Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 28 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Hasse theorem for elliptic curves statesWe prove it by the positive degree of an isogeny. Let be the -power Frobenius isogeny, of degree . Its fixed points are precisely , so they form the kernel of . Since the differential of is zero, the differential of is the identity; thus is a separable isogeny. Its degree is the number of its geometric kernel points. ThereforeWe use the standard degree parallelogram law, together with : degree, extended by zero at the zero endomorphism, is a positive quadratic form on the endomorphism ring of an elliptic curve. Put , the Trace of Frobenius. Polarizing the degree form gives, for every pair of integers ,Indeed, the values on and are and , and the cross coefficient is fixed by . These are standard degree facts about isogenies of elliptic curves, which suffice without an assumption about characteristic or ordinariness.
For , division by shows at every rational . Density of the rational numbers and continuity of this polynomial make it nonnegative on the real line. Evaluating at its minimum gives , whence . Since , this proves the estimate. This is the degree-form proof of the Hasse bound; it proves both sides simultaneously by positivity of one degree form.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ia Paper 4 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppose all infinite binary sequences could be listed as , where . Define another binary sequence by . It differs from the th listed sequence at its th entry, so it is absent from the list. This contradiction is Cantor's diagonal argument, proving thatTo transfer this result to , map a binary sequence toThis lies in because . If two sequences first differ at index , with and , thenThus is an injection, avoiding the ambiguous expansions that would arise from unrestricted binary digits in base two. An injection from an uncountable set into proves that .
For , a nondecreasing sequence bounded above can take only finitely many integer values, all lying between its first term and an integer upper bound. Every strict increase raises its value by at least one, so only finitely many strict increases occur. It is therefore eventually constant. Every such sequence has the formfor some finite list of integers. The set of finite integer lists is a countable set: at stage , list the tuples of length at most whose entries have absolute value at most , omitting earlier duplicates. Each stage is finite and every finite tuple occurs at some stage. Constant sequences give an injection of into the collection, soThis is the discrete-order phenomenon that bounded nondecreasing integer sequences are eventually constant.
For , use a different encoding, into rational partial sums:Each is a rational number, the sequence is nondecreasing, and . If two binary inputs first differ at , their th partial sums differ by , so their output sequences differ. This defines an injection of the uncountable binary-sequence set into . Thus bounded nondecreasing rational sequences are uncountable. Finally, every such rational sequence is also an admissible real sequence, so inclusion into is injective. ConsequentlyBoundedness and monotonicity force eventual constancy for integer values, but not for rational or real values; countability of the set of possible individual terms does not imply countability of all infinite sequences of those terms.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 3 4F iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
False. The rational numbers with their subspace topology from are Hausdorff. If a subset contains two distinct rationals , choose an irrational between them; intersecting the subset with and gives a separation into two nonempty relatively open sets. Thus every nonempty connected subset of is a singleton, so it is totally disconnected. Yet no rational is isolated, because every interval around it contains another rational. Therefore is not a discrete space. Hausdorffness and total disconnectedness do not imply discreteness.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 14 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The Frankl-Wilson theorem in its uniform form says: let be a prime number, let have size , and let have , while for every distinct pair of members. Then
The modular-intersection, nonuniform form of the Frankl-Wilson theorem is as follows. Let be a prime number, let have elements, and let satisfy for each , whereas for distinct . ThenThis nonuniform Frankl-Wilson theorem allows different sizes and different diagonal residues; in particular it applies when all sizes have one common residue outside .
To prove it by the polynomial method in combinatorics, work over the finite field and associate to each member the intersection polynomialReplace each positive power of in its expansion by to obtain its multilinear reduction on the Boolean cube . This preserves evaluation on every characteristic vector, whose coordinates are zero or one, and leaves degree at most . At the characteristic vector ,It is zero for distinct , and nonzero for by the diagonal hypothesis. If , evaluating at each forces . Thus the multilinear polynomials are linearly independent. They belong to the vector space with basis the square-free monomials for , whose dimension is the displayed sum. This proves the nonuniform form, including , where distinct members are impossible and the empty product is one.
For the sharp uniform form, we need the low-degree evaluation rank on a uniform layer. Form the integer matrix whose rows are indexed by with , columns by -subsets , and entries . These are evaluations of the square-free monomials. Over the rational numbers, the row of a -subset satisfiesIndeed, when the left side counts the -subsets between and , and otherwise both sides vanish. Since , the coefficient is a positive integer. Thus the degree- rows span all the rows over the rational numbers, giving . Every square submatrix of larger size has integer determinant zero, so its determinant remains zero modulo . HenceThis reduction of matrix rank is the reason one must not try to divide by directly in .
