Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 14 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Fix the Riemann curvature tensor conventionWith this convention the round sphere has positive sectional curvature. Write . We use skew-symmetry in the first and last pairs, pair interchange , and the first Bianchi identity. These are the standard curvature symmetries of the Levi-Civita connection.
For an orthonormal basis of , the Ricci curvature is the traceFor a plane spanned by linearly independent vectors , its sectional curvature isBoth definitions are independent of the chosen basis. The first is the trace of ; the second is unchanged by replacing with another basis of their plane, because numerator and denominator both scale by the square of the change-of-basis determinant. For , , the denominator is one. The terms with vanish, soThe ordered-pair sum counts every unoriented coordinate plane twice.
For , pair interchange immediately givesThus is self-adjoint, including when . The usual Jacobi curvature operator is its negative and is self-adjoint as well. Keeping these two signs distinct will also fix the Jacobi field equation below.
The Bonnet-Myers theorem states that a connected, complete -dimensional Riemannian manifold, , with for a constant has diameter at most and is compact. Completeness is required; a pointwise positive Ricci tensor without a uniform positive lower bound would not suffice for this stated conclusion.
A left-invariant metric on a Lie group is a Riemannian metric for which every left translation is an isometry, equivalently . It is determined by an inner product on the Lie algebra . If the metric is also right-invariant, this inner product is invariant under the adjoint action; differentiating yieldsUse left-invariant vector fields and the permitted formula . The Jacobi identity givesAdjoint skew-symmetry then impliesThis is the Ricci curvature of a bi-invariant Riemannian metric. The last expression vanishes precisely when belongs to the center of the Lie algebra. If that center is zero, it is positive for every nonzero . Its minimum on the unit sphere in is therefore positive. Left invariance transfers this bound to every point: .
Work in the identity component , since . It is compact and hence complete. Give its universal cover the lifted metric. The cover is complete: a geodesic projects to a geodesic in , extends for all time there, and its extension lifts through any prescribed starting point. The local isometry also preserves Ricci curvature, so the same uniform bound holds on the cover. Applying Bonnet-Myers with makes compact. The fiber above is closed and discrete, and hence finite in this compact space; its cardinality equals . Consequently is finite. This is the finite fundamental group from a uniform positive Ricci bound. If , the identity component is a point and the conclusion is immediate; a one-dimensional Lie algebra cannot have zero center.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 56 1 c iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For , put and . Then andThese give a local isometry wherever . For , , and the local coordinates , similarly give the Euclidean plane metric tensor. Equivalently, the Gaussian curvature of the original Riemannian metric is throughout this family.
A local isometry need not be a global isometry. If , the displayed polar map is injective modulo and identifies the regular domain with a Euclidean annulus, possibly a punctured disc or the punctured Euclidean plane, according to the radial interval. If , it is a -fold covering of that annulus: distinct angles differing by have the same image. This developing map cannot be made injective by a different choice of Euclidean coordinates, since two local Euclidean isometries on a connected flat domain differ by a rigid motion once their value and differential are fixed at one point. For , the domain is a flat cylinder; its circular curves are closed geodesics, whereas the Euclidean plane has no nonconstant closed geodesic.
All these metrics are locally Euclidean; they are not all globally Euclidean. Even the regular domain is an annular region rather than the entire Euclidean plane. A regular axis can be added without a conical singularity only when ; with the full radial range this completion becomes the Euclidean plane. Trivial holonomy alone therefore does not supply a global injective Euclidean chart.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 15 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The Bonnet-Myers theorem says that a connected geodesically complete -dimensional Riemannian manifold, with and for a constant , hasThe dimension and positive lower bound are essential: in dimension one the Ricci condition is vacuous, and a zero lower bound does not imply bounded diameter.
