Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 30 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Full column matrix rank makes a positive-definite matrix, and its matrix inverse is symmetric. Thus the hat matrix satisfiesAlso and the image of is contained in the column space of . These identities show that is the orthogonal projection matrix onto the column space of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 36 3 d Solution 2026-10-07
Write and . The injectivity of makes this Gram matrix a positive-definite matrix, since for . Thus its matrix inverse exists. Construct the least-norm dual certificateOn the active coordinates, . For , symmetry of the real Gram matrix and its matrix inverse givesCondition (iii) makes the absolute value of this coordinate strictly less than one. Consequently is a strict dual certificate for basis pursuit, and part (c) applies. If is empty, take ; the zero vector uniquely minimizes the L1 norm on its feasible set. Condition (iii) supplies an explicit certificate and therefore unique recovery. There is no claim that this particular least-norm dual certificate is necessary: other valid certificates may exist when this one fails.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 68 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For two Stokes flows and of the same dynamic viscosity in the same region, with no volume force, the Lorentz reciprocal theorem statesIndeed, the divergence of their cross-work difference isThe pressure terms vanish by incompressible flow, and the derivatives of the Cauchy stress tensors vanish by the Stokes equation. The divergence theorem proves the result.
Use the convention that are the force and torque exerted by the body on the fluid. By Linearity of Stokes flow, . Applying the Lorentz reciprocal theorem to two independent rigid motions gives , so the hydrodynamic resistance matrix is a symmetric matrix. The boundary-power identity givesThis is strictly positive for nonzero rigid motion: equality would imply , hence a rigid motion throughout the connected fluid, which must vanish since the fluid is at rest at infinity. The no-slip boundary condition would then force . Therefore is a positive-definite matrix. Reversing to the fluid-on-body force changes the sign of the force law, not the positive resistance coefficients.
For the two rods, take the torque about and use body axes. On the -rod, , , and its slender-body force density isOn the -rod it isIntegrate and along both rods, using , and . A convenient dimensionally uniform statement of the complete right-angle two-rod resistance matrix isIn physical coordinates this means translation–translation entries scale as , the two translation–rotation blocks as , and rotation–rotation entries as . The planar block has inverseThis verifies the printed hydrodynamic mobility matrix with its third velocity component ; the TeX aid's is an OCR error.
Take laboratory vertical velocity positive upwards. The body axes are and . In quasistatic sedimentation the force and torque exerted on the fluid equal the gravitational resultants on the body:The out-of-plane block is unforced, so its positive hydrodynamic resistance matrix gives . Substitution in the planar hydrodynamic mobility matrix givesandFor , this ordinary differential equation has positive right side on , with a stable zero at . Uniqueness prevents crossing that equilibrium in finite time. For the initial angular velocity is negative, and the stable equilibrium reached from zero is . The heavier-end body turns clockwise through ; it does not settle at . More explicitly, with ,where the continuous branch has . At , remains zero.
Transforming the translational velocity back to laboratory axes givesFor , eliminate time between and the angular velocity:At either limiting orientation . Thus both cases have the same net horizontal displacement,For the drift is monotonically rightwards. For it first moves left, reaching at , then reverses. The total horizontal path length in this second case is , whereas its net displacement is rightwards. At it falls vertically without rotation or drift; taking the infinite-time limit before is consequently singular.
For the requested sedimentation drift of a weighted two-rod body sketch, a full parametric trajectory follows by also integrating . Put and set the initial height to zero:It tends to in either case while tends to . At both rods end pointing upwards from symmetrically; at they end pointing downwards symmetrically. The asymptotic downward speed is .
Falling two-rod bodies: trajectory of O and successive orientations for lighter and heavier end masses
. Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 30 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For independent identically distributed observations , the likelihood function and log-likelihood areA maximum-likelihood estimator is a measurable choice , when a maximizer exists. It need not be unique. The one-observation score function is , and the Fisher information matrix isUnder the regularity assumptions, differentiation beneath the integral gives . Differentiating again gives the second information identity. Independent observations have total Fisher information .
Assume fixed parameter dimension, an interior true parameter , a positive-definite matrix , the standard differentiability and integrability conditions, and statistical consistency of . Then the asymptotic normality of a maximum likelihood estimator isHere is the information per observation. Thus the leading covariance matrix of the estimator itself is .