The evaluations of the on the th uniform layer of the Boolean cube lie in the row linear span of over . They are linearly independent as functions there, because restriction to the columns corresponding to still gives the nonzero diagonal evaluation matrix. Their number is consequently at most . This completes the proof of the uniform Frankl-Wilson theorem as well.
For the odd-cardinality problem the sharper Oddtown theorem follows directly from linear algebra. Let be the characteristic vector. The parity conditions sayFor any linear combination , take its dot product with . All off-diagonal terms vanish, leaving . Hence these vectors are linearly independent in an -dimensional vector space, givingThe singleton sets show that the bound can be attained. Notice why the constant term in the general nonuniform Frankl-Wilson theorem is unnecessary here: these dot products already give a diagonal evaluation matrix using only the coordinate functions.
For even , partition into the pairs and take every union of a selection of these pairs. This gives exactly distinct sets, including the empty set. Each has even size; every pairwise intersection is again a union of entire pairs and therefore has even size. This attains the proposed bound.
For any set family satisfying the even-cardinality conditions, let be the linear span of its characteristic vectors over . Now the self-dot products vanish as well as the off-diagonal ones. By bilinearity, for all , so : it is a self-orthogonal binary subspace.
For completeness the standard bilinear form on is nondegenerate, because a vector orthogonal to every coordinate vector has every coordinate zero. Thus the map from onto the dual space is surjective: every linear functional on extends to the whole vector space by extending a basis, and every such functional on is a dot product with a vector. Its kernel is . The rank-nullity theorem consequently gives . The inclusion implies . Finally, distinct members have distinct characteristic vectors, all in , and a -dimensional vector space over has exactly elements. ThereforeThis proves the Eventown theorem and also explains the suggested dimension contradiction if the set family had more than members.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 4 2E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Write the rational number as with coprime integers and . Substituting into the monic polynomial and multiplying by givesAll terms except the first are divisible by , so . If , it has a prime factor dividing , and the Euclid lemma implies that this prime divides , contradicting coprimality. Thus , proving this special case of the rational root theorem:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 4 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A set is countable if it admits an injective function into , equivalently if it is finite or can be listed in a sequence. The empty set is included; an infinite countable set has a bijection with .
Every rational number has a representation with and . For each , there are only finitely many such pairs with . List these finite levels successively, ordering each level by , and discard repeated fractions when they first recur. Every rational number appears in some finite level, proving .
For the uncountability proof, suppose all numbers in could be listed as . Choose each decimal expansion not to end in an infinite string of nines, and denote its th digit by . Set when , and otherwise. Then the decimaldefines a number in with a unique such expansion, since its digits are only and . It differs from at digit for every , contradicting the enumeration. This Cantor diagonal argument proves because its subset already is.
For the union of two countable sets , take injective functions and . The mapis injective: it is injective within each branch, and their images have different parity. Thus , regardless of overlap.
The property of says that both and its complement are dense subsets of the real line. Both possible cardinalities occur. To establish the needed density directly, given and , choose an integer . Then is rational and differs from by less than . For an irrational approximation, choose a rational within of and a positive integer large enough that . The number is irrational and lies within of ; irrationality follows from that of , since otherwise subtracting and multiplying by would make rational. To recall the latter fact, a reduced fraction would satisfy , forcing even and then even, contrary to coprimality. ThereforeThe second set is uncountable because, if it were countable, its union with would make countable. The same two density arguments give the required approximations from and from its complement in either example.
Finally, the condition on makes every one of its points an isolated point, so is a discrete subset of the real line. Enumerate all rational intervals with ; enumerate pairs of indices of the rational list by increasing sum and keep those whose endpoints have the required order. For each , its isolating neighbourhood contains a rational interval containing and no other point of . Assign to the least such index . Two distinct points cannot receive the same index, because that interval would then contain two members of . This gives an injective function and proves that discrete subsets of the real line are countable:Using the least index makes the assignment explicit and requires no arbitrary selection of an uncountable family of intervals.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 24 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First include the trivial absolute value if that convention is allowed. For a nontrivial Non-Archimedean absolute value on , every integer has absolute value on a field at most one, and some nonzero integer has absolute value on a field less than one: otherwise every nonzero rational number, being a quotient of two integers, would have absolute value on a field one. Factoring that integer shows that some prime number has .
