Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 1 39A b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
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Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 16 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Replace the open knot complement by the compact knot exterior ; they have the same homotopy type. The abelianizationsends an oriented meridian of a knot to . The connected covering space corresponding to its kernel is the infinite cyclic cover of a knot exterior . Choose a generator of its deck transformation group. Thenis the Alexander module of a knot over . It is a finitely presented torsion module, and its order, equivalently the greatest common divisor of the appropriate maximal matrix minors of an Alexander matrix, is the Alexander polynomial of a knot, up to a unit .
For a fibered knot, the infinite cyclic cover of a knot exterior is . Write the mapping torus with the gluing convention in the question. The deck transformationhas exactly that quotient: and are identified. Choose . Its action on is . If one instead chooses the generator projecting in the positive circle direction, its action is ; this replaces by and produces an associate for a knot.
Choose an integral basis for and let be the matrix of . The Alexander module of a knot has the finite free module presentationThere are no further relations: using and the invertibility of , every Laurent combination reduces uniquely to an integral combination of the chosen basis elements. Taking the order of this square presentation gives the monodromy formulaFor a disk fiber both sides are , using the empty determinant convention.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 20 1 ii a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The Poisson bracket in the original coordinates isFor , setThen and . The pullback definition of a canonical transformation gives the pointwise matrix conditionSince is invertible, this is equivalent to . Indeed, invert and use to obtain , then multiply by and . Applying the same calculation to the inverse implication gives equivalence. These are the two equivalent symplectic matrix identities that connect the symplectic form with Poisson brackets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 31 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Choose real monic orthogonal polynomials of degree , , for on , and letExtend each by zero to negative . The resulting functions form an orthonormal set in . Define the orthogonal polynomial projection kernelThe formula on the right is for nonnegative arguments; the kernel is zero when either argument is negative. With , the kernel evaluation matrix is . By the determinant multiplication identity and the preceding monic basis change,Thus initially .
Use the symmetric labelled joint probability density on the full orthant. Expanding the two copies of into permutations and integrating all variables, orthonormality makes a term vanish unless the two permutations agree. Each of the surviving terms integrates to . HenceIf the eigenvalues are instead listed in increasing order on a single ordered chamber, that chamber's density is times this symmetric density. We keep the full-orthant convention throughout.
An explicit choice is in terms of the Generalized Laguerre polynomials. To verify the normalization independently, their Rodrigues formula givesIntegrating by parts times proves orthogonality to every lower-degree polynomial. The boundary terms vanish at zero and infinity for . Taking the other factor to be and using gives , where is the Gamma function. The Laguerre projection kernel is thereforefor .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 31 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write . The evaluation matrix is , where is upper triangular with diagonal entries . Its determinant is therefore unchanged. This is Vandermonde determinant invariance under monic basis change:For on , multiply row by . The requested weighted product becomes the weighted Vandermonde determinant squareThe sign difference between the two orientations of the Vandermonde product disappears on squaring. For interpret the weight at zero by continuity, so ; for , .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 31 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take off the real axis, or more generally require both and to be invertible. The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices guarantees these inverses for nonreal . Move coordinate to the first position by a simultaneous row and column permutation. With , the permuted matrix isSolve its equation against the first coordinate vector: if its solution is , then the lower block equation gives . Substitution into the first equation gives . The component is the requested diagonal entry of the matrix inverse, proving the Schur complement formula for a diagonal resolvent entry:The product is bilinear, with transpose, because is real and is real symmetric, even when the inverse is complex. In a complex Hermitian matrix version the row is instead. The final belongs inside the denominator, as in the original PDF; the converted TeX misplaces it outside the fraction.
The inverse hypotheses matter if is real: is invertible at , while its one-by-one principal minor is not. Thus existence of the full inverse alone is not sufficient to use this formula.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 31 3 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use block matrix elimination with the invertible square block :The left multiplier is block triangular with identity diagonal blocks, so its determinant is . Taking the determinant of the block-triangular product provesThe matrix is the Schur complement of . The proof needs invertible, but does not assume the Schur complement or the full matrix is invertible.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 48 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Set and let . A concrete irreducible spin representation is the symmetric powerStart with copies of the defining SU(2) doublet and restrict their tensor product representation to the completely symmetric subspace. Its orthonormal basis consists of symmetric states with up components and down components, where . There are such states. The total generators are , acting on this subspace, where are the Pauli matrices. This also constructs the trivial representation when .
