Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 58 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with an antisymmetric contravariant tensor field such that the bracketsatisfies the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity, antisymmetry and the Leibniz rule follow directly from this formula. The Poisson bivector is allowed to be degenerate.
Apply the Jacobi identity to coordinate functions . Necessity gives the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector:For sufficiency, expand . The terms differentiating are . All terms containing second derivatives cancel. For example, those containing have coefficient , which is antisymmetric under after contraction with , whereas is symmetric. The same argument handles the second derivatives of and . Thus the displayed condition is both necessary and sufficient.
A symplectic manifold has a smooth nondegenerate closed differential form of degree two. Write and choose the explicit inverse convention . This defines a smooth antisymmetric bivector. Differentiating the inverse matrix givesSubstitution into the Jacobi coefficient, followed by relabeling summed indices, givessince the parentheses are the components of . Hence every symplectic manifold carries a Poisson structure. The opposite overall convention for the inverse bracket gives the same conclusion. Nondegeneracy and closure together are crucial; an arbitrary invertible antisymmetric tensor need not satisfy the Jacobi identity.
For a finite-dimensional Lie algebra , its dual space carries the Lie-Poisson bracketwhere are identified with elements of . If and , this reads . The Jacobi coefficient iswhich vanishes by the Lie algebra Jacobi identity.
In particular, the dual of is with the rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3,The Poisson bivector has rank two away from the origin and rank zero at the origin. The function is a Casimir function, since its bracket with every function vanishes. The centred spheres are its two-dimensional symplectic leaves, and the origin is a point leaf. This is a Poisson manifold but not a symplectic manifold: its bivector is not invertible, and an odd-dimensional manifold cannot have a nondegenerate alternating bilinear form.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 8E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The Poisson bracket is . Since , the scalar triple product vanishes, andEquivalently, check the identity on and extend to every polynomial using the Leibniz rule. Thus is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold of this rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3.
The Hamilton's equations areLinearization about gives , , . The two nonzero exponents satisfy . ConsequentlyWhen is outside this interval the transverse motion is oscillatory. At equality the linearization is nonhyperbolic; if just one transverse coupling vanishes, the other permits secular linear growth, rather than an exponential instability. This is the familiar intermediate-axis instability described by the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 313 2 Solution 2026-09-28
The special orthogonal group in three dimensions isDifferentiating at the identity shows that its Lie algebra is the space of skew-symmetric matrices. A convenient basis iswith .
The infinitesimal action of on a point is . It therefore generates the vector fieldFundamental vector fields for this left action form an antihomomorphism with the stated convention, and direct differentiation givesso their span is closed under the Lie bracket of vector fields.
The brackets , , and define the rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3. With the convention that a Hamiltonian vector field acts by ,Hence the required Hamiltonians are simplyThe quadratic functionsatisfies for all , so it is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold. Its nonzero regular level sets are spheres. The Poisson tensor has rank two there and is tangent to each level set, so it inverts to a symplectic form; each sphere is a symplectic leaf. Rotations preserve both and the alternating tensor , hence preserve the restricted Poisson tensor and its inverse symplectic form. The action therefore restricts to a symplectic action on every sphere .