Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ib Paper 4 3F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Both functionals are finite on : a continuous function on the compact metric space is bounded and integrable. Homogeneity follows from , and the triangle inequality follows by integrating, or taking the supremum of, . Each is nonnegative. If , then vanishes everywhere. If a continuous function is nonzero at some point, continuity supplies an interval of positive length on which is bounded below by a positive number; hence . Thus both are norms.
For the nonnegative , direct integration gives the L1 normTherefore . On the other hand, differentiation places the maximum of at , giving the supremum normFor , exponential decay implies , while . Thus the pointwise convergence is to zero throughout . Any convergence in the supremum norm would imply uniform convergence, hence the same pointwise limit zero, contradicting the displayed positive limiting norm. Therefore there is no convergence in the supremum norm.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ib Paper 4 6A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a time-independent Quantum Hamiltonian, a stationary state is an energy eigenstate. The Schrödinger equation separates its time dependence asIts probability density is time independent. Linearity of the Schrödinger equation givesPut . The operator for a time-independent observable is a Hermitian operator, so . Substituting the evolved wavefunction into the expectation value givesand therefore, for a normalized state,The normalization is automatic for orthogonal , in particular when : self-adjointness of gives . If the energies coincide, normalization of the individual eigenstates alone does not ensure normalization of their displayed sum; its squared norm is . For a nonzero sum not having unit norm, the physical expectation value is the displayed numerator divided by this squared norm. With orthonormal energy states, the stated formula holds in both the distinct and degenerate cases.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 11 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Give , the space of continuous functions on a compact space, its uniform norm. The left regular action is . The group law gives and , and each translation is a linear isometry because is a bijection of .
For fixed , the map is continuous. Compactness of the -space makes this dependence uniform: for a given and , continuity gives a neighbourhood of and a neighbourhood of each on which the difference from is less than ; a finite cover of permits one common neighbourhood of . Hence . The estimatethen proves the joint continuity of the action on .
For a left action on the continuous dual space, use the contragredient conventionIt satisfies and preserves the dual unit ball . If the printed prime denotes the literal transpose , these maps instead satisfy and form a right action; replacing by gives the left action above. Their invariant functionals are the same.
For and in the weak-star topology on , every satisfiesThe first term uses strong continuity of translation and ; the second uses weak-star convergence at one fixed function. This proves the requested joint weak-star topology continuity.
To obtain Haar measure, consider the set of positive linear functionals on with . Such functionals have norm one: for complex , choose a phase making real and nonnegative and use ; this gives , with equality on the constant-one function. Thus . Evaluation at the identity belongs to , and positivity and normalization are weak-star closed conditions. The Banach-Alaoglu theorem makes a nonempty compact convex set. Each is a continuous affine self-map of it.
Here is the fixed-point step, including why no commutativity assumption on is needed. For any finite list , the Schauder-Tychonoff fixed-point theorem gives a fixed point of . Let be the closed subgroup they generate and, for real , set on . It is continuous and satisfiesAt a maximum point , every summand must have the same maximum value. Iteration gives that value at all inverse-generator words times . The closure of their positive-word monoid is a closed subsemigroup of a compact group, hence is the entire generated subgroup . Density and continuity make constant on . Therefore is fixed by each of , first on real functions and then on complex functions by linearity. The closed fixed-point sets consequently have the finite intersection property in , so compactness gives a common fixed functional for every .
The Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem converts this positive functional into a regular Borel probability measure with . Its invariance gives left translation invariance of the measure. It has full support: if a nonempty open set had measure zero, a finite collection of its left translates would cover the compact group and force , contradicting normalization. Thus it is a normalized left Haar measure. The right translation action gives a normalized right Haar measure by the same argument.
For uniqueness and equality, take any and apply the Fubini theorem toFor fixed , left invariance of makes the inner integral . Reversing the order, for fixed , right invariance of makes the inner integral . Since both total masses are one,Uniqueness in the Riesz-Markov-Kakutani representation theorem gives . Comparing any normalized left Haar measure to this fixed right Haar measure proves uniqueness as well. The conclusion is uniqueness of normalized Haar measure. Without normalization, the printed uniqueness claim is false: even on the one-point group, and are distinct Haar measures. In general the result is uniqueness up to a positive scalar, and left and right probability normalizations coincide.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 11 4 Solution 2026-10-14
Take a nonzero complex unital Banach algebra, with identity . The spectrum of an element isThe standard Banach algebra spectrum theorem states that it is a nonempty compact subset of , contained in the disk . Conversely, every nonempty compact set occurs: in the Banach algebra , the coordinate function has Banach algebra spectrum exactly , since has a continuous reciprocal precisely when . Thus the possible Banach algebra spectra are exactly the nonempty compact subsets of the complex plane.