To prove this, statistical consistency places the estimator in an interior ball about with probability tending to one, where its score function vanishes. Write and use the integral first-order Taylor formula for a vector map:This integral matrix is needed in a vector problem; one does not have to assert a common scalar mean-value point for every score component. PutThe regular local uniform law of large numbers, continuity of the expected Hessian matrix, and statistical consistency give . The multivariate central limit theorem givesThe limiting information matrix is nonsingular, so . Solving the Taylor identity and applying the Slutsky theorem proves the displayed normal limit, since . Boundary parameters or singular information are outside this regular theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 28 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A normalization is important here. I use the covolume-one theta function of a fractional ideal, for which the requested limit is , and also give the formula for the unnormalized Gaussian theta sum.
Let , let , and choose one field embedding for each Archimedean place. The Minkowski embedding of a number field identifieswith a real inner-product space havingIts Euclidean Lebesgue measure is . With this convention, the covolume of a fractional ideal lattice iswhere is the field discriminant and is the positive absolute norm of a fractional ideal. Thus the Euclidean lattice has covolume . DefineThis Gaussian theta sum converges absolutely whenever every .
The trace dual of a fractional ideal isHere is the inverse different. Since , we have . There is a subtle distinction between the trace pairing and the positive inner product: the dual lattice of is , where the bar conjugates the complex coordinates and fixes the real ones. Indeed,Consequently . Coordinatewise complex conjugation preserves the weighted squared lengths in the Gaussian theta sum.
Here are the precise analytic formulas used in the proof. For a Schwartz function on , take the Fourier transform to beFor a full Euclidean lattice of covolume , the Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean lattice isFor , the Gaussian Fourier transform, applied in orthonormal real coordinates, givesMore generally, for a real positive-definite matrix that is symmetric. Each complex coordinate contributes two real coordinates, which explains its exponent .
Apply the Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean lattice to , whose covolume is , and use the preceding description of its dual lattice. The anisotropic theta functional equation isFor comparison, the unnormalized Gaussian theta sumhas the functional equationand its corresponding limit is rather than . Explicitly, our normalization is .
For the small-parameter asymptotic of a lattice theta sum, means that every coordinate tends to zero. In , the zero lattice vector contributes . Every nonzero vector contributes a term tending to zero. Once every , all these terms are bounded by the summable Gaussian theta sum . The dominated convergence theorem therefore gives . Using the anisotropic theta functional equation,The condition that every coordinate tends to zero matters; alone would not justify this argument.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 32 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put , which is a positive-definite matrix by the full column-rank assumption. The ordinary least squares estimator isFor ridge regression use the criterion . Differentiating givesIf instead the squared-error term is normalized by , replace in this formula and the calculations below by . Only the scale of the tuning parameter changes.
As usual for this linear regression model, use zero-mean errors; more generally suffices. Since the columns are centred, , so the random centring term disappears from both estimators. ThusLet . The bias and covariance matrix of the ridge regression estimator areThe bias-variance decomposition of mean squared error therefore represents directional risk by the quadratic formsTheir difference has the useful factorizationTo check it, multiply on both sides by : the resulting matrix is .
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives in the Loewner order. Therefore the middle matrix is positive-definite whenever . For example,works, independently of the eigenvalues of . Since is invertible, the risk difference is strictly positive for every nonzero , in particular simultaneously for every unit . This proves uniform directional risk improvement by ridge regression. For the normalized-loss convention, take the displayed choice divided by .
For the final assertion, fix any and choose a unit eigenvector of with eigenvalue . Put and . Directly,Choosingmakes the squared bias alone greater than , proving the required strict inequality. Thus unbounded directional risk of fixed ridge shrinkage is compatible with the existence of a beneficial signal-dependent small penalty: no fixed positive penalty uniformly improves risk over all possible signals.
The mean assumption matters if the printed covariance condition is read in isolation. With , , , and , the columns and response are still centred and , but the ordinary least squares risk is . Writing , the ridge regression risk is for every . Hence the standard zero-mean regression-error convention, or its stated orthogonality version, is necessary for the first risk comparison; covariance alone is insufficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 33 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The ordinary least squares objective has gradient . The normal equation therefore givesThe Gram matrix is a positive-definite matrix because has full column rank. More explicitly, for any ,since . This proves that the displayed solution is the unique global minimum.
The fitted values are , where the hat matrix isThe inverse of the symmetric matrix is symmetric, so . Multiplication gives . Thus is the orthogonal projection onto the column space of the design matrix.
