Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 16 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For finite-dimensional Complex projective space , use the filtration by its linear projective subspaces. The difference is , so there is one topological cell in every even dimension , and none in odd dimensions. Every cellular boundary vanishes for degree reasons. The integral cohomology is therefore in those even degrees and zero elsewhere.
For the cohomology ring, let be the Poincare dual of a projective hyperplane, using the complex orientation. Generic hyperplanes meet transversely, and a collection of of them intersects in . The geometric interpretation of the cup product identifies with the dual of that intersection. Restricting to a linear , the hyperplanes meet in one point, with positive sign because the transverse normal directions are complex lines. HenceThus is a primitive generator in degree , not merely a nonzero multiple. There are no classes beyond degree , soThe point case has ring . Taking the union of the finite projective spaces gives , since each fixed cohomological degree stabilizes. This proves the cohomology ring of complex projective space computation.
For the rank bound for a nonsingular complex bilinear map, write , , , and . Assume . Injectivity with either nonzero factor fixed implies whenever . Thereforeis well defined and continuous. Scaling either vector only scales the output, and in local projective charts the formula is given by bilinear coordinates with no simultaneous zero. Let be the target's degree-two generator and the pullbacks of the two factor generators. The Künneth theorem givesFixing or makes a projective linear embedding induced by an injective linear map. Such an embedding pulls back the hyperplane class to the factor's hyperplane class. Since the two restrictions determine of the product, , with the generator of a point factor interpreted as zero.
Put . In the source cohomology ring, every term in vanishes except the one with exponents , andThe binomial coefficient is a positive integer and the final monomial generates the top integral cohomology. If , the class in would be zero. This contradiction provesWhen , the nonzero pure-tensor image already gives . A positivity convention is genuinely necessary: if , , and , all restrictions to the zero tensor subspaces are injective, but the literal bound would read . The displayed theorem is therefore the nonzero-factor version. If a nonzero factor is infinite-dimensional, either factor restriction already bounds the image dimension below by that factor dimension; the sum of two positive cardinal dimensions, with at least one infinite, is their maximum, giving the corresponding cardinal bound.