The spin ladder operators satisfyThe Casimir operator commutes with every generator. On the highest-weight vector , the identity gives its eigenvalue . With phases chosen to make the lowering coefficients positive,The squared norm of the lowered state follows from . The ladder stops exactly at . Every weight is connected to every other by these operators, and has distinct eigenvalues. Hence any invariant subspace contains a weight vector and then the whole ladder: the representation is irreducible.
For , successive lowering has squared normThus the normalized highest-weight lowering formula isAll factorial arguments are nonnegative integers, including for half-integral .
The unitary representation of an isospin rotation isIts matrix in the weight basis is . Insert the completeness relation between two operators to obtainThese verify the group representation and unitarity properties, and the ladder argument gives irreducibility. Here rotations carry their SU(2) lifts: . Integer descends to the ordinary SO(3) group; half-integral is a representation of its double cover, not a single-valued representation of .
For , order the basis as . The lowering and raising coefficients give the spin-one half-turn matrixMultiplication shows . Reduce the matrix exponential using this identity:At it becomesThus its matrix elements are . In the pion phases , , this isospin rotation exchanges the two charged states with positive coefficients and negates the neutral state.
Charge conjugation is linear and unitary here. Similarity preserves commutators, soConsequently the conjugated generators obey the same Lie algebra. The specified signs also give . Since and the neutral state has positive charge conjugation eigenvalue,The signs depend on the chosen charged-state phases, which have been fixed by the ladder convention.
Conjugation by changes to , exactly as charge conjugation does. Their product, the G parity operator, therefore satisfiesThe Schur lemma makes scalar on each irreducible isospin multiplet, hence independent of . On the neutral pion, . Therefore the pion G-parity is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 48 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use a real Lie algebra convention . Its Adjoint representation of a Lie algebra acts on itself:Linearity is immediate. The Jacobi identity givesso , the defining Lie algebra representation condition. In the basis , its matrix entries areThus the adjoint generators are the structure constants arranged as matrices. The representation has kernel equal to the center of a Lie algebra; it need not be faithful for an arbitrary algebra.
The Adjoint representation of a Lie group is . It satisfies , preserves the identity, and sends inverses to inverse matrices. Differentiating gives , soConsequently the positive adjoint exponentials furnish the representation on elements and their products, and the intrinsic conjugation action defines it globally.
The inverse-conjugation formula in the PDF needs a minus adjoint exponent with this standard definition. Its first-order term is , whereas has first-order term . For example in a nonabelian algebra with already distinguishes the two. The inverse conjugation and adjoint antirepresentations identity explains the group-order issue as well: satisfies . Retaining the printed inverse conjugation as a left action without this order reversal would not give an ordinary group representation.
The Killing form is the symmetric bilinear formTo prove degeneracy for a non-semisimple Lie algebra, take its nonzero solvable radical and the last nonzero member of its derived series of a Lie algebra. This is a nonzero abelian ideal of a Lie algebra. For , maps into and kills . Every preserves . Hence maps the full space into and has zero restriction there, so its trace is zero. Thus for every . This is the abelian ideals lie in the radical of the Killing form argument, and establishes a nonzero kernel and vanishing determinant.
For a compact real semisimple Lie algebra, the adjoint action is unitary in an invariant positive inner product. Its infinitesimal generators are skew-Hermitian, givingStrictness follows because the adjoint kernel is the zero center. This explains the compactness criterion from the Killing form: “strictly negative” means negative-definite, not that every entry of its matrix is negative.