There cannot be two such prime numbers. If and for distinct prime numbers, choose integers with . Then the ultrametric inequality givesEvery other prime number therefore has absolute value on a field one. Factoring numerator and denominator of a rational number givesThus the nontrivial equivalence classes are precisely the p-adic absolute values, one for each prime number.
Now let be a number field, with ring of integers of a number field . If the restriction of an absolute value on a field to is trivial, a monic polynomial over satisfied by forces : if , its leading term would strictly dominate the other terms. Applying the same argument to forces for . Thus a nontrivial absolute value on a field defined on has a nontrivial restriction, associated with some prime number .
Every has , by applying the same leading-term argument to its monic integral equation. Consequentlyis a proper prime ideal: it is an ideal by the ultrametric inequality, and with implies that at least one factor has absolute value on a field less than one. It is nonzero because it contains .
The localization lies in the valuation ring of the absolute value on a field: a denominator outside has absolute value on a field one. Since is a Dedekind domain, is a discrete valuation ring. Choose its uniformizer . Each has a unique expressionBoth and lie in the valuation ring, so . Also belongs to its maximal ideal, hence . Therefore .
Conversely each nonzero prime ideal of gives the Non-Archimedean absolute value for any , using the discrete valuation of . All choices of are equivalent, and different prime ideals are distinguished by the elements of having absolute value on a field less than one. We have proved Non-Archimedean absolute values on a number field:The trivial class is additional when trivial absolute values on a field are admitted.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 9 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here is the matrix form of Rado's theorem. A matrix with entries in the rational numbers and columns is a partition regular matrix if every finite coloring of the positive integers admits a vector whose coordinates are monochromatic and for which . Its columns condition asks for an ordered partition into nonempty blocks , withRado's theorem states that these two conditions are equivalent. Coordinates need not be distinct; positivity is required for every coordinate.
First prove necessity using the finite separating-functional proof of the columns condition. Clearing denominators does not change either the kernel or the columns condition, so assume that has integer entries. For each pair of disjoint index sets , with nonempty, for which is outside the rational linear span of the -columns, choose an integer linear functional such thatSuch a linear functional exists: extend a basis over the rational numbers of the indicated linear span by , prescribe values zero on the former basis and one on , extend to a basis of the ambient vector space over the rational numbers, and then clear the functional's denominators. There are only finitely many pairs . Choose a prime number larger than the absolute values of all their nonzero evaluations; if there are none, choose any prime number.
Color by its last nonzero digit coloring value, namelywhere is the P-adic valuation. By partition regularity, choose a positive solution all of whose coordinates have the same nonzero digit . Group its indices into nonempty blocks according to increasing distinct P-adic valuations .
Suppose that a block sum is outside the rational linear span of the earlier columns, and put , taking for . Apply the selected linear functional to . The earlier terms vanish exactly. Divide the remaining integer equality by and reduce modulo . Later blocks vanish modulo , while each coordinate in contributes its common digit . We obtainwhich is impossible by the choice of and because . Thus each block sum lies in the earlier linear span. For the first block, this span is zero, so . This proves the columns condition.
For sufficiency, assume the columns condition and choose rational coefficients , for , such thatChoose a positive integer clearing all these coefficients' denominators and a positive integer with for every coefficient. Use the permitted monochromatic m-p-c set theorem, in the suffix convention for an m-p-c set, to obtain positive generators such that the full setis positive and monochromatic. The positivity of the full m-p-c set is important: we do not discard expressions that happen to be negative. For , setAll these coordinates belong to , so they are positive and monochromatic. On collecting coefficients of each , their matrix product isThis explicit Rado solution inside an m-p-c set proves sufficiency and completes the proof of Rado's theorem.
