Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 3 15D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The magnetic field is . The magnetostatic Ampère-Maxwell equation is , so the curl of the curl identity givesA gauge transformation does not change . We may therefore choose the Coulomb gauge by solving the Poisson equation . It follows component by component in a Cartesian coordinate system thatThe free-space Green function of the Laplacian then givesFor a localized steady current density, conservation of electric charge gives ; integration by parts confirms directly that this integral has zero divergence and hence obeys the Coulomb gauge.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ib Paper 4 13C b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let the displayed integrand be . Since it has no explicit dependence on or , the Euler-Lagrange equations for two fields areIts derivatives areThusUsing the Laplacian, gradient, and divergence, these combine into the static Navier-Cauchy equation
On a relatively compact ball, mollification commutes with the Laplacian, so is a smooth harmonic function. Repeated interior derivative estimates, together with the Caccioppoli inequality, bound every derivative of on a smaller ball by the local norm of , uniformly as . The Arzela-Ascoli theorem and a diagonal argument give a smooth local limit, while mollification gives in . Thus the limit equals almost everywhere. After choosing this smooth representative, is harmonic pointwise. This is the Weyl lemma for an weak solution.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 154 1 1 Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
For in two dimensions,Thus the Laplacian satisfies , and the isotropic harmonic-oscillator operator gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 313 2 v Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For Maxwell theory the group is Abelian, so write . The reduced equation loses its commutators and becomesSince the Euclidean Laplacian isthe anti-self-dual Maxwell equations in this gauge are equivalent to
Polar-coordinate Laplacian identity 2026-10-06
In , and the volume density is . With the nonnegative Laplacian convention, . The identity separates radial homogeneity from the angular Laplace-Beltrami operator and derives the spectrum of the Laplacian on a sphere.
Rotational commutator for the Laplacian Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
The infinitesimal rotation commutes with the Laplacian: the extra terms cancel. It is tangent to every sphere, so it preserves zero Dirichlet traces on spherical shells. If and is radial, uniqueness applied to forces all these rotation derivatives to vanish, hence is radial.
Selberg trace formula Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
For a compact hyperbolic surface, the Selberg trace formula equates a sum over Laplace-Beltrami operator eigenvalues to an area term and a sum over primitive closed geodesics and their iterates. It proves that the Laplacian spectrum and the unmarked length spectrum, with multiplicities, determine each other.
Time-reversal invariance of a path Jacobian 2026-10-05
For additive Gaussian white noise and a time-even order parameter, a midpoint discretization of the Onsager–Machlup functional evaluates drift derivatives at the midpoint configurations. Reversing a trajectory visits the same midpoints in reverse order, so the noise-to-path Jacobian determinant is invariant under reversal. It may depend on the trajectory, and must be distinguished from the constant normalization of the noise measure.
For nonconserved order-parameter dynamics with , the factor at one time step, apart from a path-independent power of the step size, isHere the fields have first been restricted to a finite spatial grid, and is the Hessian matrix of the free energy.
For mixed conserved and nonconserved order-parameter dynamics, the required noises for a joint configuration and flux trajectory arewhere represent the divergence and gradient, and represents the Laplacian. The Jacobian matrix isTaking its Schur complement gives the joint factorFor periodic boundary conditions, discretizing the two spatial operators compatibly gives , so is the positive relaxation operator when . Reversal leaves unchanged and reverses the sign of the flux. The product of the joint factors is consequently the same for both histories, justifying its cancellation from the joint path probability of an order parameter and its flux. The functional chain rule used in the action ratio holds in the continuum limit of this midpoint convention.
For equal-depth layers coupled by an interface,The Laplacian terms are relative vorticity; the streamfunction differences encode opposite layer-thickness changes. Each material derivative follows that layer's own velocity. The sum has a barotropic mode without interface displacement, while the difference contains a baroclinic mode.