Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 52 2 b iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The metric dependence of the minimally coupled scalar field Lagrangian is . Part (ii) therefore gives the stress-energy tensorUse metric compatibility and the symmetric Hessian of a scalar field to computeThis is the scalar stress-energy divergence identity, an instance of the diffeomorphism Noether identity for a scalar field. On the scalar equation of motion it gives stress-energy conservation, .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 1 7D b i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use , the bead's distance from the pivot, and , the rod angle from downward vertical. The kinetic energy is . If the identical springs have common natural length , their potential is . Its -dependent part is ; the unspecified common natural length changes only an additive constant. Gravity contributes . Consequently the Lagrangian may be taken asThis uses the illustrated symmetric two-spring arrangement without assuming an unstated natural length.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 12C a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The canonical momentum is , and a regular Legendre transform in mechanics defines after solving for . Its differential isbecause the terms cancel. With the Euler-Lagrange equation , this gives Hamilton's equationsIn particular at corresponding velocities, so a cyclic coordinate for the Lagrangian is also cyclic for the Hamiltonian.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 7D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The two cyclic Euler angles give conserved canonical momentaHere is the body-axis angular momentum and the vertical angular momentum. Thus is constant. Since the Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, the energy is also conserved:These are the three independent conserved quantities furnished by the continuous symmetries of the heavy symmetric top.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 7D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be longitudinal displacements from equilibrium. The original diagram has masses , and no attachments to fixed walls. The Lagrangian isThe Euler-Lagrange equations giveThe forces sum to zero, consistent with momentum conservation for an isolated molecule.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 2 15D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The principle of stationary action, also called Hamilton's principle, requires for fixed-endpoint path variations. Here the original PDF has in the radial kinetic energy; the TeX has lost that dot. With and , the Lagrangian isThe Euler-Lagrange equation for each coordinate givesThe two conserved quantities are angular momentum and energy . By Noether's theorem, they arise respectively from rotational invariance and time-translation invariance of the action. The coordinate is a cyclic coordinate, and has no explicit time dependence.
The conjugate momentum for each coordinate is , . The Legendre transform gives the HamiltonianHamilton's equations areSetting yields with the effective potential .
For and , this potential tends to infinity both as and as , and has its unique stationary point atThe effective potential stability criterion proves a stable circular orbit in a quadratic central potential, with . For a small radial displacement , to first order, so radial perturbations oscillate rather than grow. The diagram shows the centrifugal and quadratic contributions and their sum in dimensionless units:
The printed paper only says that is constant. Its claimed positive-radius stable circular orbit needs the additional attractive-force assumption and nonzero angular momentum. For there is no such minimum; for the effective potential is strictly decreasing. With , the minimum is at the origin and is not a positive-radius circular orbit. These cases are not represented by the diagram.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 305 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use without summing in individual component transformations. The Dirac current transforms asSince the coupling is real, invariance of its contraction fixes the time reversal of an electromagnetic gauge field:These equations use a compatible gauge; an additional pure gauge transformation would not change the gauge field strength.
Coordinate differentiation at introduces , because the time coordinate is reversed and the spatial coordinates are unchanged. HenceThus the electric field is even and the magnetic field is odd. The chirality matrix is even by part (a). The two tensor signs cancel in the dipole contraction, but antiunitarity conjugates its explicit . Therefore the time-reversal parity of a fermion electric dipole operator isIt is a time-reversal symmetry violating interaction, and, under the usual local relativistic quantum field theory hypotheses of the CPT theorem, it violates CP symmetry. A nonzero coefficient is absent from the renormalizable tree-level Standard Model Lagrangian: the broken-phase fermion electric dipole moment operator has mass dimension five, and its electroweak-invariant completion requires a Higgs field and has dimension six. However, it can arise as a radiatively induced effective interaction in the Standard Model, whose CKM matrix contains a CP-violating phase. It is not forbidden to all orders. An explicit primary calculation of quark dipoles is Czarnecki and Krause's Standard Model calculation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 320 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a regular Lagrangian define the canonical momentum components . Require the velocity Hessian to be invertible locally so that the velocities can be expressed in terms of . The Legendre transform in mechanics definesThe explicit time argument cannot generally be omitted when the given Lagrangian depends on time. Its differential is , since the terms cancel. The Euler-Lagrange equations give , and comparison yields Hamilton's equations:For the time-independent stellar gravitational potential below, is conserved. Its sign convention differs from the binding energy in question 2: here is the ordinary specific orbital energy.
The prescribed nondegenerate prolate spheroidal coordinates require ; equality collapses the coordinate family. Their physical velocity components are , and . Per unit stellar mass the Lagrangian is , so . Its Hamiltonian isThis uses acceleration , as specified, rather than importing the opposite gravitational potential convention.
