Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 1 4G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A uniquely decodable code is a map whose extension by concatenation to finite strings is injective. Write for its codeword lengths and assume the target alphabet has size . The Kraft–McMillan inequality gives . The Gibbs inequality says for probability distributions , with the usual convention for zero probabilities.
Set . For Shannon entropy , the Gibbs inequality becomesSince , the entropy lower bound for prefix codes also applies to this uniquely decodable code:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A sigma-algebra on is a collection containing , closed under complements relative to , and closed under countable unions. These properties also give closure under countable intersections by De Morgan laws.
Let . Every constituent sigma-algebra contains , so . If , its complement belongs to every , hence to . Likewise, if for all , then belongs to every . Thus is a sigma-algebra. For an empty indexing set, the usual intersection convention gives , which is also a sigma-algebra.
A union need not work. On takeTheir union contains and but not , so it is not a sigma-algebra. Put and let be the collection of all sigma-algebras on containing . This collection is nonempty because it contains the power set . By the preceding intersection argument,is a sigma-algebra containing every , and it is contained in every other such sigma-algebra. This proves existence and minimality.
For the independent random variables, define the tail sigma-algebra byFix a tail event . For each , it belongs to , which is independent of . To justify independence of the generated sigma-algebras, first use independence of finite collections on cylinder events, then extend twice by the pi-lambda theorem. In particular, for every and every .
The increasing union is an algebra of sets generating . The collection of satisfying this factorization is a Dynkin system: it contains , is closed under complements, and under countable disjoint unions. The pi-lambda theorem therefore extends the factorization to all . Since , taking gives . Consequently,This is the Kolmogorov zero-one law, proved here directly.
For each fixed , write for , with . The random variable is finite, so . Adding a real sequence tending to zero changes neither the extended-real limit inferior nor the extended-real limit superior. HenceThe quantities on the right are measurable with respect to : write the limit inferior as and the limit superior as , using countable operations on measurable functions. Therefore both threshold events belong to every such sigma-algebra, and hence are tail events, for every real threshold, including when either limit is infinite.
The final recurrence claim is false under the printed hypotheses. For , let be independent signs with equal probabilities for and , and set . These random variables are independent, have symmetric distributions, and obey . Nevertheless, the geometric series gives, on every sample path,Thus the proposed repeated-return event has probability zero, even though none of the increments is degenerate. The Kolmogorov zero-one law does not determine which of zero and one occurs.
An additional identical-distribution hypothesis makes the intended conclusion true. Here is a full proof of that qualified version, using the oscillation of a bounded centered iid random walk. Symmetry and integrability give , so is a martingale for its natural filtration. If the common probability distribution is concentrated at zero, every is zero and the conclusion is immediate. Otherwise choose with . The Borel-Cantelli lemmas then give infinitely often almost surely; thus cannot converge to a finite limit.
For , let . Before the sum is below , and at it is at most . The stopped martingale is therefore nonnegative. A stopped integrable martingale remains a martingale at these bounded times, and a nonnegative martingale converges finitely almost surely by the martingale convergence theorem. On this would force to converge finitely, which has just been ruled out. Hence almost surely. Apply the same argument to and take a countable intersection over positive integer . It follows thatThere are therefore arbitrarily late passages from above to below . A path with bounded increments of magnitude at most cannot make such a passage without visiting : jumping directly between its two open complementary half-lines would require an increment larger than . There are infinitely many such visits. Thus with the added identical-distribution hypothesis, the intended answer is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 34 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A standard Brownian motion is a real stochastic process with almost surely, continuous sample paths almost surely, and independent increments such that has normal distribution whenever . With its completed, right-continuous natural filtration , its Strong Markov property is the following: for every almost-surely finite stopping time , the processis a standard Brownian motion independent of . Here the stopping-time sigma-algebra isIn particular, for every bounded -measurable random variable and bounded Borel functional on the continuous path space,Thus the independence is from the entire stopped past, not only from , and is a statement about the whole future path, not just a single increment.
To prove the Brownian reflection principle without assuming that a level is hit in finite time, fix , , and set and . Continuity of the sample paths makes a stopping time and gives whenever . The stopping time is bounded. Reflect the path after :By the Strong Markov property, the future increments after are an independent Brownian motion. Negating them preserves their probability distribution, by symmetry of their joint normal distributions. Hence the reflected process has the same path law as .