For a nonconstant polynomial , factor over . Substitution givesThese factors commute. A finite commuting product is invertible exactly when every factor is invertible: if is invertible, its inverse commutes with each , and is a two-sided inverse. Hence belongs to the Banach algebra spectrum of exactly when some root belongs to , which is equivalent to . Constant polynomials give the same result directly, since . This proves the polynomial spectral mapping theorem:For a closed unital Banach subalgebra , use the common identity . An inverse in is an inverse in , so . Let . Choose tending to . Then , and . If were outside , continuity of inversion in would givewhere membership follows from closedness. This would make , contrary to the closed Banach algebra spectrum having its boundary inside it. Therefore and is approached by points outside that Banach algebra spectrum, provingContinuity of inversion here follows, for example, by writing a nearby element as an invertible element times a norm-small perturbation and using the Neumann series. This is spectrum in a closed unital subalgebra.
To retain the original Banach algebra spectrum in a commutative subalgebra, take the resolvent-generated commutative algebraEvery generator commutes with and with every other generator: commuting invertible elements have commuting inverses, and their inverses commute with all elements commuting with them. commutativity persists on the algebra they generate and on its norm closure. For every , the required inverse is in by construction, so . The inclusion for unital subalgebras gives the reverse containment. Hence .
Finally, the Banach subalgebra generated by one element is , and it is commutative. Put and suppose its complement has a bounded connected component . The boundary of lies in . For , the maximum modulus principle on a bounded domain applied to any polynomial givesHere is the spectral radius, and the equality uses the already proved polynomial spectral mapping theorem. Define . The displayed bound makes this well defined, even when two polynomials represent the same algebra element, and bounded on the dense polynomial algebra. Its continuous extension to remains linear and multiplicative, with and , so it is a character of an algebra. If were invertible in , applying to its inverse equation would give . Thus , contradicting .
There are therefore no bounded complementary components. A compact subset of the plane has exactly one unbounded complementary component: everything outside a sufficiently large disk is connected, and every unbounded component meets it. Consequently
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 11 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For , suppose exists. The identities and show, by multiplication on either side, thatFor example, multiplying on the left gives , and the right product gives the same cancellation. Thus invertibility of implies invertibility of . Interchanging proves the converse. The nonzero spectra of products in opposite orders are therefore equal:In particular the requested inclusion follows. The exclusion of zero matters: for the unilateral shift operator , has Banach algebra spectrum , whereas has Banach algebra spectrum .
Use the spectral definition of a Positive element of a C-star algebra: is positive if and . We use the standard continuous functional calculus for a Hermitian element of a C-star algebra, including its real Banach algebra spectrum and the equality of its norm with its spectral radius. To prove positive without assuming this as part of the definition, first establish two elementary cone facts.
If are positive and , the continuous functional calculus gives and the corresponding bound for , henceSince is self-adjoint, every spectral value is real and satisfies , so . Thus the positive cone of a C-star algebra is closed under addition. It is proper: if both and are positive, their Banach algebra spectra force , and the self-adjoint norm equality gives . It is also norm closed: if converges to , choose ; then passes to the limit and forces every spectral value of to be nonnegative.
Now put , and form its negative part by continuous functional calculus. Let . Because is a function of , the scalar identity givesThis has nonpositive Banach algebra spectrum. The previously proved equality of nonzero product Banach algebra spectra shows that also has nonpositive Banach algebra spectrum; it is self-adjoint, so both and are negative elements. Write , where and are self-adjoint. Direct multiplication givesBy the spectral mapping theorem, the squares are positive, so their sum is positive by the cone fact above. But the same sum is negative, since both its original summands are negative. Properness forces . Then is both negative and positive, so , whence . The C-star identity applied to the self-adjoint gives . Thus , provingThis establishes positivity of adjoint products from spectral positivity. It also proves positivity under congruence: for and any , write using its functional-calculus square root; then .
For the comparison of squares, we first derive inversion reverses the order of strictly positive elements. If with both positive and invertible, thenThe continuous functional calculus gives , because the scalar function is nonnegative on . Congruence then givesNo commutation of was assumed.
Next derive the square-root resolvent integral in a C-star algebra. For ,For , substituting reduces the integral to ; for it is zero. For a positive element , the norm of is at most . Thus the integral converges in norm, with integrable bounds near zero and near infinity, uniform on . The continuous functional calculus consequently givesPut and . The assumption says . For every , inversion reverses the order of the strictly positive elements and . Subtracting the two square-root formulas therefore yieldsHere and because themselves are positive. Every truncated integral has a positive integrand, so is positive; norm convergence and closedness of the positive cone of a C-star algebra make its limit positive. This proves order preservation by the positive square root in the required case:It is important that this argument does not factor as , which would be invalid for noncommuting elements.
For , apply the continuous function on its nonnegative compact Banach algebra spectrum. The resulting element is self-adjoint, has nonnegative Banach algebra spectrum by continuous functional calculus, and satisfies . Thus has a positive square root in a C-star algebra.