To deduce the Finite sums theorem directly from the columns condition, introduce one positive variable for each nonempty and imposeFor there are no equations and any positive integer works. For , write for the column belonging to . Partition the columns into blocks in the order . Consider the row indexed by a set with . The sum of the columns in has row valueFor this is always zero. For it equals one exactly for those with and . Each such is the negative coordinate vector in row , and it belongs to an earlier block. Thereforewhich verifies the columns condition, rather than assuming the desired Finite sums theorem. Apply Rado's theorem to this system. Its monochromatic positive solution satisfies with , and hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 4 7D i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
If were a rational number, then would make rational. Write in lowest terms. Then , which is impossible by unique factorization: the exponent of the prime is even on the left and odd on the right. Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 4 7D iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
If were a rational number, choose positive integers because . Exponentiation gives , but the left side is even and the right side is odd. ThusThis is the basic irrational logarithm criterion: a rational logarithm would force positive integer powers of its base and argument to coincide.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 83 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The maximum is . We construct that many aleph-one-like linear orders, whose proper initial segments are countable, and prove that they are nonisomorphic. As usual the rational-type requirement concerns nonempty proper initial segments; the empty segment occurs in every order.
Let be the club set of nonzero limit ordinals below . For , form the order sumHere means a new least point followed by a copy of the rational numbers; distinct blocks are disjoint, and all points of an earlier block precede every point of a later one. Every block is countable, dense and has no greatest point. Since , the full total order has neither a least nor a greatest point. It has size .
The sum is dense: within a block use density, and for points in different blocks choose a larger point in the earlier block. If is a proper initial segment and lies in block , then is contained in the union of the blocks through . There are only countably many such blocks, each countable. Thus is countable, rather than an uncountable interval in an aleph-one-dense order.
Every nonempty is dense and has no least point. If it has no greatest point either, the back-and-forth method gives : enumerate both orders, alternately include the least unused element from either enumeration in a finite partial order isomorphism, and choose its partner in the appropriate open interval. Density and absence of endpoints always supply a new partner. The union is a bijective order isomorphism. If has a greatest point, remove it, apply the same argument, and reattach it. Hence every nonempty proper initial segment is isomorphic to or .
The stationary information is recorded at the limit cuts. WriteThis is a continuous increasing kappa-filtration by countable initial segments. At a limit , the complement has a least point exactly when .
Suppose is an order isomorphism. Since each filtration stage is countable, its image under and the corresponding image under are bounded in block index: the supremum of their countable collection of countable ordinals remains below . Choose so thatThe setis a club set. To see unboundedness, start above any given ordinal and recursively choose larger than every for . The supremum of the countable sequence remains below and belongs to . Closure follows because below a limit of members of , each fixed lies below one of those members.
For , continuity of the filtrations gives both inclusions needed forThe isomorphism therefore preserves whether the complementary final segment has a least point. ConsequentlyThis club agreement of countable filtrations proves the invariant: if is stationary, the orders cannot be isomorphic.
We also construct enough pairwise different stationary encodings. For each , fix an injection , and setFor fixed , these sets partition the stationary tail . At least one is stationary: otherwise choose a club avoiding each one and intersect the countably many clubs to obtain a club avoiding the entire tail. The countable-intersection fact follows directly: above any starting point choose an increasing sequence, visiting each club infinitely often; its countable supremum belongs to every club by closure. For each let be the least such . One value occurs for uncountably many , since a countable union of countable sets is countable. For that fixed the cells are pairwise disjoint, by injectivity of . Enumerating those cells givesa family of pairwise disjoint stationary subsets of . This is the explicit Ulam matrix on omega-one proof of disjoint stationary subsets of omega-one.
For put . If , their symmetric difference contains an entire and is stationary. The stationary encoding in an aleph-one-like dense order therefore produces pairwise nonisomorphic orders .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 4 8E b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The integers are countable: for and for is an injection . Hence is a countable set. The map is a surjection onto the rational numbers, so the image result already proved gives is countable. Unique reduced fractions are not required for this surjection argument.
For the final unheaded geometry request, suppose for contradiction that no two distinct circles in the collection intersect. Restrict to the subcollection of circles tangent to the -axis. Each such nondegenerate circle has a unique tangency point, and the tangency-point map is a surjection by the hypothesis.
The closed disk of a circle tangent at meets the -axis only at . Two distinct members of cannot have nested disks: if one disk were inside the other, its tangency point would belong to the larger disk, so both tangency points would be equal and both circle boundaries would pass through it. That already contradicts nonintersection. Circles with disjoint boundaries and no nesting have disjoint disks. Thus their open disks are pairwise disjoint.