For the Stäckel potential, use the Hamilton-Jacobi equation with principal function . Axisymmetry makes constant. Write and . Multiplying by and usingseparates it as , where . Each side depends on its own coordinate only and therefore equals a constant, chosen as . Here is the generating function of the gravitational potential, not the gravitational constant. HenceThis proves the conserved axisymmetric Stäckel third integral. Eliminating between the two expressions and using givesAt regular generic phase-space points the three separation constants are independent; special circular or degenerate orbits can reduce their local independence. Thus the model is an integrable Hamiltonian system.
For the intended regular, phase-mixed steady model, Jeans theorem permits a galactic distribution function . At any fixed point, and depend on and only through their squares, and depends only on . Thus is even separately in and , whether or not it is even in . Odd integration proves velocity-ellipsoid alignment in a Stäckel potential:The argument allows azimuthal streaming: it does not require zero mean . The means in the two meridional directions vanish, so the off-diagonal velocity covariance also vanishes. Second moments must exist for this conclusion.
There is a hypothesis behind the printed universal wording. On a generic nonresonant regular invariant torus, a continuous steady distribution is constant along a dense orbit and hence depends only on the torus integrals; this justifies the phase-mixed form. Bare stationarity alone is not sufficient in a degenerate resonant gravitational potential with additional integrals. For example is a Stäckel Hamiltonian: choose , up to a constant vacuum shift. The additional conserved quantity gives a positive normalizable steady tracer for . Its local . At azimuth zero and a regular point where the direction has a radial component, this gives nonzero . This tracer need not itself source the harmonic gravitational potential. It exhibits why the stronger, ordinary phase-mixed three-integral assumption is necessary instead of claiming that every imaginable steady distribution has the asserted alignment.
The geometry follows by multiplying the coordinate-defining equation and evaluating at :Constant surfaces are prolate spheroids, with equatorial semiaxis and polar semiaxis . Constant interior surfaces are two-sheeted hyperboloids. Their common foci lie at . The orbit volume in an axisymmetric Stäckel potential is determined byIts allowed coordinate intervals have turning boundaries or coordinate endpoints. A typical bound orbit with oscillates between inner and outer spheroids, oscillates vertically between hyperboloidal limits, and circulates about the symmetry axis with . The equatorial fold joins the positive and negative branches; it is not necessarily a physical turning point in .
For three incommensurate frequencies, the regular trajectory densely samples its projected allowed volume, with nonuniform occupation determined by its speeds. It does not follow one coordinate surface, and it need not close. Resonant orbits may be closed or lie in a smaller projected set; confines azimuthal motion to a meridional plane (with the usual axis coordinate qualification), and circular or equatorial limits are also lower-dimensional. Smooth Stäckel separation removes the generic chaotic behavior of nonintegrable potentials; it does not assert that every orbit fills a three-dimensional volume.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 339 1 h Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For in the dual cone , copositivity of gives . An upper-bounding Lagrangian for the maximization is thereforeIts supremum over unrestricted is finite precisely when . Minimizing that upper bound gives the conic programThis is completely positive optimization, not simply semidefinite programming: is the completely positive cone.
There is also a direct equality certificate. Every feasible , , has . Its objective is a weighted average of the nonnegative-sphere Rayleigh quotients, hence is at least . For a minimizing unit vector from part (g), is feasible and has objective . Thus attains the dual and both values agree, without relying on unverified regularity assumptions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 36D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Put . For the equatorial geodesic, the geodesic Lagrangian is , where dots denote derivatives with respect to the affine parameter. The cyclic coordinates give constants and . A third constant is the tangent norm , preserved by the geodesic equation and metric compatibility. For a timelike geodesic rescale the affine parameter to proper time so ; for a null geodesic .
Substitute , into the norm identity and multiply by . It gives the effective potential equationOutside the horizon , its derivative is . A nontrivial circular null geodesic requires , givingFor a circular timelike geodesic,At it , and its radius exceeds . If no finite circular timelike radius exists. Thus all finite circular null and timelike orbits in this five-dimensional exterior are radially unstable. The energy of a circular orbit is fixed by , not independently arbitrary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Assume the holonomic constraints have linearly independent gradients, so their common level set is locally a smooth constraint manifold parametrized by . The multiplier form of the Euler-Lagrange equations isAt fixed time . The chain rule for the reduced Lagrangian givesConversely, if these reduced equations hold, the Cartesian Euler-Lagrange residual annihilates every tangent direction. Linear independence of the constraint gradients implies that it is a linear combination of those gradients, giving the required Lagrange multipliers. This proves the local equivalence, including time-dependent constraints; singular constraints would need separate analysis.
For the bead, , soThe autonomous conservation of energy gives . If , the motion has a fixed sign andThe integral is the signed arc length divided by the constant speed, and is locally invertible. The special solution is a stationary bead, for which writing time as a function of its unchanging position is not meaningful.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For variations vanishing at both endpoints, differentiating the action and using integration by parts givesThe fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations therefore yields the Euler-Lagrange equationsFor the specified Lagrangian, the gauge transformation changes it byFor arbitrary , it is a total derivative precisely when . The corresponding change in action is then an endpoint term whose variation is zero. In general time-dependent notation, the equations areThe electric field and magnetic field are unchanged by the gauge transformation with . Although the original potentials have no time dependence, their transformed versions generally do; allowing this is essential to the stated invariance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 14E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Euler-Lagrange equations for the kinetic Lagrangian areExpanding and multiplying by the inverse metric gives the geodesic equationThe kinetic variational principle uses an affine parameter; the energy is constant along its solutions. Constant curves are also geodesics.
