Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 202 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Interpret as a conformal bijection onto . If it is merely an injective map into a larger target, the correct exit domain is instead. Let be the exit time from , write , and identify planar Brownian motion with . The Cauchy-Riemann equations give , , and both are harmonic functions. The Itô formula, localized on compact subsets of , yieldsThus both coordinates are continuous local martingales, withSince never vanishes, is strictly increasing before . Let , defined for . The optional time-change theorem gives continuous local martingale coordinates for , with bracket matrix . The Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion makes a standard planar Brownian motion started at , up to its lifetime. Therefore conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion takes the formTo identify the lifetime, exhaust by relatively compact open sets with nested closures. The images exhaust because is a homeomorphism onto . Each stopped transformed path exits at precisely the clock value of its exit from . Increasing these exit times gives the exit lifetime of Brownian motion from , including a possibly infinite lifetime. This identifies with that lifetime and needs no global extension of to the boundary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 203 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take the convention that the coordinates of planar Brownian motion are independent standard real Brownian motions, so its infinitesimal generator is . Define the forward conformal Brownian clockSince a conformal bijection has nonzero derivative, is a strictly increasing continuous map from onto . The time used inside the original path is its inverse:Thus the interval direction for is the inverse-clock direction.
Write . The Cauchy-Riemann equations and the Itô formula make continuous local martingales, withIndeed both components are harmonic functions, and their gradients are orthogonal with the same squared norm. After the time change of a continuous process by , their quadratic variations are and their quadratic covariation is zero. The Lévy characterization of multidimensional Brownian motion therefore identifies as planar Brownian motion started at , up to its lifetime.
It remains to identify that lifetime as the exit time, rather than merely produce a local Brownian path. Boundedness of gives almost surely. For every compact subset , its inverse image under is compactly contained in . As , continuity gives , so eventually leaves . Consequently the transformed path leaves every compact subset of at its lifetime. If , its Brownian extension has a finite limit, and that limit is outside ; if , the path never exits. In both cases its maximal lifetime is precisely the exit time from .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 203 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
No such conformal bijection exists. A prescribed point is a polar point for planar Brownian motion: a planar Brownian motion started away from zero hits zero with probability zero. For example, inside an annulus the probability of reaching radius before radius isby the harmonic function and the optional stopping theorem. For fixed this tends to zero as . Any finite-time visit to zero would occur before leaving some sufficiently large disc; the countable union over integer still has probability zero.
The exit time from is therefore infinite almost surely, contradicting part (b) if this were the image of a bounded domain. Equivalently, a hypothetical inverse would be bounded and holomorphic. The Riemann removable singularity theorem extends it over zero, and the Liouville theorem makes it constant, contradicting bijectivity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 203 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Compare the hull with the empty hull and the filled unit half-disc . Their mapping-out functions of compact H-hulls are and , the latter also giving the half-plane capacity of a half-disc.
Use one planar Brownian motion started at , with . For , exiting through entails avoiding , while exiting through this interval entails reaching it before exit from the whole half-plane. Thus the tail harmonic measures satisfyFor any of these fixed hulls , the Poisson kernel for the upper half-plane gives the exact tail formulaSubtract from , multiply by , and take the limit. The inequalities reverse, yielding the real boundary bounds:Applying this result to the reflected hull also givesThe comparison is of Brownian exit events, so it does not assume that arbitrary conformal maps are pointwise ordered by domain inclusion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 203 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put on . This is a harmonic function, tends to zero at infinity, and is bounded. To justify the boundary behavior without requiring a locally connected space as its boundary, let . Its expansion at infinity implies that bounded cannot have . If approaches a finite point of and had a subsequential limit inside , continuity of would force that point to lie inside , a contradiction. Thus boundary degeneration under a mapping-out function gives . Consequently extends continuously to the finite boundary with value .
Let be planar Brownian motion started at , and its Brownian exit time from . This time is finite almost surely: it is at most the first time the imaginary coordinate, a one-dimensional Brownian motion, hits zero. By the Itô formula, is a bounded martingale. The optional stopping theorem and dominated convergence theorem therefore giveBoundedness is important here: directly stopping the unbounded imaginary-coordinate martingale would require an unjustified uniform integrability assertion.