By the density of the rational numbers, every nonempty open disk contains a point of , which is a countable set. Fix an enumeration of and assign to each disk the first enumerated point inside it. Disjointness makes this assignment an injection. This is the countability of pairwise disjoint open disks, and proves that is a countable set. Its surjection onto would make the real numbers countable, contrary to the Cantor diagonal argument. ThereforeThe proof allows circles on either side of the axis and counts tangential contact as intersection; it does not assume that all circles in the original collection are tangent to the axis.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 6D c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For each positive integer , the positive elements of form an infinite set, and the preceding increasing enumeration gives a bijection on these positive elements. The positive integers have a unique decomposition with , so these sets are disjoint and exhaust the positive integers.
The printed natural numbers include . The trailing-zero count of the representation of is not needed: shift the positive partition down by one and putUniqueness of the trailing-zero count proves the injective function property, and the decomposition of proves the surjective function property. An explicit decimal trailing-zero pairing function, using the increasing enumeration from the previous part, isIndeed, the bracket enumerates , exactly the positive integers not divisible by . This handles both the positive index and the element without silently changing the PDF's convention.
To enumerate the rational numbers, first enumerate the integers by , , for . The function maps onto , and composing with gives a surjective function from . Choosing the first index representing each rational number gives an injective function . Thus is countably infinite; its infinitude follows because it contains all integers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 130 3 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the standard definition of a partition regular matrix: for every finite coloring of the positive integers, there is a positive solution whose coordinates all have one color. Coordinates may repeat. Clearing denominators lets us assume ; multiplication of the row by a nonzero rational number changes neither its zero-sum subsets nor its solutions. We prove both directions of the Rado theorem for one equation directly, without invoking any form of Rado's theorem.
For necessity, choose a prime number and use the last nonzero digit coloring: write , with , and assign color . Given a monochromatic solution, let , let , and let be the common color. Divide by and reduce modulo . Terms outside vanish; the others giveThe nonzero residue is invertible modulo the prime number , so divides . This sum has absolute value less than , forcing it to be zero. The set is nonempty by its definition.
For sufficiency we first derive the needed Brauer progression theorem from the permitted Van der Waerden theorem. Fix positive integers . We claim that for every number of colors , a finite integer interval forces a monochromatic setThe case is immediate by taking and . For and , take in an interval of length at least . Suppose the claim holds for and write . By the Van der Waerden theorem, some forces an arithmetic progression of length in with one color . Work in so that all needed multiples also lie in the coloring's domain. If a subprogression of length and step has of color , we are done. Otherwise, for every , the initial long arithmetic progression contains such a subprogression, and avoids color . The induced finite coloring of therefore uses at most colors. The induction hypothesis gives a monochromatic set for this induced finite coloring. Multiplying by gives the desired configuration in the original coloring, with initial term and step . This proves the claim for ; the only use below has .
Now suppose for a nonempty . Choose , put , and put . If , then and any constant positive vector is already a monochromatic solution. Otherwise take and apply the proved Brauer progression theorem with . All of and for have one color. DefineEvery coordinate is a positive integer in that monochromatic set, since is either or . Using the zero sum on givesThus both directions are proved:For the right side is impossible, agreeing with the absence of positive solutions for a single nonzero coefficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 2F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Liouville approximation theorem states that an irrational algebraic number of degree satisfies for all integers and , for some . The constant is independent of the rational approximation.
The required condition is infinitely many of the coefficients equal one. If only finitely many do, the series is a finite sum of rational numbers. Conversely let be the sum with infinitely many nonzero terms. Its truncation has denominator dividing . For , its strictly positive tail satisfiesIf were rational, the distinct fractions would have distance at least , contradicting the tail bound for large . Thus is irrational. If it were algebraic of fixed degree , apply the Liouville approximation theorem to . Even if its reduced denominator is smaller than , the lower bound is at least . The displayed upper bound contradicts this as . HenceThe coincidence changes only the first rational contribution and has no effect on this criterion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 130 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Rado's criterion. Let be a matrix over the rational numbers, with columns . A partition regular matrix is one for which every finite coloring of the positive integers gives a monochromatic positive vector with ; repeated coordinates are allowed. The columns condition is the existence of an ordered set partition of into nonempty blocks such thatRado's theorem states
Necessity. Clear denominators so the columns are integer vectors. For each pair of disjoint index sets , with , for which is outside the linear span of the -columns, choose an integer linear functional that vanishes on those columns and satisfies . Such a functional exists by extending a basis of the span to one also containing , defining a functional on that basis, and clearing its rational denominators.