By Hopf-Rinow, any two distinct points have a unit-speed minimizing geodesic . Choose parallel orthonormal fields perpendicular to its tangent . For the endpoint-vanishing fields , the second variation of geodesic energy gives nonnegative index formsSumming and using the Ricci lower bound produces the sine index-form bound for positive Ricci curvature:If , the last expression is negative, a contradiction. This proves the diameter bound. Hopf-Rinow makes closed bounded sets compact, so the entire manifold is compact.
Give the universal cover the pullback metric. Local isometry preserves its Ricci bound, and lifting complete base geodesics proves completeness of the cover. The same diameter and compactness argument applies there. A fiber of the covering is closed and discrete, hence finite in this compact cover; its cardinality is that of the fundamental group. This proves the final assertion.
For a counterexample that also breaks the diameter conclusion, use the incomplete positively curved strip with infinite diameterThe map is a local isometry to the round unit sphere: its coordinate derivatives are orthogonal, with squared lengths one and . Thus and , satisfying the required lower bound with , .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 16 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
In this context a nowhere locally homogeneous metric, also called a bumpy metric, is a smooth Riemannian metric for which no two distinct nonempty open subsets are isometric with their induced metrics. Equivalently every local isometry between open subsets is the identity wherever defined: a nonidentity local isometry sends some point to a distinct point, and restriction to sufficiently small disjoint neighborhoods would violate the first formulation. This is the local-isometry meaning of the terminology here; degeneracy of periodic geodesics is a different use of the word bumpy.
Sunada's local isometry lemma states that on a compact smooth manifold without boundary of dimension the nowhere locally homogeneous metrics contain a residual set in the space of smooth Riemannian metrics with its topology. In particular they are dense, by the Baire category theorem. A residual set is a countable intersection of open dense sets. The dimension assumption matters: every one-dimensional Riemannian metric is locally in arclength coordinates and has local translations.
The jet bundle of maps consists of equivalence classes of smooth maps near , where two maps agree to order at in coordinate charts. Its projection to sends to . For a multi-index in variables there are derivatives of order . Thus a coordinate chart consists of the source point, the target point, and coefficients for every derivative order through . Summing the counts givesThis includes . The fibre over is the space of truncated Taylor maps with fixed constant term , locally modeled onFor its identification with is canonical. For higher , changes of target coordinates mix derivatives of different orders, so this is a coordinate or connection-dependent description, not a canonical vector-bundle identification. The truncation is an affine bundle modeled on the pullback of over .
For the density assertion put and . Their closures must be distinct. If , the identity is an isometry for every Riemannian metric, and the requested complement is empty. Under the intended distinct-domain assumption, the smooth closed-ball hypothesis makes and regular closed domains, equal to the closures of their interiors. After interchanging them if necessary, there is a nonempty open set with compact closure in . Otherwise each interior would be contained in the other closure, forcing .
Take any smooth Riemannian metric . If , it already lies outside , because an isometry preserves the Riemannian volume form. If the volumes agree, choose a nonzero nonnegative smooth bump function supported in and setThese are positive definite Riemannian metrics, they agree with on , and in as , since every derivative of is times a fixed compactly supported smooth tensor. Their Riemannian volume forms satisfyHence whereas for every . In particularThe two domains cannot be isometric for . Every neighborhood of therefore meets the complement of , provingThis localized volume perturbation proves the requested density even when the two domains overlap, and works in every positive dimension. It does not by itself prove the stronger residual local-isometry statement: fixed isometric closures and arbitrary isometric open subsets are different conditions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 4 15F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
An embedded surface parametrization is a smooth map , with open , injective differential of rank two at each point, and a homeomorphism onto its image with the subspace topology. Its induced metric isIn coordinates, an arc-length-parametrized geodesic satisfieswhere the Christoffel symbols are . The normalization fixes unit speed; it is compatible with the differential equations because geodesic speed is constant.
For the cone use , , restricting to a suitable open interval for a chart. Direct differentiation gives its first fundamental formWith and , this becomes , the Euclidean metric in polar coordinates. The map is therefore a local isometry. It is local rather than global because increasing by increases by .