The regression residual vector is with . Consequently , , and the residual sum of squares isBy fitted-residual orthogonality, . Using , the cross-covariance matrix isBoth vectors are jointly normal, so they are also independent by independence of uncorrelated jointly normal variables. The zero covariance calculation itself only needs the common error variance and lack of error correlations.
For the first wind fit, let be wind velocity and electrical output. The simple linear regression is , with independent . It has two fitted mean parameters and residual degrees of freedom. The missing analysis of variance entries are therefore velocity degrees of freedom , velocity mean square , and residual degrees of freedom . The residual mean square is , and , consistent with the printed value after rounding.
Because the model includes a regression intercept, the coefficient of determination is the explained sum of squares divided by the total centered sum of squares:A large coefficient of determination does not rule out a wrong mean function. In the PDF's first residual-versus-fitted plot, residuals are negative at both ends and positive in the middle. This curved pattern agrees with the visibly flattening output-versus-velocity relationship and motivates a polynomial regression with a quadratic term.
The second wind model is , again with independent common-variance normal errors. Its fitted mean is . The line marked (A) is a two-sided Student t-test of against , conditional on retaining the intercept and linear term. Under the null hypothesis,Its two-sided p-value is . This is far below , so reject a purely linear mean in favour of the quadratic fit. Equivalently, the extra-term nested-model F-test has and null law .
The third fit is a reciprocal-predictor regression, , with estimated mean . It has two mean parameters rather than the quadratic model's three. Its residual standard error is smaller, versus , and its coefficient of determination is larger, versus . The corresponding residual sums of squares are approximately and . The reciprocal fit is preferable on both these fit measures and parsimony. The two models are not nested, so an ordinary extra-term F-test between them is inappropriate. On the common normal-error likelihood, the difference also favours the third model.
Neither lower residual sum of squares nor a higher coefficient of determination establishes adequate assumptions. The quadratic residual-versus-fitted plot removes the original pronounced curvature; the reciprocal plot also has no comparably obvious mean trend. The low-output residuals appear somewhat more spread out, so check scale-location plots and residuals against velocity for heteroscedasticity. Q-Q plots assess normality; residuals against observation order assess serial dependence; regression leverage and Cook's distance identify influential observations. Further cross-validation, replicate observations at comparable velocities, and prediction errors would help choose between their extrapolation behaviours. Both fitted shapes should be judged principally over the observed positive-velocity range.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 205 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the normalizationThis is ridge regression; the penalty is the squared Euclidean norm. The centering removes the need for an intercept. Differentiating gives the normal equationFor every nonzero , . The coefficient matrix is therefore a positive-definite matrix, even if the design matrix has deficient matrix rank. The objective is a strictly convex function, so the unique minimizer is the closed-form ridge regression estimator, with fitted values
For the primal-dual identity for ridge regression, put and observeBoth parenthesized matrices are positive-definite matrices. Multiplying by their inverses givesThus the same fitted vector has the dual expressionNo inverse of or alone was needed. This is also the kernel-ridge hat matrix for the linear kernel.
Here a positive-definite kernel means a symmetric real-valued function whose every finite kernel matrix is positive semidefinite: for all , and ,This is the usual positive-semidefinite kernel convention; strict positivity for distinct points is not required. In particular . Write , and . Positivity of the two-point kernel matrix impliesIf , substitute to obtain . If , the affine expression can be nonnegative for every only if . Both cases give the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for positive-semidefinite kernels:The zero-diagonal case is essential when the positive-definite kernel is not strictly positive.
To construct a feature map, let be the real vector space of finite formal linear combinations of symbols , one for each . Define a symmetric bilinear form byThe positive-definite kernel property makes this a positive semidefinite bilinear form. It need not yet be an inner product: distinct formal vectors can have zero squared length. The same quadratic-polynomial argument, now applied to , provesTherefore implies for every . The setis the radical of a bilinear form, hence a linear subspace. SetThe quotient vector space has a well-defined inner product: changing representatives by elements of changes no pairing, and a zero-length class is exactly the zero class. It is therefore an inner-product space.
