Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 306 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Work away from , where the inverse-square potential is singular. Variation of the phase-space action givesThe last equation is the constraint imposed by the Lagrange multiplier . The canonical momentum conjugate to is , not . Consequently the nonzero canonical Poisson brackets areIn particular,With the convention , the Noether charge generating is . Equivalently, the conserved physical energy is ; a convention that calls the energy the time-translation charge absorbs this minus sign into its parameter.
For the dilation charge,on the constraint surface. Its infinitesimal canonical transformations areFor constant , extending this by preserves the action: the kinetic terms are invariant and scales oppositely to . Thus the dilation acts on time and position with their nonrelativistic relative scaling. Its Poisson bracket with the energy is
Put . Direct variation of the Hamiltonian givessoThe supplied transformations are generated by the special conformal charge of inverse-square mechanicsChooseThen even for a time-dependent parameter. Expanding the kinetic-term variation, keeping the terms in , givesHenceFor a constant parameter only the boundary term remains, identifying as the Noether charge. Independently, the equations of motion giveUsing the same canonical Poisson bracket convention,Together, , and form the sl2R Lie algebra of conformal mechanics. These are time translation, dilation and special conformal transformation. A useful normalization check is the Casimir elementon the constraint surface.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 313 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A Poisson bivector is a smooth antisymmetric contravariant two-tensorwhose bracket on smooth functions,satisfies the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity and antisymmetry are immediate, and the product rule makes the bracket a derivation in each argument. Together these properties define a Poisson manifold. Unlike a symplectic form, the Poisson bivector need not be nondegenerate.
Apply the Jacobi identity to the coordinate functions. Since ,Changing to and rearranging the three summands gives the printed coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector:This is also sufficient: expanding the Jacobiator of three arbitrary smooth functions, all terms involving second derivatives cancel in pairs by antisymmetry. The remaining coefficient of is the coordinate-function Jacobiator displayed above.
For a Lie algebra, the natural global space carrying the proposed linear bracket is its dual space . If is the chosen basis, define its linear coordinate function by . The Lie-Poisson bracket iswhere are elements of . On a general manifold the same coordinate expression gives a local construction; a global one requires compatible transition rules. The use of supplies that compatibility intrinsically.
Here and . The left side of the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector is thereforeThe final coefficient is the negative of the coefficient of in the Lie algebra identity . Thus the Lie-Poisson bracket satisfies the Jacobi identity.
It remains to find the Lie algebra structure constants for the printed rotation fields. Distinguish their original spatial coordinates from the coordinates on the dual space. Use the conventional Lie bracket of vector fields. Their component vectors are , and , respectively. For example,Similarly,The negative sign is essential: these are the fundamental fields of a left rotation action with the stated Lie bracket of vector fields, and consequently have the infinitesimal left-action sign convention discussed above. The first field here has component , as printed in the PDF.
The Lie-Poisson bracket on the dual space consequently hasFor the evolution convention , the Hamiltonian function has derivatives . Substitution gives the quadratic rotational Lie-Poisson dynamicsThese are Euler-type Hamilton's equations on a noncanonical Poisson manifold. When , and with positive principal inertias, they are the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body in body angular-momentum coordinates. As a check, is conserved by antisymmetry of the Poisson bracket, and is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold. Direct differentiation of in the three equations cancels the terms . The Hamiltonian flow therefore lies on both an energy level and a sphere, a symplectic leaf of this signed rotational bracket.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 31A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
A Lie point symmetry is a local one-parameter family of diffeomorphisms of that takes solution graphs of the differential equation to solution graphs wherever the transformed graph remains a graph over time. Its infinitesimal generator is . Its first prolongation isFor a regular first-order equation the infinitesimal criterion is on ; it says that the prolonged vector field is tangent to the equation submanifold.
