Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 4 5D Solution 2026-10-07
The final property concerns a pointwise periodic self-map. Such a map is a bijection: each point has a predecessor in its finite cycle, giving surjectivity; if , choose a common multiple of periods of and apply to get . Its finite cycles are therefore disjoint.
If is finite, choose the least common multiple of the finitely many cycle lengths. This positive integer gives . The empty set satisfies the property with .
Conversely, in the usual set theory with choice, every infinite contains a countably infinite set. Divide such a subset into disjoint finite blocks of sizes , , make a cyclic permutation on each block, and fix every other point. Every point returns to itself, but an identity iterate would have to be divisible by every block length . No positive integer has that property: take a block longer than that integer. Thus the uniform period criterion for pointwise periodic maps givesThe axiom of choice assumption is stated here because extracting a countably infinite subset of an arbitrary infinite set is not an unrestricted theorem in set theory without choice.
A pointwise periodic self-map has a uniform positive period exactly when its finite cycle lengths are bounded. A uniform period is divisible by every length; conversely, bounded lengths divide the least common multiple of for some bound . Arbitrarily many bounded-length cycles are allowed. Every such map on a finite set has a uniform period. On any infinite set containing a countably infinite subset, cycles of unbounded finite lengths and fixed points elsewhere give a counterexample. Thus, with the usual axiom of choice assumption, the sets on which every pointwise periodic self-map has a uniform period are exactly finite sets.