Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 12 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First perform homogenization of Dirichlet boundary data: put and . Then weakly. Extend both functions oddly across the flat face:The zero Sobolev trace of makes this odd reflection an function. This can also be seen by approximating by smooth compactly supported functions in and reflecting the approximants. Its norm is times that of , and .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 107 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose a smooth cutoff function supported in , equal to one on , with and . For , put . The zero Dirichlet boundary condition implies that the tangential boundary derivative vanishes on the flat face. Differentiating the Poisson equation gives . Test this equation with . The boundary terms vanish because on the flat face and near the curved face. Integration by parts in the tangential direction moves off , yieldingThis is the essential Caccioppoli inequality step: it involves , rather than . Expanding and using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the Young inequality givesThe term is bounded by . Absorbing the first term and summing over proves the hinted estimate:All mixed second partial derivatives are now controlled, since . The remaining normal derivative is recovered from the equation:The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality bounds its squared L2 norm by times the sum of the squared L2 norms on the right. Including the already controlled zeroth and first partial derivatives, and taking square roots, gives the second-derivative estimate at a flat Dirichlet boundary:The full second-order Sobolev norm is controlled without any norm of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 107 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use homogenization of Dirichlet boundary data: put , using the supplied extension of to the half-ball. Then on the flat face and . The second-derivative estimate at a flat Dirichlet boundary from part (a) givesThe triangle inequality gives , while the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality bounds by . Finally , so restriction from the larger half-ball and another triangle inequality giveNonzero boundary data contribute the second-order Sobolev norm of their extension. No estimate for a separately constructed extension is needed, because is already given on the half-ball.