Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 6D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 3 6D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ib Paper 2 1E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Write for the conjugate transpose. Taking determinants in gives . Since the Hermitian matrix is invertible, every such is invertible and . The identity belongs to ; if , then ; and multiplying by and gives . Associativity comes from matrix multiplication, so this is a group.
The Hermitian form obeys precisely when . Thus is the group of linear isometries of this nondegenerate Hermitian form; positivity of is unnecessary.
For , is a unitary matrix. Here is a direct diagonalization of a matrix proof. Over , its characteristic polynomial has a root, giving a unit eigenvector with . Preservation of the inner product gives . If , then , so is invariant. The restriction is again a unitary matrix. Induction on the dimension supplies an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors. In that basis, is diagonal, with diagonal entries on the unit circle.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 3 8D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Write the Heisenberg group element as . Matrix multiplication and inversion giveAll matrices have determinant one. They contain , are closed under multiplication and inverses, and inherit associativity from matrix multiplication; hence they form a subgroup of .
Two such matrices commute precisely when . Requiring this for every forces . ConsequentlyThe map is a surjective group homomorphism to the additive group , with kernel of a group homomorphism . Equivalently, it gives the explicit quotient group isomorphismIt is well-defined because multiplying by a central element changes only . It is injective because equal imply that the quotient of the two matrices is central, and surjectivity follows by taking . This also proves the needed instance of the first isomorphism theorem directly.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 1 2C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A counterclockwise planar rotation matrix has the formTo recover this form from preservation of the Euclidean norm, let be the columns of . Applying the norm condition to the two coordinate unit vectors gives . Applying it to their sum givesso . The columns are an orthonormal basis, and : is an orthogonal matrix.
Write . There are two perpendicular unit vectors available for , namely . The first gives determinant , the second . The positive determinant hypothesis selects the first. A norm-preserving planar map with positive determinant is a rotation.
For the commutation condition, writeDirect matrix multiplication givesEquality forces and , so, with and ,If , take and . Otherwise set and choose , . ThenThis describes the centralizer of a planar quarter-turn. Its nonzero elements act as a rotation followed by a uniform scaling, just as multiplication by a nonzero complex number does.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 3 5D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
An example is the unitriangular group of degree three over F3, consisting ofThis is an upper unitriangular group of order . Direct matrix multiplication givesThe formula gives closure, identity , and inverse ; associativity follows from matrix multiplication. The two elements and do not commute: their products have respectively and .
Every element has the form with . Since the finite field has characteristic three, the binomial expansion givesHence every nonidentity element has order exactly three. This is a nonabelian finite group with exponent of a finite group equal to three.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 1 9F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The definition of matrix multiplication givesThe middle equality uses commutativity of scalar multiplication in or , together with interchange of finite sums. Thus the trace is unchanged by cyclically moving the two factors.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 18G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Give the action , where is a row vector. Substitution preserves homogeneous degree, and composition agrees with matrix multiplication, so this is a complex representation of SU(2) group. The diagonal torus acts on with weight ; these weights are distinct.
A nonzero invariant subspace is invariant under the torus, so finite-dimensional Fourier projection onto its weight spaces supplies a nonzero monomial. Differentiating the group action and complexifying supplies the operators and . Their repeated application moves between every successive monomial, with nonzero coefficients until an endpoint is reached:The invariant subspace therefore contains the whole monomial basis. ThusFor this is the one-dimensional trivial representation. Torus weight projections are legitimate because an invariant complex subspace is closed in finite dimension.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ib Paper 2 17B a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For a nonzero vector , a Householder reflection isIt is immediately symmetric. If , then , soHence is also an orthogonal matrix, with .
The similarity transformation can be expanded asComputing , , and the scalar costs arithmetic operations, after which the remaining updates are outer products and scalar multiples, also costing . Thus can be formed in operations rather than by two general matrix multiplications.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ia Paper 1 2B a ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
If and , then matrix multiplication and the transpose rule giveThus the product also satisfies the equation.
The equation and part (i) imply that is invertible. Multiplying
on the left by and on the right by givesHence the set of solutions is closed under products and matrix inverses.
on the left by and on the right by givesHence the set of solutions is closed under products and matrix inverses.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 133 2 a Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Write an element of the Integer Heisenberg group as . Matrix multiplication givesThe subgroupis normal and isomorphic to . If , thenThus, on the coordinate column , conjugation by is the linear map with matrixEvery element has a unique expression , so
The commutators fill the central subgroup of matrices , while the quotient by this subgroup is generated freely and abelianly by the images of and . Equivalently, is the second coordinate axis. Therefore the abelianization is