Given two points, choose their angle representatives so that . Their developed plane angles then differ by at most . The straight segment between their developed positions stays away from the origin: it lies in an angular sector of width at most containing both positive-radius endpoints. Develop that segment back onto the cone. Since local isometries preserve geodesics, it gives a geodesic joining the two points; it can be parametrized by arc length. This constructs geodesics on a punctured circular cone. For a repeated point the constant curve is the degenerate geodesic. In particular, this argument does not appeal to completeness of the punctured cone.
The joining geodesic need not be unique. For endpoints with equal positive radius and opposite azimuth, one may use the angular changes and . In the plane these give two straight segments from to and , respectively. Both avoid the origin. Their lifts pass on opposite sides of the cone and have distinct images, so a reparametrization cannot identify them.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 115 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
At , choose neighborhoods on which the two factors admit local isometries to open subsets of Euclidean space. Their product is a local isometry of the product Riemannian metric to the standard Euclidean metric on . In these product coordinates the metric matrix is constant, so every Christoffel symbol of the Levi-Civita connection is zero. Its Riemann curvature tensor therefore vanishes at every point of that neighborhood. Curvature has tensoriality, so this is independent of the chosen coordinates; the neighborhoods cover the product.
The splitting provides another useful direct check. Expanding the definition on lifted fields, using zero mixed derivatives and commuting opposite-factor fields, gives the curvature splitting for a product connectionTensoriality extends this identity from lifts to arbitrary tangent vectors at a point. Each factor curvature is zero under the stated local-isometry hypothesis. ConsequentlyThis is a local conclusion about the connection; no global identification of either factor or their product with Euclidean space is required.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 131 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
A local isometry here is a local diffeomorphism whose pullback metric is the source metric. Use the usual convention that a covering map is surjective. Assume the target is connected and the source is nonempty; this is the connected-manifold setting of the intended assertion. For a disconnected target the precise result is a covering of the union of target components met by the map. For example, inclusion is a local isometry from a complete manifold but is not a surjective covering of the whole target.
The correct Hopf-Rinow theorem says that on a connected finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold, completeness for the induced distance is equivalent to geodesic completeness, and to compactness of every closed bounded subset. These conditions imply that every two points are joined by a minimizing geodesic. The last property by itself does not imply completeness: an open Euclidean ball has minimizing segments between every pair but is incomplete.
A local isometry preserves the Levi-Civita connection, by uniqueness of the torsion-free metric connection on each local isometry chart. Hence it preserves affinely parametrized geodesics, andwhenever the source geodesic is defined. This is geodesic preservation by a local isometry.
Suppose is complete. Given , join to by a minimizing target geodesic using target completeness. The source geodesic whose initial velocity is its inverse image under exists for its full parameter interval by source completeness; its image is the target geodesic by uniqueness. Thus is onto.
Choose a normal ball with a diffeomorphism on . For every put . Source completeness defines these exponential maps throughout the tangent balls. The displayed exponential identity makes a diffeomorphism: injectivity follows from injectivity of the target exponential map, and differentiating the identity shows the source exponential has invertible derivative on the ball, so its image is open.
These sheets are disjoint. If lay in two, lift the reversed radial target geodesic from to , starting at . Its initial velocity is uniquely fixed by ; uniqueness of the source geodesic forces the two sheet centres to be equal. They exhaust : for any point over , lift that reversed radial geodesic using source completeness, obtaining a centre over , and then reverse it. Thus is evenly covered. This proves the complete local isometry is a covering assertion.
Conversely suppose is a covering. Given any initial tangent vector in , the corresponding target geodesic extends over all by target completeness. The path lifting theorem for coverings lifts it over every compact time interval, with uniqueness gluing the lifts to a curve on . In local covering charts the lift is a geodesic, because the charts are local isometries. It extends the source initial-value geodesic. Therefore is geodesically complete, and Hopf-Rinow yields metric completeness on each source component. In the stated connected-target setting,