With the constant nondegenerate canonical matrix , define the Poisson bracket by and the Hamiltonian vector field by . Our convention gives . Applying the Jacobi identity to a test function ,soA first integral obeys . Consequently , and the local flows commute. The time-independent transformation generated by , with unchanged, therefore maps integral curves of a vector field for to integral curves of a vector field: it is a Lie point symmetry.
Conversely, such a time-independent symmetry gives , hence . Nondegeneracy of makes constant on each connected component. At a fixed point , implies , so that constant is zero on its component. Thus the converse holds on a connected phase space containing a fixed point, or on each component that contains one.
The printed global converse needs this connectedness convention: a fixed point on one component does not control the constants on other components. For example take one component with , , and another with , . The Hamiltonian vector fields commute everywhere and there is a fixed point on the first component, but is not a first integral on the second. Even on a connected space the fixed-point condition matters: , commute but .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Liouville integrability on a -dimensional symplectic manifold means that there are functionally independent first integrals, including , whose pairwise Poisson brackets vanish. Near a compact connected regular common level set, the Arnold-Liouville theorem gives action-angle variables with , periodic modulo , , and .
For a frozen mass, the turning point is . The action variable isAdiabatic invariance of the action holds to leading order when the mass varies slowly compared with an orbital period, away from degenerating orbits. Keeping fixed givesFor this agrees with and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Poisson bracket is . Since , the scalar triple product vanishes, andEquivalently, check the identity on and extend to every polynomial using the Leibniz rule. Thus is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold of this rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3.
The Hamilton's equations areLinearization about gives , , . The two nonzero exponents satisfy . ConsequentlyWhen is outside this interval the transverse motion is oscillatory. At equality the linearization is nonhyperbolic; if just one transverse coupling vanishes, the other permits secular linear growth, rather than an exponential instability. This is the familiar intermediate-axis instability described by the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 306 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For covariant quantization of the bosonic string,All other commutators between independent canonical variables vanish. The covariant Fock vacuum obeys for every and every . Normal ordering moves these annihilating string oscillators to the right and givesThen . Its commutator grades a Fock state basis by , although its inner product is indefinite because of the timelike oscillator.
The quantum Virasoro algebra has central charge :The Virasoro central extension comes from commutators needed to order infinite oscillator sums; it is a quantum effect absent from the classical Poisson brackets. Replacing a classical Poisson bracket by a commutator cannot recover that term without a regularized ordering calculation.
If a state were annihilated by every nonzero , the commutator would imply . The commutator would then imply . For , only the zero vector is annihilated by all nonzero Virasoro constraints. This explains why only positive modes annihilate a physical string state.
The vacuum is a physical string state when . At level one all states have the form . Since , the positive-mode Virasoro constraints giveThus the complete level-one conditions and norm arewith the common vacuum normalization suppressed.
For , choose spacelike momentum , . A purely timelike polarization has and norm . Hence a negative-norm physical string state exists when .
For , the mass-shell condition gives . In a rest frame, forces , leaving positive-norm vector-particle polarizations, those of a massive vector.
For and nonzero null momentum, leaves a null direction . The corresponding null string state is . It is orthogonal to every physical string state because annihilates them. Quotienting by this gauge redundancy, , leaves positive vector-particle polarizations. Thus the level-one spectrum agrees with light-cone gauge in string theory at . This level-one argument alone does not establish consistency or absence of negative norms at all higher levels.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 306 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
In the displayed version of light-cone gauge in string theory, the oscillators have transverse components andThe center-of-mass Poisson brackets remain , and the transverse oscillator Poisson brackets are . Other independent brackets vanish. With , canonical quantization gives the canonical commutation relationsThe oscillator Fock vacuum at momentum is defined by for . It is the ground state of one string, rather than the empty spacetime vacuum. Set for . The normal ordering prescription gives the string level operatorA Fock state basis is obtained by applying to , with string level operator eigenvalue . In particular, its level-one states areThey transform as the transverse vector of the little group rotation subgroup , precisely the vector-particle polarizations of a massless vector. A massive vector would instead require vector-particle polarizations. This conclusion uses a quantization compatible with the Lorentz group of the bosonic string theory.