Define . By construction,Every positive-definite kernel thus has a feature representation, including degenerate kernels and the zero kernel. This is its canonical feature space of a positive-semidefinite kernel. The construction already gives the requested inner-product space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 205 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write for a positive-definite matrix. Up to a constant independent of the parameters, the log-likelihood of the multivariate normal distribution isThe identityshows that, for each , the unique optimizing mean is . Using the matrix trace to rewrite the first quadratic sum, the profile likelihood isTherefore maximum likelihood estimation of the precision matrix, whenever the maximum exists, is exactlyThis is the profile likelihood for a Gaussian precision matrix. The sample covariance matrix here uses divisor , as appropriate for maximum likelihood estimation.
There is an important rank qualification in the printed assumptions. If , differentiation gives , so the unique minimizer is . Uniqueness follows because the negative log-determinant is a strictly convex function on the positive-definite matrices. But full column rank of the uncentered alone does not imply : the rank of a centered sample covariance matrix depends on the centered design. For example, with and raw data matrix ,Although has full column rank, setting gives objective . Thus an unpenalized maximizer need not exist under the literal raw-rank assumption. The likelihood reduction remains valid; existence requires full column rank of the centered data, equivalently . For the nonsingular Gaussian model this holds almost surely when .
Use the entrywise-penalty convention for the Graphical Lasso:The sum is the entrywise matrix L1 norm. Its Graphical-Lasso Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions areHere is symmetric; its nonzero-entry values are , and its zero-entry values are any numbers in . These are the subgradient optimality condition for this convex optimization problem. Since a positive-definite matrix has positive diagonal, and . Counting both off-diagonal entries in the penalty and in the trace makes the same appear in their stationarity equations. The common variant penalizing only off-diagonal entries instead sets ; the off-diagonal equations and the column argument below are unchanged.
For the given column problem, abbreviateIts smooth part expands to plus a constant, because is symmetric and . The matrix is a positive-definite matrix, so this quadratic is a strictly convex function. Adding the convex L1 norm penalty preserves strict convexity, and the objective tends to infinity as . The minimizer exists and is unique. Its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions are
We identify that minimizer directly from the precision matrix. Write and defineThe denominator is positive. The off-diagonal part of column of givesOn the other hand, the off-diagonal Graphical-Lasso Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions readBecause , the coordinates of have the opposite signs from those of and vanish at exactly the same positions. The subgradient of the absolute value therefore satisfiesIt follows thatThese are exactly the Lasso column problem's Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Its unique minimizer must be , yieldingThis is the Graphical Lasso column regression identity. The minus sign is essential: it converts the precision-entry subgradient into the regression-coefficient subgradient. The argument uses the inverse identity directly, so it does not require proving the supplied block inverse formula.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 206 2 f Solution 2026-10-06
Assume the known covariance matrix is positive definite. The Gaussian likelihood, up to constants, isIts gradient is . The negative Hessian matrix is positive definite because has full column rank. Thus the unique maximum-likelihood estimator is the generalized least squares estimatorIt is unbiased, and multiplication of its linear coefficient matrix by givesIn fact . Equivalently, a whitening transformation premultiplies and by , after which ordinary least squares applies. There is no extra factor when is the complete known covariance; such a factor appears if only a shape matrix is known and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 206 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Assume initially that the design points are distinct and ordered on . The cubic smoothing spline minimizesover functions with an absolutely continuous first derivative and square-integrable second derivative. Dividing the residual term by simply changes the scaling assigned to . The minimum roughness property of the natural cubic spline interpolant reduces the problem to natural cubic splines with knots at the design points: among functions with any prescribed fitted values, that interpolant has the smallest integrated squared curvature. The minimizer is therefore a natural cubic smoothing spline, with natural second-derivative boundary conditions and linear tails when extended.
Choose a full basis for this natural-spline space. Put and . Writing changes the objective toDifferentiation gives . Although the curvature penalty has an affine nullspace, the full basis at distinct design points makes the combined matrix positive definite. HenceEquivalently, use the cardinal basis that interpolates the observations, making and . These are smoothing matrices, symmetric but generally not idempotent. Their effective degrees of freedom are . As the fit interpolates; as it approaches ordinary least squares on the affine functions. With replicated predictors, use a design matrix for distinct knots and observation weights; the basis form remains valid when identifiable.