If , reflection changes nothing on and . If , both paths first hit at the same time and . Therefore, for , the following events agree path by path:Indeed, the right-hand endpoint is at least , so the reflected path must have hit before or at ; this also forces the original path to have done so. The reflection relation then makes the endpoint inequality equivalent to . Equality cases at satisfy the same relation. Since and have the same probability distribution,For , both sides are zero, because and .
For , set in this identity. Continuity implies , and the normal distribution of has no atom at . Splitting according to whether givesBoth random variables are nonnegative. Their tails agree for all , which determines their probability distributions, including the mass at zero. Thus the Brownian running maximum satisfies
For and , continuity again gives . Since is a standard normal random variable, the distribution function of the Brownian first-passage time isIt tends to one as and to zero as , proving almost-sure finiteness and absence of an atom at zero. For the standard normal random variable ,The value of this ratio on the zero-probability event may be defined arbitrarily. Matching the distribution functions provesFinally, differentiate the distribution function on , using and . The first-passage-time density isand is zero for . Its integral is one by the endpoint limits of , so no missing mass at an infinite hitting time is present.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 59 5 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Primitive causality is an initial-region completeness requirement. A state's full restriction to a suitable region determines expectations of observables in its future domain of dependence. The domain of dependence is not the whole causal future: it contains points whose past-inextendible causal curves all meet the specified initial data region. Merely being reachable by one causal curve from is not enough.
A standard local time-slice axiom makes this precise when contains a neighbourhood of a Cauchy slice of its causal development:with the regions and algebra identifications understood in the specified local net. Definitions applying primitive causality to all bounded open regions can be stronger than a time-slice property stated only for suitable causally convex Cauchy neighbourhoods; these formulations should not be conflated without extra hypotheses.
For a local hyperbolic Klein–Gordon equation, a later field is determined by the field and its normal derivative, or canonical momentum, on a Cauchy slice. Its value can be written using the causal fundamental solution, with integration supported where the past light cone meets the initial slice. If that support lies in the initial patch, the later smeared field is generated by the patch's initial field and momentum operators. Their algebra therefore generates the observables of the patch's domain of dependence. This is the local differential-equation mechanism behind the time-slice property.
The required information is the entire restricted quantum state: it assigns expectations to every observable and product in the initial algebra. Mean values of the initial field and momentum alone do not determine their fluctuations or higher correlations and thus are insufficient. Knowledge of the restricted state fixes later probability distributions and correlations; it does not fix which individual outcome a future measurement will produce.
Finally, primitive causality concerns propagation of information already encoded in initial data, while microcausality controls compatibility of spacelike measurements and quantum no-signalling controls possible interventions. The spectrum condition adds a separate positivity restriction. A causal initial-value evolution, positive energy and no-signalling are complementary requirements, not equivalent definitions of quantum locality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 60 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For probability distributions and on a finite alphabet, their classical relative entropy in bits isA zero- term contributes zero, including when ; a term with and makes the result . In that infinite case nonnegativity is immediate. Otherwise on the support of . For every , : the function has derivative and its minimum zero at . Apply this with to obtainThe last inequality uses normalization of . Thus . Equality requires wherever and no -mass outside that support, hence occurs precisely when .
For density matrices, usewhen the support of a positive operator is contained in that of , and set it to otherwise. The data-processing inequality for quantum relative entropy states that for any quantum channel ,Thus the relative entropy of the two output states cannot exceed that of the inputs.
For the states with a classical flag, omit indices of weight zero. On a positive-weight block, the matrix logarithms obeyon the relevant supports. The logarithms of cancel. Taking the trace block by block therefore gives the relative entropy of classically flagged states:If support inclusion fails in a positive-weight block, both sides are infinite. A zero-weight block makes no contribution, even if its unweighted relative entropy is infinite.
Tracing out the flag is a quantum channel with operators , since . It sends the two flagged states to and . Applying the data-processing inequality for quantum relative entropy to this partial trace proves joint convexity of quantum relative entropy:
For a bipartite state, set and . Its quantum mutual information iswhere is the Von Neumann entropy. The support of lies in . To justify this when marginals are singular, let project onto . Then ; positivity implies . Applying the same argument on proves the claimed support inclusion.