At , the Laurent series gives . HenceThe sign follows because the exit point lies on . This proves the Brownian representation of half-plane capacity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 203 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
A Brownian excursion in the upper half-plane from to infinity is killed planar Brownian motion conditioned to stay in , with its entrance law at . Precisely, it is the Doob h-transform for , obtained by starting at and letting . Equivalently,where is standard Brownian motion and the independent process is a dimension-three Bessel process started at zero. The transformed generator is , which explains this representation.
First compute avoidance from an interior point . Let be the exit time of ordinary planar Brownian motion from . The harmonic correctionhas boundary values on and zero on the real axis. The hydrodynamic normalization at infinity gives . Together with the maximum principle for harmonic functions this gives the useful bound . Since ordinary Brownian motion hits the real axis almost surely, the optional stopping theorem applied to this bounded harmonic function givesThe Doob h-transform weights a stopped path by its final height divided by its initial height. Applying this at the first hit of , with bounded-time localization and then a limit, therefore yieldsFor the entrance law the same result follows by conditioning at a small positive time and letting that time decrease to zero: the avoidance function has the boundary limit computed next, and the excursion is initially in a neighbourhood disjoint from .
Because the closure of the hull avoids , the Schwarz reflection principle makes analytic in a neighbourhood of zero, with real and positive real . ThusIn fact, the reflected Taylor expansion gives uniformly as inside the half-plane, so the same limit applies to the entrance process. The map in the question is , so its derivative agrees with . We obtain the restriction probability of a Brownian half-plane excursion:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 201 5 c Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Yes. Quotient only the first coordinate modulo . The resulting process lives on and the image of is the radius- ball about . The two noncompact coordinates form planar Brownian motion, which is recurrent; during its infinitely many returns to a smaller disc, the independent circle coordinate has a fixed positive chance of lying in the required interval. The Strong Markov property then shows that the target ball is visited infinitely often. Lifting back proves that is hit at unbounded times.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 203 2 a Solution 2026-09-28
Let be planar Brownian motion started at , let be its exit time, and let be conformal. DefineThe conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion states thatis Brownian motion started at and stopped when it exits . Thus conformal maps preserve Brownian paths after this random time-change.
Polar point for planar Brownian motion 2026-10-06
A prescribed point is almost surely never visited by planar Brownian motion started elsewhere. The harmonic function gives an annular hitting probability that tends to zero as the inner radius decreases to zero. This does not contradict recurrence of planar Brownian motion, which concerns neighbourhoods.
For planar Brownian motion starting on the positive real axis inside a disk, let be circular exit and first contact with the imaginary axis. Reflecting the path after fixes the disk and swaps positive and negative circular exits. The Strong Markov property makes their probabilities equal on . Therefore .
Two-dimensional Bessel transition law 2026-10-14
A dimension-two Bessel process starting at has the displayed marginal law, where are independent standard normal random variables. Take the norm of a planar Brownian motion starting at . Planar Brownian motion avoids a fixed point, so the norm stays positive; Itô formula gives drift and a martingale term of bracket . The Lévy characterization of Brownian motion identifies that term as its driving Brownian motion. The squared radius divided by has a noncentral chi-squared distribution with two degrees of freedom and noncentrality .
Winding at logarithmic radial passage levels 2026-10-14
For planar Brownian motion started at , continuous winding angles sampled at the displayed radii have independent stationary increments. At , apply the Strong Markov property, rotate by the current angle, and rescale space by and time by . The future radial-level winding increment has the original law and is independent of the past. The logarithmic radius and winding angle are independent Brownian coordinates on the common clock . At radial passage they are therefore and , where is a Brownian first-passage time. Its Laplace transform gives the displayed characteristic function. The level process is a symmetric Cauchy process; replacing the passage clock by its right-continuous version supplies a càdlàg modification without changing any fixed-level law.