Useful choices include Leave-one-out cross-validation, generalized cross-validation, and estimation of smoothness by restricted maximum likelihood through a mixed-model representation. For fixed , the leave-one-out residual identity for a linear smoother givesMinimize these over a suitable range. Choose smoothing by predictive performance or a variance-component likelihood, not by arbitrarily forcing a visually appealing curve.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 208 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices to write , with orthogonal and , . Set and generateThen . The characteristic function iswhich identifies the multivariate normal distribution . Equivalently, every linear combination is normal, with the required mean and variance. A Cholesky decomposition can be used for a positive-definite matrix. The spectral construction also works for singular , producing a degenerate Gaussian distribution on an affine subspace; in that case there need not be a density on all of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 213 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use an ideal carrier-sense multiple access scheme on the interference graph. An active station finishes its transmission after an independent unit-rate exponential distribution waiting time. An inactive station has an independent attempt clock with an exponential distribution of rate ; an attempt succeeds only when all its neighbors are inactive. Attempts that are blocked do not change the state. Thus, on the independent sets represented by , the continuous-time Markov chain has transition ratesThe empty independent set can be reached by successive deactivations, and any other independent set can be reached from it by successive activations. Hence this finite chain is an irreducible Markov chain. The weight satisfiesBy detailed balance for a continuous-time Markov chain, its unique stationary law isThis is a finite exponential family. Its natural parameter of an exponential family is and its mean parameter of an exponential family is the vector of active fractions.
The throughput region of an interference graph is exactly . To see the possibly less immediate inclusion, suppose a random feasible schedule has mean . Retain each of its active vertices independently with probability , interpreting zero coordinates as always deleted. A subset of an independent set remains an independent set; the thinned schedule has mean exactly . Thus lies in the convex hull of . The opposite inclusion follows from the definition using equality. Moreover , so this convex hull has full dimension.
Now choose such that remains in the interior of . Use interior moment matching in a finite exponential family. Consider the convex functionThere is a ball of radius around contained in . Maximizing a linear functional over the convex hull is the same as maximizing over its generating set, so, for every ,The last inequality uses the point when . Hence is a coercive function and has a finite minimizer . Differentiating the finite normalizing sum givesThis covariance matrix is a positive-definite matrix: a linear functional constant on all states of positive weight must be constant on , so its coefficients vanish. Thus is a strictly convex function; its minimizer is unique. At that minimizer the desired strict service margins areFor a backlogged station that transmits at unit speed whenever active, the long-run throughput is , by the ergodic theorem for a finite continuous-time Markov chain. Therefore the ideal carrier-sense multiple access scheme can supply a strict service margin for every arrival vector in the interior of the throughput region of an interference graph. The local attempt rates can realize the whole interior capacity region in this sense. Boundary points may require parameters tending to infinity, and the argument gives no uniform delay or mixing-time bound near the boundary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 328 3 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A particularly simple constructive choice uses paired collocation points for a global relation. For , putFour suitable sets, one for each side, areThe braces in each set range over all . For large , compute to avoid cancellation. The corresponding pairs are, respectively,Each pair has the same exponentially growing normal direction and opposite tangential frequencies. Take the phase-weighted difference of the two collocated global relations for a linear boundary value problem. For example, the bottom pair gives the adjoint testThe other three phase-weighted differences giveThus the four spectral sets supply four real sine-tested equations per mode. We retain these equations; requiring every uncombined complex equation as well would instead form an overdetermined finite approximation. For real traces each retained equation is the appropriate real combination of its conjugate pair.
The key advantage is that vanish on the vertical sides, while vanish on the horizontal sides. Orthogonality then eliminates all off-mode unknowns. Define the known right-hand sidesThe retained global relations for a linear boundary value problem areFor example, with , the bottom and top right-hand sides are explicitlyFor completeness the left and right right-hand sides areAll these integrals use known polynomial approximations or the exact Dirichlet boundary condition.
Scale each row by . Every block becomesThere is just one off-diagonal entry in each row. This proves diagonal dominance of paired square global-relation collocation. Therefore the assembled system is strictly diagonally dominant, with row margin . This proof applies to the explicitly paired and scaled collocation system, rather than assuming arbitrary raw spectral rows are diagonally dominant. Each block is a positive-definite matrix and have spectral condition number of a positive-definite matrixFor instance, setting gives the concise answerwith the identical formula for the opposite vertical sides. If the known-data integrals use exact , these are exactly the first sine coefficients of the true normal traces: no discarded unknown mode contributes to a retained row. With a finite Legendre polynomial approximation, the error is solely that of the known-data approximation and the final normal-trace truncation. These square modified Helmholtz Dirichlet-to-Neumann coefficients determine the unknown boundary normal derivative; Green's third identity or the separated-variable construction can then recover the interior solution.