On that support, product eigenvectors showThe definition of the partial trace therefore givesConsequently .
For completeness, nonnegativity of quantum relative entropy also follows from the classical proof above. Diagonalize in a basis , with eigenvalues , and put . These are two classical probability distributions. Scalar concavity of the logarithm applied to the spectral weights of gives whenever and support inclusion holds. HenceThe support-failure case is again infinite. Applying this to the product of the marginals proves without requiring an additional entropy inequality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 101 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The exponential distribution has no atoms, so all sample values are distinct almost surely, and is the th order statistic. Set and . Part (b) gives .
To justify induction and the required independence, let be the label attaining the minimum. Conditional on its time and label, the remaining clocks are fresh independent rate- exponential random variables, by the memoryless property. This conditional claim can be checked directly: for a specified label , first ringing time , and residual lifetimes for , the joint probability density isThus the first minimum, its uniform winning label and the surviving residual clocks are independent. Repeat this argument after each minimum. At the th step there are clocks, so the independent exponential order-statistic spacings satisfySince has rate whenever , summing the gaps provesIn particular the maximum is . By variance additivity for independent random variables and the Laplace transform of an exponential distribution, its requested quantities areThe product follows from independence of the gaps, not merely from their marginal probability distributions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 101 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
This is the simple symmetric random walk on the integers, starting at zero. It is recurrent: it returns to zero infinitely often almost surely, and in fact visits every integer infinitely often. To see the two-sided unboundedness explicitly, gambler's ruin gives, for positive integers ,Letting shows that is hit with probability one; the analogous argument hits every negative integer. From any state the same argument gives return to zero with probability one. Repeated use of the Strong Markov property then gives infinitely many returns and visits. ThereforeIn particular has no limit almost surely, and does not tend to infinity because of the returns to zero. In contrast, the strong law of large numbers gives almost surely, while the central limit theorem gives . These distinguish oscillation of the path from scaling limits of its probability distribution.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 35 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Nash equilibrium is a profile in which each player's strategy is a best response to all the others: no unilateral change increases that player's payoff. In this routing game the payoff can be taken as minus delay. A pure strategy is a single route; a mixed strategy is a probability distribution over routes, with different players randomizing independently. A non-zero-sum game does not require the players' payoffs to add to a fixed total. Nash's theorem guarantees a mixed Nash equilibrium for every finite game with finitely many pure strategies. Pure equilibria need not exist in general; the congestion game here does have them, since a unilateral delay change equals the change in its finite congestion potential.
Put and . The three current delays, in the order , areFor a player using the first route, switching to the second makes the new second-route load , while switching to the third retains that player's use of and adds one user to . The two comparisons are thereforeThey reduce to and . Reversing the two outer routes gives and for each second-route user. A third-route user who switches to the first retains their own use of , and one who switches to the second retains their own use of . The corresponding comparisons give and . Thus the necessary and sufficient conditions, together with nonnegative integer counts summing to , areThey are sufficient because each used route has been compared with both alternatives, and necessary because each comparison is an available unilateral deviation. The unit changes in loads matter in a finite-player congestion game.
For , the counts give and every player's delay is . They satisfy all the conditions. To find every pure Nash equilibrium, first note that is impossible: if either outer route is empty, its other route users fail the lower-load condition; if both are used, contradict . Thus , so . Since and , this forces . Both are positive, so the remaining conditions force and hence . Their differences are at most one, so every such pair works. The complete equilibrium count vectors areEach vector also represents many pure profiles obtained by choosing which labeled players use each route. Therefore the displayed equilibrium is not unique, even as an aggregate count vector.
A coordinated allocation with fifty players on each outer route and nobody on gives every player delay , strictly better than . It is not a Nash equilibrium: a first-route user can switch to and obtain delayThis exhibits the conflict between coordinated welfare and unilateral incentives. In fact is below every user's delay in all four pure equilibrium count vectors above.
For a symmetric Nash equilibrium when , let each player independently choose the two outer routes with probability each and the middle route with probability . Conditional on choosing the first route, that player certainly uses , while each of the other players uses it with probability . The expected delays of the first and third routes are consequentlyThe second has the same expected delay as the first by symmetry. Equalizing these givesAll three probabilities are positive and all three pure routes have expected delay , so every route is a best response to the other players' common mixture. This proves a symmetric mixed Nash equilibrium. Using probabilities would omit the player's own-load correction and would not make all three expected delays equal.
