Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 1 26I c ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Consider the smooth mapIts derivative isAt write . ThenThis derivative is onto the ten-dimensional space of symmetric matrices: for a symmetric , taking gives . Hence is a regular value. Since has dimension 16, the regular level set theorem gives
The tangent vectors are exactly those for which the derivative vanishes:Writing in one-plus-three block form shows explicitly thatThe three entries of and three independent entries of the skew-symmetric matrix again display dimension six. This is the Lie algebra of the Lorentz group.