Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 3 9C b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be rotation about the third axis, so invariance means . At , its diagonal signs are ; each mixed entry changes sign and must vanish.
For the remaining planar block , the quarter-turn givesHence and . Writing the constants as givesConversely, commutes with every planar rotation, so every displayed matrix is invariant under every rotation about the axis. This is an oriented-axis invariant Cartesian tensor. Symmetry was not assumed, so the antisymmetric parameter need not vanish.