For completeness, the same calculation works for every positive number of players. If , every player choosing is a symmetric pure Nash equilibrium. For , a symmetric mixed equilibrium hasFor , each player choosing either outer route with probability one half is a symmetric mixed equilibrium. In that last regime the unused middle route has expected cost at least that of the outer routes, since their difference is . These formulas agree at the regime boundaries.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 35 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The characteristic function of a coalitional game assigns each coalition its total attainable transferable payoff , with . In a transferable utility game the members may divide that total among themselves. This game-theoretic characteristic function is not the characteristic function of a probability distribution.
The Shapley value assigns to player the average marginal contribution that player makes over all uniformly random orderings of the players. If is the predecessor set in ordering , thenFor any ordering, summing all contributions telescopes to , so the Shapley value is efficient. It treats interchangeable players equally, pays a null player zero, and is additive in the characteristic function. These properties give its standard fairness axioms and uniquely characterize the Shapley value. The random-order interpretation explains why every position and predecessor coalition receives a principled weight rather than privileging a particular bargaining order.
For a convex cooperative game, couple a uniform ordering of with its restriction to . The restricted ordering is uniform on . For , the restricted predecessor set is , so increasing marginal contributions giveAveraging proves Shapley population monotonicity in a convex game:The comparison is meaningful for players who participate in the restricted game; no restricted value is defined for a player outside . Summing over and applying efficiency in that restricted game givesTogether with efficiency for , these are exactly the core of a cooperative game inequalities. Hence the Shapley value belongs to the core of a convex game. This proves the requested stability, not just individual rationality.
Now label the entrepreneur by and the workers by . A coalition without the entrepreneur has value zero; one containing the entrepreneur and workers has value . Workers are interchangeable, so their Shapley values agree. Fix one worker. Their contribution is zero if the entrepreneur appears after them. If the entrepreneur and exactly of the other workers appear before them, it is . For a fixed choice of those workers, the predecessors can be ordered in ways and the remaining successors in ways. Therefore the probability of this event, summing over the predecessor choices, isThe fair wage is thusThis is Shapley wages in an entrepreneur-worker game. The entrepreneur's payoff, by efficiency, isIt also follows directly because the entrepreneur has each possible number of predecessors with probability , and their contribution is then . When , the differences are all and , so
Finally suppose is convex and nondecreasing on nonnegative integers, so is nonnegative and nondecreasing. We verify that the entire coalitional game is convex. The entrepreneur's contribution to a set of workers is , which increases with that set. A worker's contribution is zero when the entrepreneur is absent and is when the entrepreneur and other workers are present. Enlarging a predecessor set either leaves both contributions zero, introduces the entrepreneur and a nonnegative contribution, or increases and hence . Every player's marginal contributions therefore increase, giving a convex cooperative game. The result already proved yields the complete Shapley allocation lies in the core, including the entrepreneur's payoff.
One can also verify the core inequalities directly. Nonentrepreneur coalitions receive , their value. For a coalition containing the entrepreneur and workers, it suffices thatSince in the wage sum, . Nondecreasing makes this full average no greater than the average of the final differences, which is the displayed right side. Thus ; the grand coalition has equality by efficiency. This confirms the core conclusion without assuming .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 51 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Label the chain cluster state from top to bottom by , and let be the phase-measurement outcomes on the first three vertices, with raw computational basis outcome on vertex four. Repeated one-bit teleportation leaves the last qubit, up to global phase, inThis sequential description applies even though the whole graph state is prepared first: a later Controlled-Z gate acts only on unmeasured qubits and commutes with earlier single-qubit measurement operators. It can therefore be moved past those measurements for the purpose of calculating each conditional branch.
