Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 25 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put and , for sufficiently large . Apply the Landau zero-free-region theorem withwhere is fixed and small enough that . On its two discs, the real part is at least and the imaginary part is comparable to . The given Richert bound for the Riemann zeta function therefore gives, on the part left of one,On the part right of one, the separately given bound gives the same conclusion. We may thus choose for one fixed sufficiently large . Also , so the logarithmic term in the Landau zero-free-region theorem is . Its conclusion isfor large and a sufficiently small positive . Complex conjugation supplies negative heights. This is the Vinogradov-Korobov zero-free region. Only the stated Richert upper bounds, the Euler product, the pole at one and the proved Landau zero-free-region theorem were used; no prior zero-free-region theorem was assumed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 46 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Take an oriented closed string in flat, critical bosonic string theory, with and a mostly-plus target Minkowski metric. After continuation of the worldsheet to Euclidean signature, the Polyakov path integral sums over embeddings and worldsheet metrics, divided by worldsheet diffeomorphisms and Weyl transformations. In a flat target its kinetic action isTarget-time continuation or analytic continuation of external momenta defines the Lorentzian scattering amplitude; a naive real Euclidean Gaussian for timelike would not be convergent.
An external tachyon is represented by the tachyon vertex operator , with conformal weights . The physical integrated vertex has , so . Schematically its tree amplitude isThe Faddeev-Popov determinant from conformal gauge is represented by the worldsheet ghost fields. At tree level the worldsheet is a Riemann sphere, whose unpunctured complex structure has no moduli. Its residual conformal automorphisms are the Möbius transformations, . Fix three insertion points, accompanying their unintegrated vertices by the required ghost factors. The remaining complex insertion positions are integrated over the sphere; equivalently one integrates all positions and divides by the residual conformal group.
The embedding fields are free, withTheir zero-mode integral gives momentum conservation, and their nonzero-mode Gaussian integral gives the Koba-Nielsen factorThis explains the sphere tachyon position integral without needing its evaluation. For four tachyons the resulting Virasoro–Shapiro amplitude displays the exchanged string spectrum directly.
Use all-incoming external momenta and introduce alongside the two printed dimensionless Mandelstam variables. Since and , one obtains . The physical center-of-mass energy squared in the channel is . The channel measures the analogous crossed momentum transfer, with sign determined by the mostly-plus convention. Rewriting the Gamma factors in a symmetric form givesThe Gamma function poles imply, at generic fixed values of the other invariant,The denominator Gamma factors can remove residues at special intersecting channel kinematics; the statement concerns a generic single-channel limit. An -channel pole occurs when the intermediate momentum satisfies the mass-shell condition for a closed-string state:The pole at exchanges the ground-state tachyon, the pole at exchanges massless states, and the positive integer poles exchange the infinite massive tower. The -channel interpretation is the crossed version. Factorization means that each residue is a sum of products of couplings to intermediate physical states that couple to the chosen external particles. It need not expose every representation at that mass.
For example, the Gamma function recurrence and Gamma function residue at a nonpositive integer give the dimensionless Virasoro–Shapiro amplitude pole residueThe residue polynomial has degree , consistent with maximum spin in the exchanged level. The amplitude also has the corresponding -channel poles by crossing symmetry.
The massless fields can be treated as target backgrounds rather than separate asymptotic insertions. Write the target metric as , introduce a Kalb–Ramond field , and a dilaton . In conventional Euclidean signs their string nonlinear sigma model action isHere is the antisymmetric tensor density. The three backgrounds correspond to the graviton, antisymmetric tensor and scalar states at closed-string level one. Expanding the vacuum functional in , then Fourier expanding the backgrounds, produces exactly their integrated string vertex operators. Its functional derivatives therefore generate the amplitudes with massless external strings. The connected vacuum functional organizes connected amplitudes; the spacetime effective action organizes the corresponding vertices after treating massless propagation consistently.
At momenta small compared with , massive string propagators can be expanded in powers of momenta over their masses. The analytic part of the amplitudes consequently determines local higher-derivative interactions, ordered by powers of . Massless exchange poles are retained through propagation of the massless fields, rather than expanded into local contact terms. Up to field redefinitions, the leading massless-sector action in the string-frame metric isThe terms denoted contain additional derivatives, including curvature-squared terms in the bosonic theory. The expansion concerns the massless sector around the perturbative bosonic background; the tachyon instability remains and is not cured by omitting its field from this displayed action. Thus this is a formal perturbative effective description, not a claim of a stable bosonic vacuum.
Finally split the dilaton into a constant and its variation, . By the Gauss-Bonnet theorem, its dilaton Euler-characteristic weighting on a connected closed oriented surface follows fromDefine the string coupling by . A genus- path integral is weighted byThe sphere carries , the torus carries , and each extra handle adds . At higher genus one integrates over complex-structure moduli as well as insertion points, with the associated antighost insertions supplying the correct moduli measure. With canonically normalized external vertices an -point genus- amplitude scales as .
Summing connected worldsheets of every genus of a surface yields the string-loop effective action expansionEach coefficient has its own low-energy expansion. The two parameters have different roles: resolves finite string size through higher derivatives, while counts additional string loops.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 47 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the physical rapidity strip for poles of the two-body S-matrix, and write for scattering rapidity to distinguish it from the theta angle in question 2. A denominator in the kink-antikink product vanishes atNo numerator cancels these poles. For two equal-mass constituents with rapidities , their four-momentum vectors sum toThis gives the relativistic bound-state mass from a rapidity pole. The ordered breather spectrum isIt increases strictly with . The hypothetical state would lie at the two-kink threshold and is not a bound state; it is absent from the pole product. At these couplings and . In particular at weak coupling . This is the Sine-Gordon breather spectrum at reflectionless couplings. At there are no breathers; the subsequent processes involving a physical require .