The classical mass constraint alone has no quantum zero-point energy shift. Its quantum version includes the normal-ordering constant of a string :Masslessness at level one fixes , soThus the ground state is a tachyon. Without the quantum ordering shift, the displayed classical constraint would give and would not support the stated massless interpretation. In the usual transverse vacuum regularization, ; consistency with also gives the critical dimension of string theory .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 306 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The real canonical variables describe the center-of-mass position and total momentum of the open string. The nonzero string oscillators are complex Fourier modes with ; the Lagrange multipliers obey . The Virasoro constraints satisfy , so the multiplier term is real.
For each , the oscillator kinetic term differs from the manifestly real expressionby . Thus the written action is real up to a boundary term, which does not change its symplectic form or bulk dynamics. Adding the corresponding endpoint term makes reality exact.
The independent nonzero Poisson brackets areAll brackets between these independent center-of-mass and oscillator variables vanish. The dependent zero mode is , so, if it is used, .
The Fourier coefficients of the Virasoro constraints areTheir Poisson brackets areThey form the classical Witt algebra, with no Virasoro central extension. In particular they are first-class constraints, closing on the constraint surface, and generate the remaining worldsheet diffeomorphisms rather than independent physical excitations.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 306 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use with the canonical Poisson bracket. The first-class constraint generatesIndeed the variation of the relativistic particle phase-space action isThe transformation is therefore a gauge invariance when its parameter vanishes at the time endpoints, or suitable boundary conditions remove the total derivative.
On a fixed interval of parameter length , the proper-time modulusis unchanged by these gauge transformations. Choosing sets , with . Thus the nonconstant part of the worldline einbein can be fixed, but its constant modulus must still be integrated over. Fixing as well would remove inequivalent values of the proper-time modulus; it is legitimate only if the parameter interval is allowed to vary instead. The name proper-time modulus refers to the Schwinger proper-time parameter; after eliminating , the geometric proper length for a massive on-shell trajectory is in this normalization.
For the gauge fixing functional , its variation is . The Faddeev-Popov determinant is consequentlyThe Grassmann Gaussian integral represents this determinant using anticommuting Faddeev-Popov ghost fields :The phase and normalization of the determinant depend on the measure convention. Its domain carries the chosen boundary conditions: on an interval the constant modulus is excluded from the gauge-fixed directions, and on a periodic worldline the constant ghost zero mode in field theory is removed with the residual gauge volume treated separately. A bare determinant with such zero modes left in would vanish.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 1 32A c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
From and , the chain rule givesSubstituting these identities into the canonical Poisson bracket and cancelling the and terms givesThis is the Poisson bracket in complex canonical coordinates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 4 15B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Define the canonical momentaWhen the velocity Hessian is nonsingular, these equations can be inverted for , and the Hamiltonian is the Legendre transformIts differential isbecause the terms cancel. The Euler-Lagrange equation identifies , so coefficient comparison gives Hamilton's equations
Both and are cyclic coordinates, so and are conserved. The Hamiltonian has no explicit time dependence and is also conserved. Since is independent of ,under the Poisson bracket. Hence three independent first integrals in involution are
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 32C a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
In canonical coordinates, Hamilton's equations areA function is an integral of motion if it is constant along every Hamiltonian flow, equivalentlyfor a time-independent . The system is an integrable Hamiltonian system when it has first integrals whose differentials are linearly independent almost everywhere and which are in mutual Poisson involution: for all .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 32C b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
For one degree of freedom, take . Antisymmetry of the Poisson bracket gives , so energy is conserved. The stated condition is exactly , which supplies the required functional independence. Hence the system is integrable at every such regular point.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 8E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 8E d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 8E e Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let and be conserved quantities, allowing explicit time dependence. ThenUsing bilinearity of the Poisson bracket, commutation of partial differentiation with it, and the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket,Thus is also conserved.