Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 358 1 i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let and suppose . The sub-mean inequality on every closed disk contained in givesEquality holds throughout. If were strictly below at one point of the circle, upper semicontinuity would make it uniformly below on a small arc, contradicting equality of the average. Thus on every sufficiently small circle centered at , and hence throughout a neighborhood of .
The set is therefore open. It is also closed because upper semicontinuity makes open. Since the domain is connected and is nonempty, it is all of . This proves the maximum principle for subharmonic functions.
LetThe resolvent set is open, and the resolvent of an element is operator-valued holomorphic on each of its components. Fix in the resolvent set. For any , choose unit vectors such thatThe scalar function is holomorphic. Its modulus is subharmonic, soLetting proves that the resolvent norm is subharmonic on the resolvent component containing .
Use the convention that the reciprocal resolvent norm is zero on the spectrum. Suppose a bounded component ofcontained no spectral point. A spectral point in its boundary would belong to the same pseudospectral component, so is contained in the resolvent set. On one has , whereas inside one has . Continuity on the compact set makes the resolvent norm attain a maximum at an interior point. The subharmonic maximum principle would make it constant, contradicting its boundary values. Hence every bounded component of the pseudospectrum contains spectrum:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 106 2 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For in a unital complex algebra , the spectrum of an element isFor a nonunital algebra one uses its unitization.
Now let be a Banach algebra. The invertible group is open, so the resolvent set is open and the spectrum is closed. If , the Neumann seriesconverges, so is contained in the closed disc of radius and is therefore compact.
If the spectrum were empty, would be an entire -valued function. For each , the scalar function is bounded: it tends to zero at infinity by the Neumann series and is bounded on every compact disc. The Liouville theorem makes it identically zero. Since the Hahn-Banach theorem separates points, this would give , contradicting its invertibility. Hence the spectrum is nonempty.