Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 1 2B ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ib Paper 1 9E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 1 6C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 30 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Full column matrix rank makes a positive-definite matrix, and its matrix inverse is symmetric. Thus the hat matrix satisfiesAlso and the image of is contained in the column space of . These identities show that is the orthogonal projection matrix onto the column space of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 30 1 f Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A natural next fit is quadratic regression, which remains a normal linear model in its unknown regression coefficients:The new design matrix has rows and must have matrix rank three; three distinct predictor values suffice. The curved regression residual pattern suggests trying a positive quadratic term, but its sign and adequacy should be checked after fitting. Inspect the new regression residuals to see whether the systematic curvature has disappeared.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 1 6C i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Write a vector in the domain as . The first and third equations defining the kernel of a linear map imply . Substitution into the second equation then givesFor , this forces , and . HenceThe kernel of a linear map has dimension one, so the rank-nullity theorem gives rank three and proves the assertion about the image of a linear map. Alternatively, the minor formed from columns has determinant , including a nonzero value at .
For , the parameters are free and , . ThusThe third row is the first row minus the second. The image of a linear map is therefore contained in . The first and third columns, and , are linearly independent, so the matrix rank is two and this containment is equality:This is the sole kernel jump in a parameter-dependent linear map; there is no further exceptional case at .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 3 3 b i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
If an arrow map failed to have maximal matrix rank, it would have both a nonzero kernel of a linear map and a nonzero cokernel. Apply the preceding obstruction with . It would give , contrary to the assumption. Therefore every arrow map is injective or surjective, equivalently its rank is the minimum of the two vertex dimensions. This is a necessary property of a rigid quiver representation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 3 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A representation of the one-arrow quiver is an matrix . If , changes of basis put it in the form with an identity block and all other entries zero. Since multiplication by invertible matrices preserves matrix rank,This describes the orbit for every , including the zero orbit. Its dimension isIndeed, choosing its -dimensional image contributes parameters in a Grassmannian, and choosing a surjective map from onto that image contributes . This is a rank orbit of a matrix under left-right multiplication.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 1 8C a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Adding the three equations for gives the necessary solvability condition . Conversely, subtraction of the first two and use of the third forceIf , these values also satisfy the first two equations: for example,The analogous calculation gives . Thus existence and uniqueness hold exactly under the stated compatibility condition:
For the three-variable system the matrix and data vector arePerform Gaussian elimination on the augmented matrix. The operations and giveEach operation is an invertible row scaling followed by a row addition, so the solution set is preserved. Next givesBack substitution now yieldsand thenAll three pivots are nonzero. Thus the solution exists uniquely for every , the matrix rank is , and the kernel of a linear map represented by is . The general rank-nullity theorem for a matrix with columns ishere .
Finally, reverse the viewpoint and regard as prescribed. The necessary and sufficient condition already proved applies with , , . Their sum is . Consequently can be recovered exactly whenWhen this holds, their unique values are and . The allowable triples form an affine plane, not all of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 4 1F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Put and arrange the four vectors as the columns of . On the one-dimensional vector subspace spanned by , the eigenvalue is . On the three-dimensional orthogonal complement , the eigenvalue is . Thusand the vectors fail to be a basis exactly when or .
For , all four columns equal . The matrix rank is , a basis of their span is , and an extension to a basis of isThe last coordinate first forces the coefficient of to vanish in any linear dependence, after which the other coefficients vanish.
For , the matrix rank is and the span is exactly . A basis consists of the first three original columns,Indeed, writing them as , a vanishing linear combination has coefficient sum zero by its fourth coordinate, and then each coefficient is zero by the first three coordinates. Adjoin to extend this basis to , since .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 205 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the normalizationThis is ridge regression; the penalty is the squared Euclidean norm. The centering removes the need for an intercept. Differentiating gives the normal equationFor every nonzero , . The coefficient matrix is therefore a positive-definite matrix, even if the design matrix has deficient matrix rank. The objective is a strictly convex function, so the unique minimizer is the closed-form ridge regression estimator, with fitted values
For the primal-dual identity for ridge regression, put and observeBoth parenthesized matrices are positive-definite matrices. Multiplying by their inverses givesThus the same fitted vector has the dual expressionNo inverse of or alone was needed. This is also the kernel-ridge hat matrix for the linear kernel.
Here a positive-definite kernel means a symmetric real-valued function whose every finite kernel matrix is positive semidefinite: for all , and ,This is the usual positive-semidefinite kernel convention; strict positivity for distinct points is not required. In particular . Write , and . Positivity of the two-point kernel matrix impliesIf , substitute to obtain . If , the affine expression can be nonnegative for every only if . Both cases give the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for positive-semidefinite kernels:The zero-diagonal case is essential when the positive-definite kernel is not strictly positive.
To construct a feature map, let be the real vector space of finite formal linear combinations of symbols , one for each . Define a symmetric bilinear form byThe positive-definite kernel property makes this a positive semidefinite bilinear form. It need not yet be an inner product: distinct formal vectors can have zero squared length. The same quadratic-polynomial argument, now applied to , provesTherefore implies for every . The setis the radical of a bilinear form, hence a linear subspace. SetThe quotient vector space has a well-defined inner product: changing representatives by elements of changes no pairing, and a zero-length class is exactly the zero class. It is therefore an inner-product space.
Define . By construction,Every positive-definite kernel thus has a feature representation, including degenerate kernels and the zero kernel. This is its canonical feature space of a positive-semidefinite kernel. The construction already gives the requested inner-product space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 206 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The fitted values are , so the hat matrix isIt is symmetric, andIt fixes every vector in the column space of , and annihilates its orthogonal complement. Thus is the orthogonal projection onto that column space, has matrix rank and trace , and is the complementary orthogonal projection. ConsequentlySince , the covariance matrix between the regression residual vector and the coefficient estimate isThese quantities have a joint normal distribution, so they are also independent, a stronger conclusion than zero covariance.
Now has mean zero. Using the expectation of a quadratic form,Thus the maximum-likelihood estimator hasThe unbiased alternative isThe orthogonal projection of a Gaussian vector also yields , explaining the residual degrees of freedom.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 210 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write on and on , and put and . Because the two groups have equal size, are orthonormal. Let and . The expected value of the adjacency matrix of a graph is . ConsequentlyBoth displayed eigenvalues are positive under the stated range of , so the first matrix has matrix rank two. The other eigenvalues are zero. The figure shows the within-group and between-group blocks of this balanced stochastic block model; itself has zero diagonal.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 210 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a symmetric matrix with simple largest eigenvalue and spectral gap , the Davis-Kahan curvature lemma says , where is its leading unit eigenvector. Applying this to a leading eigenvector of , the maximal Rayleigh quotient and duality of the operator norm and trace norm give ; the projector difference has matrix rank at most two. This is a rank-one eigenprojector perturbation bound.
Here has independent centered bounded upper-triangular entries, apart from symmetry. The spectral norm bound for a centered Bernoulli adjacency matrix gives . Taking and therefore gives, for the largest-eigenvalue estimator,The printed argmin selects the wrong end of the spectrum. For a minimizing unit eigenvector , compare its Rayleigh quotient with any unit vector orthogonal to . This yields , and hence . Its mean projector error is at least , using . Along with sufficiently large even , the printed parameter restriction holds and this lower bound tends to , contradicting an error of order . Replace argmin by argmax, or negate the entire matrix before minimizing.
