituent and the literal largest-dimensional constituent. For example, contains , obtained by antisymmetrizing one pair, with dimension , whereas the fully symmetric has dimension . Thus cannot be the answer to “largest dimension” for every unrestricted pair of counts.
The maximal dimension in mixed SU(3) tensor powers can nevertheless be determined exactly. Every constituent highest weight differs from by with nonnegative integers , where and . Its labels therefore satisfyIf both are positive, subtracting from both increases the labels to , whose dimension is strictly larger. The resulting boundary labels occur in the tensor: use disjoint antisymmetric upper pairs or disjoint antisymmetric lower pairs, and then take the separately symmetric traceless component. Consequently the exact answer is the finite formulaThis supplies a practical closed finite computation for arbitrary . To reduce it to at most four evaluations, put , and . The first continuous maximum is at , clipped to ; test its two neighbouring allowed integers. The second is similarly at , clipped to . Indeed differentiating the first cubic gives a derivative with the sign of , which changes sign once at that root. For equal upper and lower counts, both maxima are at zero and the familiar result is .
For three quarks, the unconstrained flavour product isThe brackets indicate permutation symmetry: symmetric, mixed, and alternating. The three-quark colour singlet is proportional to and is alternating. The fermion wavefunction must be alternating overall. In the usual spatially symmetric ground-state S-wave, the spin-flavour part must therefore be symmetric.
The three-spin-one-half space has a symmetric spin- sector and mixed-symmetry spin- sectors; it has no fully alternating sector because . Symmetric flavour can pair with symmetric spin, giving the baryon decuplet of spin . The flavour-octet multiplicity space and the spin- multiplicity space both transform as the two-dimensional standard representation of the symmetric group. Their product contains exactly one symmetric combination: its characters at the identity, a transposition and a three-cycle are , so the symmetric multiplicity is . This gives one baryon octet of spin . Alternating singlet flavour would need alternating spin to make the spin-flavour part symmetric, and that sector does not exist. Therefore the Pauli constraint on three-quark flavour multiplets yieldsThe spin-flavour dimension check is , the symmetric spin-flavour SU6 representation.
The spatial-symmetry qualification matters if the wording is interpreted as total alone. Rotationally scalar excited orbital functions can have mixed permutation symmetry. For example, the two independent differences among , multiplied by a symmetric radial factor, span such a space while remaining rotational scalars. Combining this standard permutation representation with the spin- standard representation gives an alternating spin-orbital combination; multiplying by alternating singlet flavour makes it symmetric, and the colour factor restores overall fermionic antisymmetry. Thus total without a symmetric ground-state orbital assumption would not by itself exclude a singlet.
For a quark-antiquark pair, colour singletness selects the contraction , and the independent flavour product givesQuark and antiquark are distinguishable, so there is no three-identical-quark exclusion of either flavour multiplet or either spin. Both the octet and singlet admit spin singlets and spin triplets. Their baryon number is zero. The flavour octet has rows , while the singlet has . The octet's zero-isospin state is , and the singlet is . Each row contains all , and electric charge is .
For ground-state mesons with , opposite intrinsic quark-antiquark parities give . The neutral self-conjugate states have charge conjugation , so both flavour multiplets occur as pseudoscalar mesons and vector mesons, forming a flavour nonet in each channel. Charged and open-flavour states have no individual charge-conjugation eigenvalue. The meson request does not restrict orbital excitation: in general , , and the same formula for applies where defined. Thus the flavour representations stay , with these additional orbital-spin quantum numbers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 1 6A c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Expanding the formula from part (a) in components gives , with repeated indices summed. Hence the matrix of a linear map and its inverse, when , have entriesHere is the Kronecker delta. To check the matrix inverse, write ; because . Thus and , whose product is the identity matrix.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 4C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
In Cartesian coordinates, independent coordinate variables satisfywhere is the Kronecker delta. Applying the product rule and chain rule to gives the Jacobian matrixThis tensor is symmetric in . Hence its contraction with the antisymmetric Levi-Civita symbol vanishes:Similarly, and the constancy of giveThe trace of the Jacobian matrix iswhich vanishes for . The curl of a cross product identity, with constant, now givesFor ,soAll identities for this singular case hold on . In particular, zero divergence here is a pointwise assertion away from the origin, not an assertion that the flux through a sphere enclosing the singularity is zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 3 4C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
A Cartesian second-rank tensor is an isotropic tensor if its components are unchanged under every proper rotation matrix :The Kronecker delta is isotropic because , the orthogonality relation .