Take and , so . After the second measurement the logical state isFor binary , the identities proved above imply the Pauli-frame propagation along a measurement wire rulewhere means equality up to global phase. Choose the third angle adaptively as . Then , andReading the target circuit in temporal order gives its premeasurement stateConsequentlyThe Pauli Z gate changes only phases in the computational basis, while the Pauli X gate exchanges its two measurement outcomes. Thus the explicit choices areIndeed, for every earlier outcome branch,Hence averaging over the earlier random outcomes leaves exactly the target probability distribution. This implements the desired measurement-based quantum computation without physically removing the final Pauli frame.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 1 12H iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
By Gibbs inequality,with equality exactly when . Put , a probability distribution. The optimal log-optimal multiplicative betting rate isFor this is strictly positive by Gibbs inequality; taking in the preceding strong law of large numbers bound proves growth with probability tending to one.
For the casino can set . Every optimal return multiplier is then exactly , so the fortune decreases deterministically as . More generally for that choice. An arbitrary choice with need not cause decline. For example, take , , . Then but . For any fixed positive , making one sufficiently small while preserving also makes the optimal rate positive.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 1 12H ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be independent rolls with the specified probability distribution, and let be the fortune after games. Its multiplicative evolution givesby the strong law of large numbers. The summands have finitely many finite values, so its hypotheses hold. For any , the probability that tends to one. Thus maximizing maximizes the typical exponential growth rate, the objective of log-optimal multiplicative betting. Maximizing expected fortune would be a different objective and would not control the typical repeated-game outcome.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 1 12H i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For probability distributions with positive entries, Gibbs inequality iswith equality exactly when . Indeed, , with equality only at , givesThis also proves the equality condition. With zero entries the same Kullback-Leibler divergence statement holds using and for , or by restricting to the support and taking limits.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 12 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the uniform probability measure on the symmetric group and the unnormalized Hamming distanceLet have Lipschitz constant for this distance. We will prove the one-sided concentration inequalitiesConsequently for . A zero Lipschitz constant makes constant, so that case is immediate.
Let be a uniform permutation, reveal successively, and define the Doob exposure martingaleFix the first images. For an available value , let be the conditional mean when . Given two available values , left-composition with the transposition exchanging is a bijection from completions with next image to completions with next image . It fixes the previously exposed images and changes exactly two coordinates of each complete permutation. Since conditional completions are uniform, averaging the Lipschitz condition over this pairing gives .
Thus, conditionally on the first images, has mean zero and takes values in an interval of length at most . We need the range-length version of the Hoeffding lemma: if a real random variable has mean zero and lies in an interval of length , thenHere is a proof. For , differentiation gives under the exponentially tilted probability distribution. Any distribution on an interval of length has variance at most , because its squared distance from the interval midpoint is at most . Since , integrating this second-derivative bound gives the lemma for both signs of . The same argument holds for every conditional distribution.
Apply it conditionally to each martingale difference and use the tower property of conditional expectation repeatedly:The exponential Markov bound now gives, for ,Choose to obtain the upper tail in the box, and apply the argument to for the lower tail. This proves concentration of Lipschitz functions on the symmetric group. Using only the bound in the absolute-increment Azuma-Hoeffding inequality would lose a factor four in the exponent; the conditional range length is what yields the constant needed in part (ii).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 27 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We use the following standard planar Brownian motion facts: its exit probability distribution is harmonic measure; conformal maps preserve that probability distribution after an increasing time change; and the Poisson kernel for the upper half-plane gives its real-boundary exit density. For rough hulls the boundary is interpreted through prime ends, with boundary correspondence at harmonic-measure-almost every exit point. This avoids imposing a smoothness or local-connectedness assumption on .
Under , the exit event through corresponds to a measurable set of boundary images. It is bounded: the mapping-out function extends by Schwarz reflection along the real line outside a sufficiently large interval enclosing , and its boundary near infinity corresponds to the original real boundary near infinity. All prime ends representing therefore have images in a bounded interval. The boundary correspondence assertion can equivalently be formulated using the almost-everywhere limits of ; changing null sets does not change 's measure.
Write . The hydrodynamic normalization at infinity gives and . By conformal invariance of planar Brownian motion and the Poisson kernel for the upper half-plane,On the bounded set , the integrand multiplied by tends uniformly to one. Therefore the limit exists and is finite:This is the harmonic capacity from infinity in the upper half-plane with the normalization ; it is different from half-plane capacity. If real boundary points are retained in the definition of , include their boundary images in as well; the argument is unchanged.