For two identical neutral particles, exchanging the two outgoing labels does not produce a distinguishable channel. In one spatial dimension the elastic final momenta are the incoming pair, up to interchange. Thus there is one scalar identical-particle amplitude, rather than separately observable transmission and reflection amplitudes.
Put , so the basic amplitude uses . Its poles in the physical strip occur at and . The first is the direct bound-state pole. Choosing constituent rapidities gives real total energy-momentumSince ,Both energy and momentum therefore match an on shell with rapidity . The complementary pole is its crossed-channel partner. At the would-be is a threshold state, so this physical fusion interpretation must not be imposed there.
The bound-state fusion of factorized S-matrices treats a bound particle as its on shell constituents with analytically continued rapidities. If equal-mass particles fuse to at relative rapidity , use constituent rapidities . To scatter a third particle off , multiply its scattering amplitudes with each constituent and take the bound-state residue or projection in the constituent channel. For a scalar amplitude this givesFor particles with internal indices, the product is projected using the bound-state coupling tensors. The heuristic reason is factorized scattering: conserved higher charges prevent particle production and fix the rapidity data, so the third particle scatters through the constituents by successive two-body processes. Consistency of different orders is the Yang-Baxter equation. Without integrability, an independent three-body interaction would invalidate this simple bootstrap product.
For , the constituent shifts are , givingIt is useful to write this Sine-Gordon breather fusion amplitude in explicitly factorized form:To check the reduction, put . Multiplying the shifted factors gives numerator and denominator . Use and to factor them as . The product tends to one at large positive real rapidity, fixing its overall phase in this bootstrap convention.
For , the nearest pole to the real axis is . It is simple and comes from the first factor. In the crossed, or t-channel, the momentum carried between the external particles is their difference. With the metric its invariant isAt the pole, substitute the breather masses:The trigonometric identity is applied with angles and . Thus the exchanged one-particle state is the lightest breather , on its mass shell. This is crossed-channel lightest-breather exchange. The external momenta at a bound-state pole are analytically continued; on shell here means the invariant mass relation and conservation of the continued energy-momentum, not a pole at real physical rapidity. At the more distant central factor has a double pole, but the nearest pole and its interpretation remain unchanged.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 77 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Linearity permits subtraction of the incident acoustic membrane wave. The scattered pressure solves the homogeneous Helmholtz equation, and the kinematic relation defines its line displacement on both halves. On , subtracting the incident elastic membrane equation gives the scattered dynamic equation. On , there is no elastic membrane, so the total pressure jump must vanish, giving . The pinned endpoint has , hence , rather than zero.
Use full and Half-range Fourier transforms with the same convention as part (a), and putWrite for the left transform of the upper scattered pressure, for its right transform, and for the corresponding transforms of . Outgoing antisymmetry in impliesThe second relation comes from the prescribed pressure cancellation on .
The endpoint terms in the left Fourier transform of are crucial:Thus . Eliminating gives the Wiener-Hopf equationThere is a defect in the printed right side: with the stated incident exponential, pressure jump, and pinned total displacement, it omits the incident endpoint term and has the opposite sign on the incident-pressure term. The displayed corrected equation follows directly from both boundary traces. The given right side cannot be derived with these definitions. Using , an especially useful equivalent form isThe correction is necessary for the reconstructed pressure to satisfy the original physical boundary conditions.
For Wiener-Hopf factorization, take with the plus factor analytic and nonzero in the upper half-plane and the minus factor analytic and nonzero in the lower half-plane. Singularities listed next refer to continuation out of each factor's own analytic half-plane. Let , so and lies below the real axis. Generically inherits the pole at and the square-root branch point at , while inherits the pole at and the branch point at . The kernel is finite but nonanalytic at the acoustic branch points: its local behavior is a constant plus a square-root term, not an inverse-square-root divergence. Coincident branch points and poles require a limiting treatment.
Zeros of are the fluid-loaded dispersion relation roots. Lower-half-plane roots, including the incoming guided root , belong to the continued ; upper-half-plane roots, including the reflected root for the even kernel, belong to the continued . The roots represent membrane-guided modes; the branch cuts represent radiated acoustic waves. Only roots on the selected outgoing sheet are included, not spurious roots created by squaring the dispersion relation. No explicit factorization is required.
Here is an explicit solution in terms of those factors. DefineThe pole of at has residue ; the pole at is canceled by the pole of . Thus have the required respective analyticity. Divide the corrected Wiener-Hopf equation by and split its right side as , whereThe difference quotient in is removable at and is analytic below. Moving the plus and minus terms to opposite sides yields the common entire function. With the assumed , the solution isCombining with the known gives the full scattered pressure transformThe requested pressure integral, for , is consequentlyThe real contour uses the causal continuation ; its undamped limit retains the induced pole and branch-cut prescriptions. The residue theorem shows that upper-half-plane zeros of yield left-going scattered elastic membrane modes. On the right, the lower incident-pole residue of the scattered integral cancels at the open line, as required.
Finally reconstruct the left scattered displacement:For a generic unspecified , this has a lower-half-plane pole at the bare elastic membrane wavenumber . Such a pole is incompatible with analyticity of an outgoing left-supported scattered displacement: it would represent an additional right-going incoming elastic membrane contribution. It must be removed. Its residue is , so the incoming-pole cancellation at a pinned membrane edge condition isSince is linear in , this fixes the endpoint slope generically. Explicitly it isThe physical lower incident pole of the total displacement is already prescribed by ; it must not be confused with this removable spurious pole of the scattered field.