No symmetry of needs to be assumed. A half-turn about the first axis has matrix ; invariance under it forces to vanish. A half-turn about the second axis additionally kills and . Thus . Each half-turn is the square of an allowed quarter-turn. A quarter-turn about the third axis interchanges , so they are equal. A quarter-turn about the second axis interchanges , so all three are equal. Consequently the complete family of isotropic second-rank tensors isConversely, every member of this family is invariant because .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 48 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the full definition of the special unitary group: and . The determinant condition is essential for the alternating tensors; unitarity alone would instead define . Assume when discussing proper invariant subspaces.
Let be the fundamental representation. A tensor belongs to . Its SU(n) tensor transformation isSince , complex conjugation exchanges upper fundamental and lower dual factors. Reordering the two index groups shows that is a tensor.
The invariant tensors follow directly. The Kronecker delta transforms to . For the alternating tensors, the determinant expansion givesThe lower tensor is preserved in the same way using . Thus , and are invariant.
When , the permutation of two upper slots commutes with the tensor product representation. Its and eigenspaces are nonzero proper invariant subspaces. The same argument uses two lower slots when . The remaining rank-two case splits into scalar multiples of and traceless second-rank tensors, since tensor contraction is equivariant. This covers every case except the fundamental, dual fundamental and scalar cases specified in the question. Those three are irreducible: the special unitary group acts transitively on unit vectors in its fundamental space, so a nonzero invariant subspace must be the full space, and the dual has the same property.
A symmetric tensor of upper rank has one component for each multiplicity vector with nonnegative entries and . Equivalently it is a homogeneous degree- polynomial in variables. Counting these monomials givesFor a totally antisymmetric tensor, any repeated index gives zero and the remaining components are indexed by increasing -element subsets. HenceThese are the dimensions of the symmetric power and exterior power, respectively.
For SU(4), the two-index antisymmetric representation has complex dimension six. To establish a six-dimensional real representation, one must exhibit a real structure; simply counting six complex components would give twelve real components. Normalize and define the antilinear mapThe invariant Hermitian form identifies the conjugate indices with lower indices, and the invariant volume tensor then returns an upper pair. Thus commutes with SU(4). The identitygives . Its fixed space hasThree arbitrary complex entries specify all the others, giving exactly six real degrees of freedom. The real structure of the SU4 exterior square therefore provesThe ordinary Hermitian norm restricts to an invariant positive real inner product on this fixed space.
Irreducible representations classify states because an exact symmetry commutes with the Hamiltonian, preserving energy eigenspaces. Irreducible multiplets are the smallest sets closed under all symmetry transformations; their labels and Casimir operators provide quantum numbers. Approximate flavour symmetry gives approximate multiplets and mass relations, with splittings caused by its breaking. Spin and internal quantum numbers are distinct labels.
For the light-quark flavour symmetry in Quantum chromodynamics, the quark flavours form . Their Triple tensor decomposition for the defining sl3 representation isThis algebraic decomposition alone does not determine the allowed ground-state baryons. The three-quark colour singlet is antisymmetric. The no-orbital-excitation ground state has a symmetric spatial wavefunction, so the Pauli exclusion principle requires the combined spin-flavour wavefunction to be symmetric. The three spin-one-half factors haveHere the four-dimensional spin representation has spin , while each doublet has spin . Symmetric decuplet flavour pairs with symmetric spin . The two flavour-octet copies and two spin-doublet copies carry the two-dimensional standard permutation multiplicity space; its tensor square contains one symmetric singlet. Their invariant pairing therefore supplies one octet with spin , not two independent ground-state octets. Antisymmetric flavour would need a completely antisymmetric three-quark spin state, which does not exist.
Equivalently the symmetric spin-flavour SU6 representation hasThus the Pauli constraint on three-quark flavour multiplets gives the concise spectrum classificationThese are the baryon octet and baryon decuplet. The three-quark flavour singlet requires a different spatial permutation symmetry and belongs to excited states, outside the symmetric ground-state approximation used here. If low-lying spatially excited states are also included while their orbital labels are merely suppressed, singlets can occur; the full flavour tensor cube has types . The absence of the singlet from the unexcited ground multiplet is a permutation-symmetry constraint, not a prohibition by alone. Light-quark mass differences make the flavour symmetry approximate rather than exact.