Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 17I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
A splitting field of a nonzero polynomial over is an extension in which splits into linear factors and which is generated over by all its roots. For a constant nonzero polynomial the splitting field is ; the zero polynomial does not have a root-generated splitting field in this standard definition.
Given two splitting fields , enumerate the roots generating and extend a -embedding one root at a time. If an embedding is defined on , the minimal polynomial of the next root divides over that field. Its image under the embedding therefore divides over the corresponding subfield of , and has a root in . The quotient construction extends the embedding to that root. The polynomial need not be a separable polynomial.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 17I b i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The quartic is irreducible by Eisenstein criterion at two, so its Galois group is transitive on its four roots. Its discriminant is , so five and seven are unramified primes for the polynomial. The squarefree factorizations areThe cubic modulo five has no root in , hence is irreducible. The quadratic modulo seven has discriminant five, a nonsquare there. The Frobenius cycle type theorem therefore supplies a three-cycle and a transposition in the group.
Transitivity implies that its order is divisible by four, and the three-cycle implies divisibility by three. Its order divides , so it is or . The only subgroup of index two in is : an index-two subgroup is the kernel of a group homomorphism of a nontrivial homomorphism to , and all transpositions are conjugate and generate , forcing this homomorphism to be the sign. The exhibited transposition excludes . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 19H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Choose a nonzero . It is an algebraic integer, with monic minimal polynomialIts constant coefficient is nonzero, since otherwise the polynomial would have the root zero and be divisible by its variable, contradicting irreducibility and . Rearranging gives . The expression in parentheses lies in the ring of integers of a number field, so the ideal property gives . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 19H d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
We prove the conjugate product of a quadratic ideal identity , which applies to the given two-generator ideal without assuming its displayed generators form an integral basis.
The quadratic ring of integers of a number field has a basis over : the vector 1 is primitive, since a rational algebraic integer must be an integer, and extends to an integral basis. Write , with . Let be the least positive integer in and let generate the set of coefficients of in elements of . Its lattice basis can be chosen as , with . Since , comparison of coefficients shows and . Write , and . ThenThe scaled ideal remains an -ideal. From we get , so . The product is generated as an ideal by and is contained in .
Moreover . If a prime divided all three, then and , so would satisfy the monic integer polynomial . It would lie in , impossible because its coefficient in the integral basis is . Bezout identity now expresses one as an integer combination of . Multiplying by , the terms are , , and , all in the product. Hence belongs to it, proving .
The determinant of the lattice basis gives the ideal norm . ConsequentlyIn particular is principal. This does not require the original to be nonzero or the ideal itself to be principal.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 23F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Consider the singularity of the injective entire function at infinity. If removable, it is bounded outside a disk and therefore bounded globally; Liouville theorem makes it constant, a contradiction. If essential, the Casorati-Weierstrass theorem says its values outside every large disk are dense. Choose a small neighbourhood of a finite point; the open mapping theorem puts a nonempty open disk inside . A point outside a disk containing would map into that open disk, duplicating a value already attained in . This contradicts injectivity. Thus infinity is a pole, so is a polynomial. If its degree were greater than one, its derivative would have a root; the local power-series form at that point has local degree at least two and cannot be injective. HenceFor a nonconstant holomorphic map of connected compact Riemann surfaces of degree , the Riemann-Hurwitz formula iswhere are genera and is the local mapping degree, the multiplicity in the target fibre. There are finitely many points with .
For a degree-two sphere map, the formula gives total ramification two. Since , there are exactly two distinct ramification points, each of local degree two. Their images are distinct, since a fibre has total multiplicity two. Choose a Möbius transformation taking to these domain points and taking their images to . The resulting rational map has its only zero at zero of order two and its only pole at infinity of order two, hence is with . Replace by , obtaining
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 24I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
A morphism of algebraic varieties is a map regular in local affine coordinates: for each point of the source, choose affine charts containing it and its image, and require each target coordinate to pull back locally to a quotient of polynomials with a denominator nonzero at that point. The map is continuous in the Zariski topology and pulls back regular functions on every target open set to regular functions on its inverse image.
Equivalently, one can take Zariski continuity and this local regular-function pullback property as the definition. In particular, a morphism between affine varieties is specified by globally regular coordinate functions, with values satisfying the defining equations of the target. Being an arbitrary set-theoretic function, or being merely Zariski continuous, is not sufficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 24I b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Let . Polynomial restrictions are regular functions, and a restriction is zero precisely when its class in the coordinate ring is zero. We prove surjectivity.