There are only finitely many such pairs. Choose a prime number dividing none of these nonzero integer evaluations. If there are no such pairs, any prime will do. Use the last nonzero digit coloring: write , with , and color by . Since is a partition regular matrix, this coloring supplies a monochromatic positive solution, so all its unit parts have a common nonzero residue .
Group the coordinates by increasing P-adic valuation, obtaining blocks with valuations . Suppose for some the sum lay outside the linear span of the earlier columns, with earlier index set . Apply to . Earlier terms vanish exactly. Divide the remaining integer equation by and reduce modulo . Later terms vanish modulo , while the current block givescontrary to the choice of . Thus every block sum lies in the earlier linear span, and for the first block this means it is zero. This proves the columns condition by the finite separating-functional proof of the columns condition.
Sufficiency. Suppose the columns condition holds. For , choose rational coefficients , indexed by earlier columns, such thatTake a positive integer clearing their denominators and bounding all . We use the allowed monochromatic m-p-c set theorem with levels. Its M-p-c set is the full setwhere the generators make every displayed expression positive. Positivity is part of this convention, rather than a rule that discards nonpositive expressions. For , setAll these numbers lie in the monochromatic set . The coefficient of in iswith the first coefficient zero by . Hence . This Rado solution inside an m-p-c set proves sufficiency.
The equality-or-inequality dichotomy. If every finite coloring gives a monochromatic solution with , the first alternative holds. Otherwise fix a finite coloring admitting no such solution. Given any other finite coloring , use the refinement of a finite coloring . Since is a partition regular matrix, it supplies a solution monochromatic for both colorings. Its first two coordinates cannot be equal, by the defining property of , so it is the required unequal solution for . Thus one of the two universal alternatives always holds. This is the partition regularity dichotomy under an extra constraint; the alternatives are not asserted to be mutually exclusive.
Both restrictions can fail. The Schur matrixis a partition regular matrix: blocks and satisfy the columns condition. Color by , using the 2-adic valuation. An equal-coordinate solution would have , and , so its coordinates cannot be monochromatic. This exhibits failure of the equality restriction.
Conversely, satisfies the columns condition in one block. Every solution has , so even the constant one-color finite coloring admits no unequal-coordinate solution. Consequently
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The martingale convergence theorem says that if a discrete-time martingale satisfies , then there is an integrable random variable such thatThe hypothesis does not by itself ensure convergence in L1.
For each pair of rational numbers , the Doob upcrossing inequality gives . The monotone convergence theorem therefore gives a finite expected value for , so this upcrossing count is finite almost surely. There are only countably many such pairs, hence all their upcrossing counts are simultaneously finite outside one event of probability zero.
If , the density of the rational numbers supplies strictly between them, forcing infinitely many upcrossings. Consequently has a limit in the extended real numbers almost surely. By the Fatou lemma,A limit of either or would make this lower limit infinite, so the limit is finite almost surely, and the same inequality proves its integrability.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The sigma-algebras decrease with , and (b) gives . The permitted reverse martingale convergence theorem therefore gives an integrable random variable such that almost surely and with convergence in L1. In particular,It remains to prove that is constant. We must not assume that is the tail sigma-algebra of the ; instead use tail measurability of limits of sample averages directly. Define the random variable valued in the extended real numbers . For every fixed ,because pointwise. Thus is measurable with respect to for every , and hence to the tail sigma-algebra. Also almost surely.
By the Kolmogorov zero-one law, each tail event , for a rational number , has probability zero or one. Since is finite almost surely, its distribution function can only be that of a constant : taking and using the density of the rational numbers gives almost surely. Its expected value identifies . This proves the strong law of large numbers:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 201 4 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Fix an integer and consider the independent incrementsFor fixed these are independent and identically distributed random variables with the normal distribution , so . The second Borel-Cantelli lemma gives for infinitely many , almost surely. Intersecting these probability-one events over the countably many preserves probability one.
On any path in this intersection, uniform continuity on would give some such that whenever . Choosing with contradicts the existence of an increment . Therefore Brownian paths are not uniformly continuous on the half-line:The event is measurable: for continuous paths, uniform continuity can be tested by countably many pairs of nonnegative rational numbers and tolerances . Brownian motion has uniform continuity on every compact time interval, but almost surely fails it on the whole half-line.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 26J c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The rational numbers are countable, sois a countable union of closed sets and hence a Borel set; its Lebesgue measure is zero. Its complement is also Borel and has infinite measure: