Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 28 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A normalization is important here. I use the covolume-one theta function of a fractional ideal, for which the requested limit is , and also give the formula for the unnormalized Gaussian theta sum.
Let , let , and choose one field embedding for each Archimedean place. The Minkowski embedding of a number field identifieswith a real inner product space havingIts Euclidean Lebesgue measure is . With this convention, the covolume of a fractional ideal lattice iswhere is the field discriminant and is the positive absolute norm of a fractional ideal. Thus the Euclidean lattice has covolume . DefineThis Gaussian theta sum converges absolutely whenever every .
The trace dual of a fractional ideal isHere is the inverse different. Since , we have . There is a subtle distinction between the trace pairing and the positive inner product: the dual lattice of is , where the bar conjugates the complex coordinates and fixes the real ones. Indeed,Consequently . Coordinatewise complex conjugation preserves the weighted squared lengths in the Gaussian theta sum.
Here are the precise analytic formulas used in the proof. For a Schwartz function on , take the Fourier transform to beFor a full Euclidean lattice of covolume , the Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean lattice isFor , the Gaussian Fourier transform, applied in orthonormal real coordinates, givesMore generally, for a real positive-definite matrix that is symmetric. Each complex coordinate contributes two real coordinates, which explains its exponent .
Apply the Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean lattice to , whose covolume is , and use the preceding description of its dual lattice. The anisotropic theta functional equation isFor comparison, the unnormalized Gaussian theta sumhas the functional equationand its corresponding limit is rather than . Explicitly, our normalization is .
For the small-parameter asymptotic of a lattice theta sum, means that every coordinate tends to zero. In , the zero lattice vector contributes . Every nonzero vector contributes a term tending to zero. Once every , all these terms are bounded by the summable Gaussian theta sum . The dominated convergence theorem therefore gives . Using the anisotropic theta functional equation,The condition that every coordinate tends to zero matters; alone would not justify this argument.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We place the definitions and the unheaded preliminary requests here before addressing the first labelled property. The Schwartz space consists of smooth functions with finite seminormsfor every pair of multi-indices. Convergence means convergence in each seminorm. The tempered distribution space is its continuous dual space, with weak convergence tested against every Schwartz function. A continuous functional satisfies a bound by finitely many of these seminorms, equivalently by one sufficiently large weighted derivative seminorm.
Use the Fourier transform conventionDifferentiation under the integral and integration by parts express as a constant of modulus one times the Fourier transform of . Its supremum is bounded by the norm of that function. For , this norm is at most a constant times finitely many Schwartz seminorms, using the integrable weight . Thus is continuous.
For completeness, Fourier inversion follows by inserting in the inverse integral and using Fubini's theorem. The result is convolution with the Gaussian approximate identityIt tends to , while integrability of allows the damping factor to be removed by dominated convergence theorem. Consequently . Reflection preserves every Schwartz seminorm, so the inverse transform is continuous as well. This proves the Fourier transform isomorphism of the Schwartz space.
Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution by transposition,The Schwartz-space continuity just proved makes this a tempered distribution. Its inverse is , where . These maps are continuous for weak convergence, since each pairing is a pairing with a fixed transformed test. They are also continuous for the strong dual topology, because the Schwartz-space maps take bounded sets to bounded sets.
The convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function isSmooth dependence of translated Schwartz functions gives . The finite-seminorm estimate and show that each derivative has at most polynomial growth. In particular, is a smooth function defining a tempered distribution. It need not itself be a Schwartz function; for example .
Writing , its distributional pairing is . The inner convolution is a Schwartz function, and this identity follows by integration in the Schwartz topology, justified by the weighted seminorm estimates. A direct Fubini's theorem calculation gives . HenceMultiplication is well defined because multiplication by acts continuously on .
Now write the Hilbert transform as convolution with , the principal-value reciprocal distribution. The given Heaviside function transform, together with , yieldsThe value of the sign function at zero is irrelevant to its regular distribution. Thus the Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier isApplying Plancherel theorem, whose normalization here is , proves the isometry:The principal-value integral agrees with this convolution: near its singular point subtract , and use odd cancellation; at infinity the Schwartz decay gives convergence. The Hilbert transform has domain , but generally does not take values in , as the tail in part (c) demonstrates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 71 2 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let , a Schwartz function. Splitting the inverse Fourier transform at the jump in the Hilbert-transform Fourier multiplier givesFor , integration by parts on each half-line showsBoth restricted derivatives are in . The Riemann-Lebesgue lemma makes the bracket tend to zero as . Hence the two-sided tail isHere . The large-distance tail of the Hilbert transform thus depends on the zeroth moment of the input. If that moment is nonzero, the tail proves that the output is not a Schwartz function, despite being smooth and square-integrable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 2 30E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Write . Since ,A Schwartz function is bounded and uniformly continuous. Given a tolerance, first choose so the tail integral of is small. On , uniform continuity makes the difference uniformly small for every when is small. On the tail it is bounded by . This proves uniform convergence, without assuming , and is the approximate identity argument.
For the radial regularization of the three-dimensional fundamental solution of the Laplace equation, direct differentiation givesThe radial integral is . This even approximate identity therefore gives for .
The function is locally integrable and determines a tempered distribution. We have , and is integrable near zero and infinity for a Schwartz test function. Integration by parts and the dominated convergence theorem giveThus , proving that is a fundamental solution of a linear differential operator. In this last part the test-function space is ; the printed in the three-dimensional integral is understood with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 3 30E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use a Fourier transform convention for which has symbol . The distributional equation gives for real nonzero , since this smooth positive multiplier has no zeros. Consequentlywhere . This bound is independent of . For , the same multiplier defines ; alternatively approximate by Schwartz functions and pass to the limit using the estimate. This is the massive Laplacian isomorphism on Sobolev spaces.
For , the inequality , integrated against , gives the interpolation estimateFor a finite global bound in the last request, assume as well as boundedness. This assumption is necessary: the smooth bounded solution has infinite norm on . Put , . Then with norm at most . Incorporate the constant drift on the left:The constant-drift massive elliptic estimate follows because the modulus of this symbol is at least , so the same multiplier argument first establishes and then gives the stronger a priori boundIt is allowed to depend on but in fact does not need to. Once regularity has been established, the earlier estimate and interpolation also give the conventional absorption proof: , and choosing small absorbs the term.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 126 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a full-rank Euclidean lattice , its dual lattice isIf , then , and . The characters of a real torus identify the additive dual lattice with the multiplicative character group byThe map is well defined precisely because , and is injective. For surjectivity, a continuous group homomorphism from the compact torus into has compact image. Its modulus has logarithm a homomorphism into with compact image, hence is zero, so the image lies in the unit circle. Pull the character back to . Its continuous real lift under , normalized to zero at the origin, is additive: its additive defect is an integer-valued continuous function and vanishes at the origin. A continuous additive function is for a unique . Triviality on says , proving surjectivity.
Use the Fourier transform convention , and take to be a Schwartz function. The periodization of a Schwartz function is smooth and -periodic. On a fundamental cell , the coefficient of the torus character isThe equality follows by translating each cell and using . The rapidly convergent Fourier series can be evaluated at zero, yielding the Poisson summation formula for a Euclidean latticeThis argument keeps track of the covolume factor rather than tacitly assuming a unit-volume lattice.
For in the complex upper half-plane, let . Scaling the self-dual real Gaussian function gives its Fourier transform at , , and holomorphic continuation in gives the complex Gaussian Fourier transformThe branch is with the logarithm on the right half-plane; it is positive for . Both the integrals and the lattice sums are locally normally convergent on the complex upper half-plane. Applying the Poisson summation formula proves the lattice theta functional equationNo integrality or self-duality hypothesis on the lattice is needed.
Put , and . The Epstein zeta function converges absolutely for , and its Mellin transform representation isAt infinity, decays exponentially. Define the entire functionOn , substitute and then . Isolate the two elementary terms before integrating; this gives the pole-subtracted theta integral for an Epstein zeta functionThe formula initially holds for and continues the completed Epstein zeta function meromorphically to all . Apply the same formula to the dual lattice at , using and . The entire terms and the two rational terms match, provingFinally also continues meromorphically. Its only pole is a simple one at , with residue ; the pole of the completed function at zero is cancelled by , and . The residues and this cancellation make explicit why subtracting the constant theta term was necessary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 137 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the Fourier transform normalization . A precise version of the Poisson summation formula is that, for every Schwartz function ,Both series have absolute convergence. Here being a Schwartz function means being smooth with for all nonnegative integers . This hypothesis makes the sums and the termwise operations below legitimate; the formula is not being asserted for arbitrary integrable functions.
Form the periodization of a Schwartz function . Every differentiated series has uniform convergence on , by rapid decay, so is a smooth periodic function of period one. Its th Fourier coefficient isThe interchange follows from absolute convergence uniformly on this interval. Integration by parts shows that these Fourier coefficients decrease faster than every inverse power of . Thus the Fourier series converges absolutely and uniformly to ; for example the standard convergence theorem for twice continuously differentiable periodic functions applies. Evaluating at zero proves the Poisson summation formula.
For , scaling the given Gaussian Fourier transform givesApplying the Poisson summation formula gives the real-parameter Jacobi theta function transformation
For , termwise application of the Mellin transform is justified by integrating absolute values and givesEach positive contributes , and the factor one half removes the equal positive and negative terms. This is the Mellin representation of the completed Riemann zeta function.
Split the integral at one. On , the Jacobi theta function transformation writes . Integrating the first two terms and substituting in the third yields the pole-subtracted theta integral for the completed zeta function:The remaining integral is an entire function of : , and on each compact set of this exponential dominates all powers of and all factors arising from differentiation. It therefore supplies a meromorphic continuation of to the whole plane, with simple poles at one and zero, of residues and , respectively. Its expression is unchanged by .
The reciprocal Gamma function is entire, with simple zeros at its nonpositive integer arguments. Consequentlyis holomorphic everywhere except for a simple pole at , of residue one. The apparent pole at cancels; in fact gives . This proves the analytic continuation of the Riemann zeta function. The completed functional equation of the Riemann zeta function isThese are equalities of meromorphic functions; at apparent singularities they are interpreted by continuation. Equivalently, is an entire function with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 327 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the Fourier transform convention and , so . All distribution pairings use complex bilinearity, and the formal transpose is , without complex conjugation of the coefficients. If instead denotes , the Fourier multiplier is ; the argument below is unchanged after this substitution.
For a nonempty compact convex set , let be its support function. The Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem says that the Fourier transform is a bijection between distributions supported in and entire functions on for whichfor some and nonnegative integer . In particular, support in is equivalent to the bound with . Convexity is essential in the precise support formulation: the support function of a set equals that of its convex hull.
Suppose first that is a compactly supported distribution with support in . Define , inserting any cutoff function equal to one near when viewing on test functions. A fixed cutoff and the finite order of a distribution estimate permit differentiation of the pairing in each complex variable, giving . The exponential function's power series converges with every required derivative on a fixed compact set; hence is an entire function. On real frequencies it agrees with the Fourier transform of a compactly supported distribution.
The exact exponential indicator needs a shrinking cutoff function, rather than one fixed outside . Choose near , with support in and for . Such a cutoff is obtained by convolving the indicator of with a mollifier supported in . On one fixed ball containing all these supports, the finite order of a distribution bound isThe Leibniz rule applied to therefore givesTaking proves the required bound, with and a fixed additional factor at most .
Conversely, suppose is an entire function with the displayed bound. Its real restriction has polynomial growth, so its inverse Fourier transform defines a tempered distribution byRapid decay of the Schwartz function makes this integral absolutely convergent and continuous in the Schwartz space topology.
To determine the support of a distribution, take a test function supported in a half-space , where and . The contour-shift proof of the Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem gives, for each ,Here is the estimate that justifies both the shift and its limiting use. Since , repeated integration by parts with yieldsFor fixed , the same estimate is uniform over the imaginary strip from to . Rotate coordinates so is the first coordinate direction, apply the Cauchy integral theorem on truncated rectangles, and let their real edges tend to infinity. If , the boundary integrals vanish and the horizontal integrals converge absolutely; thus the claimed shift is valid. Using now bounds the pairing bywhich tends to zero. A separating hyperplane exists at every point outside the compact convex set . A finite partition of unity on the support of any exterior test function reduces it to such half-spaces, so . Fourier inversion gives uniqueness; the entire transform of this agrees with on and hence everywhere, by applying the one-variable identity theorem successively in each coordinate. This completes both directions.
Now apply this theorem to compact support solvability for a constant-coefficient ordinary differential equation. If is a nonzero constant, its kernel is zero and is the unique solution. Otherwise writeThe solution space of isIndeed these exponentials solve the equation, their initial derivative vectors have a nonzero Vandermonde determinant, and uniqueness for the order- ordinary differential equation makes them a basis. Pairing with any such solution proves necessity:
For sufficiency, choose with and let . The assumed annihilation is precisely for every . Since all roots of a polynomial are simple, has removable singularities at every root and is an entire function. Outside one disk, . Inside that disk, the extended is bounded. The polynomial division preservation of exponential type therefore givesThe Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem produces a compactly supported distribution with transform , supported in the same interval. Then , so Fourier inversion gives . ThusThe compactly supported solution is unique: forces the entire transform to vanish off the finitely many roots and hence everywhere. With repeated roots, the corresponding condition would also require derivatives , or pairing with , up to one less than each multiplicity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 327 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The multiplication of a distribution by a smooth function is . If is a Schwartz function, the Leibniz rule shows that is a continuous map , so is a tempered distribution. When both and are radial, , andThus Multiplication by a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
For the convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function, setTranslations of depend smoothly on in the Schwartz space, so this is a smooth function with . The bound for by finitely many seminorms, together with , provesThus the function also defines a tempered distribution. For a radial function , put . Then , soHence Convolution with a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
Smoothing alone need not give a Schwartz function: for the constant tempered distribution and a Schwartz function with integral one, . The radial Schwartz approximation of tempered distributions therefore combines smoothing with a large-radius cutoff. Choose a nonnegative radial mollifier , supported in the unit ball with integral one, and a radial cutoff function equal to one on the unit ball. PutEach is a smooth function of compact support, hence a Schwartz function, and the two invariance calculations above make it radial.
It remains to prove convergence, including the simultaneous changes of both scales. With , the distributional convolution pairing isFor every fixed , the Leibniz rule, rapid decay outside the radius- ball, and the chain rule for giveConvolution by is uniformly bounded in for , because its shifts have size at most one. The mean value theorem applied to similarly givesSplitting the error into the convolved cutoff error and the approximate identity error provesIf , this yieldsConsequentlyweakly, and even in the strong dual topology, since is uniformly bounded on every subset of the Schwartz space that is a bounded set in a topological vector space. No assertion that itself is rapidly decreasing is needed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 327 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For multi-indices , defineThese seminorms define the Fréchet space topology of the Schwartz space: exactly when every tends to zero. An equivalent increasing family isA tempered distribution is a continuous linear functional on this space. Equivalently, for some . The usual weak convergence of tempered distributions means for every fixed Schwartz function. The strong dual topology instead requires uniform convergence on every subset of the Schwartz space that is a bounded set in a topological vector space; the Fourier maps below are continuous in both topologies.
Using , differentiation under the integral and integration by parts giveThe omitted coefficient has modulus one. By the Leibniz rule, every integrand is a finite sum of a polynomial times a derivative of . Inserting the integrable weight bounds its L1 norm by finitely many Schwartz space seminorms. In particular . Thus the Fourier transform maps continuously into itself.
For completeness, the Fourier inversion theorem follows here by Gaussian regularization. The inverse transform of is . The Fourier transform of a Gaussian and Fubini's theorem showAs , the right side tends to by the approximate identity property, while the left side tends to the undamped inverse integral by dominated convergence theorem, since . HenceThe inverse is times reflection composed with the continuous Fourier transform, and is therefore continuous on the Schwartz space. This proves a continuous linear isomorphism with continuous inverse.
Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution byThe continuous map on Schwartz space makes this a tempered distribution; the transpose of supplies its inverse. Pointwise convergence of pairings proves weak continuity. For the strong dual topology, the transform of a bounded set of Schwartz functions is bounded, so uniform convergence of pairings on bounded sets proves continuity of both Fourier maps there too.
Now let be a rotation matrix in the special orthogonal group and write . A change of variables with unit Jacobian givesThe rotation equivariance of the Fourier transform on tempered distributions follows by duality:Therefore . Applying this identity and the inverse Fourier transform gives the two directions:This is precisely preservation of radial tempered distributions. For , acts transitively on spheres, so an invariant smooth function is an ordinary radial function.