Finally, if the positive element is invertible, its compact Banach algebra spectrum is bounded away from zero. Let ; continuous functional calculus gives . Since , we also have , so . The reciprocal function is continuous on this Banach algebra spectrum and supplies . Therefore under the given positivity assumptions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 1 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use complex inner products linear in the first argument throughout. The spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators states that, for a compact operator on a Hilbert space, its nonzero spectral values are real eigenvalues, each of finite multiplicity, with no possible accumulation point except zero. Moreover,where are the mutually orthogonal eigenspace projections. The operator series converges in operator norm when the nonzero eigenvalues are listed in decreasing absolute value. The sum is at most countable, even if the kernel is nonseparable. Zero need not be an eigenvalue.
First prove that a nonzero compact self-adjoint operator has an eigenvalue of magnitude its norm, without assuming a spectral decomposition. Put and choose unit vectors with . Since , expansion givesCompactness of supplies a subsequence for which converges; the displayed estimate then forces itself to converge to a unit vector satisfying . The vectors and are eigenvectors for and , respectively, whenever nonzero, and they cannot both vanish. This proves the claim.
Self-adjointness gives reality of every eigenvalue and orthogonality of eigenspaces for distinct eigenvalues. An eigenspace for cannot contain an infinite orthonormal sequence: its images under would have pairwise distance , contradicting compactness. The same argument proves that there are only finitely many mutually orthogonal eigenvectors with eigenvalues of magnitude at least any given . Hence all nonzero eigenspaces together have a countable orthonormal basis, and their eigenvalues tend to zero if there are infinitely many.
Let be the orthogonal complement of the closed span of all these eigenspaces. It is invariant under . If were nonzero, the norm-attaining eigenvalue argument applied to that compact self-adjoint restriction would produce another nonzero eigenvector, a contradiction. Thus , and the converse inclusion follows from orthogonality. This establishes the asserted decomposition. On its orthogonal summands the tail of the operator series has norm equal to the supremum of the omitted eigenvalue magnitudes, proving norm convergence.
Finally, a nonzero complex number not among these eigenvalues has positive distance from their set and from zero. Inverting separately on the eigenspaces and kernel therefore gives a bounded inverse. This proves that no other nonzero spectral values occur and completes the theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 1 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a finite-rank operator , define and its trace norm bywhere are its nonzero singular values, counted with multiplicity. The finite-rank spectral theorem gives orthonormal systems with , where .
For every bounded operator ,Choose the contraction taking to and vanishing on their orthogonal complement. It attains equality, soThis formula proves the triangle inequality and absolute homogeneity. Also , so vanishing of the trace norm forces . Thus it is a norm on the vector space of finite-rank operators.
The map , where , is a bounded linear map into the dual of this normed space. Its norm is at most . Rank-one tests give the reverse inequality: and , so taking unit vectors gives .
Conversely, let be a bounded linear functional for the trace norm. The sesquilinear form satisfiesThe Riesz representation theorem gives a unique bounded operator with , and . Since every finite-rank operator is a finite sum of rank-one operators, linearity implies for every . HenceThe same identification extends to the completion, the trace-class operators. This is trace-class duality; completeness of the original finite-rank space is not required to identify its bounded dual.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 1 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For an orthonormal basis , define the Hilbert-Schmidt norm by . For a possibly uncountable basis, the nonnegative sum means the supremum over finite subsets. Parseval's identity gives, for any other orthonormal basis ,Changing the domain basis in the last expression proves basis independence. Polarization gives a basis-independent inner productwith the same first-argument linear convention. The sums converge by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. The operator-norm bound follows by applying Cauchy-Schwarz to the coordinates of a unit vector.
To prove completeness, let be Cauchy in this norm. The operator-norm bound gives a bounded-operator limit . For a finite subset of the basis,For large , the right side is uniformly small by the Cauchy property. Taking the supremum over shows is Hilbert-Schmidt and ; it also shows is Hilbert-Schmidt. Thus the Hilbert-Schmidt operators form a Hilbert space. Finite-rank operators are dense there: keeping finitely many basis columns makes the sum of omitted squared column norms tend to zero. The operator-norm bound then shows that every Hilbert-Schmidt operator is compact.
Now let be a strongly continuous unitary representation of the compact metric group , as is standard for a representation of a topological group. Fix and average the positive rank-one operator :The integrand is continuous in the Hilbert-Schmidt norm, so this Bochner integral exists in the complete space just proved. Normalized Haar measure and invariance show that is positive, compact and commutes with every . Moreover,the integrand is positive near the identity and every nonempty open set has positive Haar measure. Thus . A nonzero eigenspace is finite-dimensional and invariant under , by (a). Within it choose a nonzero invariant subspace of smallest dimension; it is irreducible. Its orthogonal complement is invariant because the representation is unitary, so the finite-dimensional space splits into irreducibles.
Take a maximal orthogonal family of such finite-dimensional irreducible invariant subspaces. If their closed span had a nonzero orthogonal complement, the same averaging argument on that complement would produce another member, contradicting maximality. ThereforeThis compact averaging of a rank-one operator argument does not require itself to be separable. Strong continuity is the topological representation hypothesis used in the averaging step.