For the Poincaré half-plane model, translation in gives the conserved quantity , and the energy is . If , the nonconstant geodesics are vertical lines, with . If ,Writing and integrating yields . Thus nonconstant geodesic images are vertical lines or upper semicircles meeting the real axis orthogonally.
For the two specified points, the circle centre is and the radius is five:For example, an affine unit-speed parametrization is , . The endpoints on the real axis are and , outside the hyperbolic surface.
The upper-half-plane geodesic through the two specified points
. Details. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 344 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write for the functional derivative of the action. Under time reversal in classical mechanics, changes sign whereas is even by assumption. Thus the forward and reversed Gaussian white noise histories associated with the same geometric path areThe Onsager--Machlup path probability therefore givesHere the path probabilities are densities conditional on their respective initial states; they are not separately normalized bridges conditioned on both endpoints. The noise-to-path Jacobian determinant must be treated with a consistent discretization: it cancels when it is invariant under time reversal in classical mechanics. This is the usual additive-noise Langevin dynamics convention, including a constant-mass Underdamped Langevin dynamics or the time-reversal invariance of a path Jacobian in midpoint overdamped Langevin dynamics. A completely arbitrary velocity-dependent Lagrangian would require specifying that measure rather than deducing its cancellation solely from the parity of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 344 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For an autonomous Lagrangian, the Euler-Lagrange equation usesApply the chain rule to the Hamiltonian along an arbitrary smooth path, without assuming the unforced Euler-Lagrange equation:Consequently the energy balance for an autonomous Lagrangian isWith explicit time dependence, an additional enters . For ideal Gaussian white noise, the identity is understood through smooth-noise regularization or the Stratonovich chain rule. The original PDF correctly differentiates with respect to in ; the supplied TeX's derivative with respect to , its endpoint , and its ordinary derivative of are transcription errors.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 4 8B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let a one-parameter infinitesimal transformation be and suppose its change in the Lagrangian is a total derivative,With canonical momentum , the chain rule and the Euler-Lagrange equations give, along a motion,Comparison with the assumed total derivative proves Noether theorem:
The given Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, so its energy function is conserved:It is also invariant under the dilation : the velocities and all scale by the same factor, while is unchanged. The generator is and . SinceNoether's theorem supplies the second first integralThe integrals and are independent on an open dense subset of phase space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 321 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For unit mass, the Lagrangian in cylindrical coordinates isIntroduce shearing sheet coordinates by and . Evaluate all derivatives of at . The reference circular orbit obeys , while midplane symmetry gives . Its Taylor expansion isExpanding the kinetic energy to the same order givesThe terms linear in cancel by circular-orbit balance. Discard the constant and the term by total-time-derivative invariance of a Lagrangian; these do not change the Euler-Lagrange equations. The particle Lagrangian in a shearing sheet is thereforewith shearing-sheet tidal potentialThe second form follows from , the orbital shear parameter and the vertical epicyclic frequency .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 339 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Keep as the domain restriction, introduce nonnegative Lagrange multipliers for , and introduce a free multiplier for . The maximizing Lagrangian isIts supremum over is finite exactly when , and then equals . By linear programming duality, since the primal is feasible and bounded,Minimizing over for fixed gives , the positive part of a real-valued function. Thus the threshold formula for the sum of the largest components isFor a direct attainment check, order the coordinates . Any is optimal for , while any is optimal for .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 339 1 e Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Replace coordinate inequalities by the Loewner order and coordinate sums by matrix trace. The maximizing semidefinite program isIts feasible set is the fantope. In an orthonormal eigenbasis of , its objective is , and the diagonal entries of belong to the capped simplex. Choosing as the orthogonal projection matrix onto the largest eigenvectors attains the sum of the largest eigenvalues, as in the Ky Fan maximum principle.
The minimizing semidefinite program isFor example, its Lagrangian arises by assigning to , keeping in the domain, and using free for . Finiteness of the supremum over requires .
Equality follows directly by choosing to have eigenvalues in the same orthonormal eigenbasis, with between the th and st eigenvalues, or below the smallest one for . This is the threshold semidefinite program for the largest eigenvalues, and it also verifies the endpoint case .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 14E c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Under the gauge transformation,because the curl of a gradient vanishes, andThe transformed Lagrangian isA total time derivative changes the action only by endpoint terms, whose variation vanishes for fixed endpoints, so the Euler-Lagrange equations are unchanged.
The new momentum isUse the type-two generating function for a canonical transformationIt gives , , andThis equals , so the gauge change is a time-dependent canonical transformation.


