Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2020 / ia / Paper 2 / 10B / b / Solution

Writing $a_k{x}_k=\mathbf{a}\cdot \mathbf{x}$ and differentiating givesIts symmetric second-rank tensor part and antisymmetric second-rank tensor part areTaking the trace makes the two symmetric terms cancel, so the divergence isContracting the antisymmetric part with the Levi-Civita symbol gives the curl