For the scaling statement, Brownian scaling says that started from is again standard planar Brownian motion. The exit event scales with the hull, soSet , multiply by and take the limit. It follows thatThe same conclusion follows geometrically from and the formula above.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 30 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let denote the clock position and the queue population, including any customer in service. By the memoryless property of the exponential distribution, the nonzero transition rates areSet . We claim thatwhere is the clock's stationary distribution from part (a). To check global balance for a continuous-time Markov chain, divide the incoming probability flux by . The clockwise contribution is . The arrival contribution, present only for , is . The service contribution is . Their sum is the outgoing rate .
The proposed probability distribution is normalized, so it is the equilibrium law. In particular, the clock position and queue population are independent random variables at any fixed equilibrium time, and the population has the geometric distribution of a stable M/M/1 queue. Independence of these two random variables does not assert independence of the two entire processes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 49 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Prepare the three-vertex graph-state wire: start all three qubits in and apply Controlled-Z gates on edges and . In this paper's equatorial qubit measurement convention the basis vectors can be chosen asThe given identity means that measuring an input qubit at angle , with outcome , teleports its state to the next qubit as . Each outcome has probability , since is unitary. This is one-bit teleportation with a known Pauli frame.
Measure vertex 1 at angle and record . Then measure vertex 2 at angle , taken modulo , and record . The controlled-Z on edge commutes with the first measurement, so the two teleportation steps can be applied successively. The remaining normalized state isFor this is . For , the relation proved above gives . Thus in every branch the remaining state isThe scalar is a global phase and has no effect on probabilities.
Finally measure vertex 3 in the computational basis, obtaining , and reportThe byproduct changes only computational-basis phases; changes the output label by . Hence the corrected bit has exactly the ideal circuit's probability distribution in every branch, not merely on average. The procedure uses only single-qubit measurements after preparing the graph state, adaptive classical angle selection, and deterministic classical output processing.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 38 3 iv Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For , the corresponding smaller root is . The conditional probability of selecting the larger root isIt is the same weight as a function of the actual selected value . HenceCombining the two open intervals proves the output has the Inverse Gaussian distribution . The event has probability zero, so no atom occurs at ; the limiting density there is finite. The algorithm always selects one of its positive roots, so these branch densities exhaust its probability distribution.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 40 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the shape-rate convention for the gamma distribution. A shape and rate give expected value and variance . The two moments here force and . Thus , and the geometric-sum moment-generating function becomesPut , and . Then , , andConsequently the geometric sum of shape-two gamma variables has the same probability distribution as the sum of two independent exponential distributions with rates . Their convolution of independent random variables yieldsThe probability density function is zero for . It is nonnegative because , and its integral isThis verifies normalization directly. An alternative check uses the conditional gamma distribution with shape :which is exactly the same density. The expected value supplies a further check.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 67 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use five resource qubits, all initially , and prepare the graph state with edges , , , . The labels here identify resource vertices; logical wire 1 travels from vertex 1 to 3, and logical wire 2 travels from 2 to 4 to 5. Each edge is a Controlled-Z gate, and these entangling gates commute, so all can be applied when preparing the resource.
Five-vertex graph resource, adaptive measurement angle, and classical output corrections for the two-qubit circuit
. Details. Measure vertex 1 in the equatorial qubit measurement basis at angle , with outcome , and vertex 2 at angle , with outcome . These measurements can be simultaneous. The one-bit teleportation lemma leaves the state on vertices 3 and 4, before the last teleportation, equal up to global phase toIndeed commuting the two initial byproducts through creates precisely the crossed factors. The unused edge from 4 to the fresh vertex 5 is the last one-bit teleportation link.
Measure vertex 4 at angle , with outcome . By the printed J gate propagation identities,Thus the remaining two-qubit quantum state isup to global phase, where is the desired circuit output relabelled onto vertices 3 and 5. The sign choice cancels the unwanted angle reversal caused by the frame on vertex 4.
Finally measure vertices 3 and 5 in the computational basis, obtaining raw results . The Pauli Z gate affects only phases, while the Pauli X gate flips a computational result. The five-vertex graph-state circuit simulation therefore outputsThis deterministic classical correction reproduces the ideal joint probability distribution for every preceding measurement branch. The final fixed-basis measurements may share the second layer with the adaptive measurement of vertex 4, because their projectors act on different vertices; measuring them afterwards is also valid.