In the first three-generator example, take columns to be images of the basis . Direct use of the brackets givesTaking traces of products yields the Killing form for cyclic three-generator bracketsIt is nondegenerate, hence semisimple by the preceding degeneracy result, but it has mixed signature and is not compact. An explicit realization iswhich span the real traceless two-by-two matrices and satisfy exactly these brackets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 48 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use signature , the numerical matrices and given in the question, and raise genuine tensor indices with . A real Minkowski spacetime vector corresponds to the Hermitian matrixFor SL(2,C) matrices, is Hermitian and has the same determinant. It therefore induces a real linear Lorentz transformation; composition of the congruence actions agrees with matrix multiplication. The kernel consists of : preservation of makes a kernel element unitary, and preservation of every Hermitian makes it scalar.
Polar decomposition of an invertible complex matrix connects every determinant-one complex matrix to its unitary factor, so the group is connected. The action gives the Lorentz spinor double cover of the Proper orthochronous Lorentz group. It covers rotations via and boosts via the positive Hermitian matrices below. Every proper orthochronous transformation is a boost followed by a rotation, since one can first match its image of the future unit time vector and then use its rotation stabilizer. The congruence construction does not cover spatial parity or time reversal. In particular parity has determinant as a four-vector transformation; all transformations continuously produced from SL(2,C) have determinant .
Set , and . The Pauli matrix multiplication law gives . The proposed boost matrix is , with eigenvalues , determinant one and . Split . The perpendicular Pauli part anticommutes with , so multiplication givesThis is an active Lorentz boost. The image of a rest worldline has velocity , fixing the velocity sign convention.
For two nonzero boosts, write and . Their product isThe last term is anti-Hermitian. Thus is not Hermitian unless the axes are collinear; a pure boost has Hermitian lifts , so it cannot give the same Lorentz transformation. The noncollinear boost obstruction from Pauli products is thereforeThat rotation is a Wigner rotation. A zero-rapidity factor is the trivial exception, regardless of the arbitrary axis assigned to it.
Define and . The printed Lorentz algebra brackets giveSet , . ThenThis is the chiral decomposition of the complex Lorentz algebra. The two copies are the complexifications of the SU(2) algebras conventionally labelled left and right. They are not two independent compact real subalgebras of the real Lorentz algebra: are complex linear combinations of the real generators. The distinction is needed for noncompact boosts.
To verify the infinitesimal two-component action, putIts trace vanishes by antisymmetry, so . The Pauli matrix multiplication law impliesSince , antisymmetrizing this identity yieldsConsequently , exactly the claimed infinitesimal coordinate transformation with .
The two Weyl spinor representations transform asBoth maps preserve group multiplication. For , choose its spin lift and write the finite matrices asFor rotations these coincide as the SU(2) doublet; for boosts their generator signs are opposite. Any complex-linear intertwiner would commute with all rotations and hence be scalar by the Schur lemma, but a nonzero scalar cannot intertwine the opposite boost matrices. They are therefore inequivalent. Infinitesimally their matrices are and , while their matrices are both . Thus they have chiral labels and . The finite matrices are representations of the spin cover; choosing or matters for spinors even though their four-vector transformations coincide.
Using the supplied block gamma matrices, the generator of the Dirac spinor isThe antisymmetry of removes the symmetric Clifford part. Hence
There is a conjugation-order error in the last displayed gamma identity in the PDF. The Clifford algebra gives, with ,Exponentiating this linear commutator action proves the inverse Lorentz action on gamma matricesThe second identity is the order required for the requested bilinears when . An explicit countercheck to the printed order is a positive boost along the third axis: giveswhereas the printed right side has a plus sign. This cannot be repaired by dropping index raising; the same raising convention is needed in the preceding coordinate transformation.
The adjoint relation supplied in the question gives , hence the Dirac spinor pseudo-unitarity identity . The Dirac adjoint therefore transforms as . It now follows that the Dirac scalar bilinear isthe vector isand the antisymmetric second-rank tensor isThese are respectively a Lorentz scalar, Lorentz four-vector and Lorentz tensor. The source's inconsistent gamma identity is replaced by its correct inverse/order pair; all three transformation laws then follow with the stated spinor transformation.