Using the usual irreducible-variety convention, view a regular function as an element of the fraction field of . On a neighbourhood of every point it has the form , where and does not vanish at that point. Equality on a nonempty open subset of the irreducible variety is equality of rational functions. DefineThis is an ideal and contains a denominator nonzero at each point. Thus its zero locus is empty. The Hilbert Nullstellensatz implies , so and . ThereforeThe result also holds under a convention allowing reduced reducible affine varieties. One may cover by finitely many principal opens , represent in each localization, and increase powers until the local representatives glue after clearing denominators. Since these opens cover, the ideal generated by those powers is the unit ideal by the Nullstellensatz; a unit linear combination glues their numerators to one element of . Irreducibility is used only for the shorter fraction-field proof, not for the assertion itself.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 24I d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The semicubical parabola has coordinate ringunder , . The isomorphism is valid in every characteristic: after division by the monic polynomial in , a remainder maps to a sum of distinct even powers and odd powers at least three, and can vanish only when both polynomials are zero.
Its fraction field contains , which is an integral element over because it satisfies . However , since a polynomial in has no term of degree one. Thus is not an integrally closed domain. The ring of the affine line is a principal ideal domain and therefore an integrally closed domain. This property is preserved by ring isomorphism. By coordinate-ring functoriality,The parametrization is a bijection on points over an algebraically closed field, but that does not make its inverse a morphism at the cusp.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 25I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
An embedded smooth -dimensional manifold is locally carried by a smooth ambient coordinate change to . A map between such manifolds is a smooth map between manifolds if its coordinate representatives are smooth. Its differential sends the tangent vector represented by a curve to ; equivalently it is the derivative in charts.
A regular value is one for which is surjective at every , including vacuous regularity when the fibre is empty. For example zero is not a regular value of , , because .
For an invertible matrix , the derivative of the determinant isAt a determinant-one matrix it is nonzero, since taking gives value one. The regular level set theorem therefore makes an embedded manifold of dimension , also for when it is a single point. Matrix multiplication has polynomial ambient coordinates and restricts to the group, so it is smooth. At the identity,Finally suppose the singular-matrix set were an embedded smooth manifold near zero for . Every curve lies in it, since its rank is at most one. Thus every matrix unit belongs to its tangent space at zero. These span , forcing its local dimension to be . An embedded manifold of full ambient dimension is locally open, but arbitrarily small scalar multiples of the identity are invertible. This contradiction proves the singular-matrix set is not an embedded smooth manifold. The argument addresses the subset-manifold convention specified at the start.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 16I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
A finite field extension is a separable field extension if every element of has a minimal polynomial over with distinct roots in an algebraic closure. The primitive element theorem says that a finite separable field extension is for some .
If is finite, then so is . The multiplicative group of a finite field is cyclic, so a generator of generates as a field. To justify the group fact, a finite subgroup of a field's multiplicative group is cyclic: in a finite abelian group its exponent is attained as an element order, while the polynomial root bound forces its size to be at most that exponent.
If is infinite, first consider . The minimal polynomials of and have distinct roots in an algebraic closure. Choose , , avoiding the finitely many values for which for a pair other than . Set . Over , the polynomials and have precisely one common root, . Their monic greatest common divisor is therefore , so and . Thus . Induct over finitely many generators of the finite separable field extension. This proves every finite separable extension is simple.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 16I c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
In characteristic , let and , with having algebraic independence. The monomials , , form a -basis, so . Their independence follows by grouping polynomial monomials according to their exponents modulo , after clearing rational-function denominators.
Every has , so its minimal polynomial divides and . Thus this finite purely inseparable extension has no primitive element. It demonstrates why the separable field extension hypothesis cannot simply be removed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 18H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For a number field with real embeddings and conjugate pairs of complex embeddings , use the logarithmic embedding of number field unitsIt is a group homomorphism from multiplication to addition. A unit has field norm , so the coordinates sum to zero. Deleting one coordinate identifies this hyperplane with and gives the desired map.
If its image coordinates remain in a bounded set, the omitted coordinate is bounded too, and every conjugate of has bounded absolute value. The coefficients of its monic minimal polynomial are integers and elementary symmetric expressions in at most bounded conjugates. They are therefore bounded integers. Only finitely many such polynomials, and finitely many roots of them, exist. Thus the inverse image of every bounded set is finite. In particular the kernel is finite and the image is discrete. This argument includes the zero-dimensional target case; it does not yet assert the full-rank part of Dirichlet unit theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 2F iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
True. Define for and . The hypothesis at infinity makes continuous on . The Weierstrass approximation theorem gives polynomials with . Since maps onto ,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 2F ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
True. By the Weierstrass approximation theorem, choose a polynomial with . For each fixed , this bound applies once , so . This proves pointwise convergence; the same construction even gives uniform convergence on every closed interval.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 2 2F i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
False. If uniform convergence held, some polynomial would satisfy . Such a polynomial would be bounded on , hence constant: a nonconstant polynomial grows without bound in absolute value along a real half-line. For any constant , however,a contradiction.