Determinantal divisor 2026-10-06
For an integer matrix , its th determinantal divisor is the nonnegative greatest common divisor of all -by- matrix minors, with . If all these minors vanish, take . Unimodular row and column operations preserve these divisors. For nonzero invariant factors in the Smith normal form, for , so .
Over the principal ideal domain , Smith normal form decomposes a chain complex of finitely generated free modules into direct sums of one-term complexes and two-term complexesThe one-term summands record free homology, the summands with record cyclic torsion, and those with are acyclic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ib Paper 3 14F iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
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Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 16 1 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The three handle attachments give : there are no one-handles or three-handles. Use the capped core disks of handles as the homology basis, ordered by the framing labels . The surgery linking matrix gives the intersection form. Orient the three components so that the outer components have linking number and the middle component has linking number with each outer component. There are six crossings between the outer components, and two crossings between the middle component and each outer component; counting their signs gives these linking numbers. Reversing a component changes the corresponding row and column signs and does not change the invariants.
Thus the intersection form isAn exact matrix congruence diagonalizes this intersection form toConsequently its signature is , and .
The long exact sequence in relative homology and Poincare-Lefschetz duality identifywith the intersection form matrix, and identify with its cokernel, since . The Smith normal form has first invariant factor , because the entries have greatest common divisor , and second invariant factor , because the upper-left two-by-two matrix minor has determinant . The last invariant factor is . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 18 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let , and let be the inverse image of the cyclic subgroup under the quotient map. Then is an inclusion of Euclidean lattices with . The Smith normal form supplies a basis of for whichChoose the orientation of this basis so that . Dividing the coordinate on by gives an isomorphism of complex toriHere maps to , and its class generates . Thus the isomorphism carries to the required cyclic subgroup. Every pair is represented: is surjective. This argument avoids assuming that an arbitrary integer lift of a primitive vector modulo is itself primitive.
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The group presentation gives the quotient group by the subgroup generated by the rows ofFor the Smith normal form, the first determinantal divisor is the greatest common divisor of all entries, namely . The nonzero two-by-two matrix minors are , so the second determinantal divisor is . The third row is the second minus the first, and a nonzero minor shows the rank is exactly two. Consequently the nonzero invariant factors are and , with one free generator. The Fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups givesAn element killed by has zero free coordinate, arbitrary coordinate in , and coordinate or in . There are nine such elements. Removing the identity leaves eight elements of order three.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 14 5 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Give the three Hopf fibration components coherent orientations, so their pairwise linking numbers are one. In the link exterior, their longitudes satisfy . Filling along imposes that relation on first homology. For the three rational coefficients the presentation matrix isIts determinant is , and the greatest common divisor of its two-by-two minors is one (for example, and occur). Its Smith normal form is , soA nonzero rational coefficient with numerator one does not by itself make a multi-component surgery an integral homology sphere: the nonzero linking numbers must be included.
For the integer filling, use the Seifert fibered space structure . Its central regular fiber is , and each preferred longitude is . The three filling relations are consequentlySubstituting into gives . The remaining equations say , hence and . Thus its fundamental group is cyclic of order two.
Geometrically, a filling coefficient attaches a Seifert fibered space solid torus with multiplicity , the distance of from the regular fiber . The multiplicities are ; the middle filling creates no exceptional fiber. The result is a Seifert fibered space over the sphere with at most two exceptional fibers, hence a union of two solid tori, or a lens space. A lens space with fundamental group of order two is . ThereforeAs a separate arithmetic check, the integer surgery linking matrix has determinant , in agreement with its first homology of order two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 127 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Choose the Hopf map and orientations so its Hopf invariant is one. The cellular cohomology of is in degrees and zero otherwise. Let be generators in degrees two and four. Precomposing with a degree- self-map of represents . The induced map of mapping cones is the identity on the two-cell and has degree on the four-cell. Since the Hopf mapping cone has cup square equal to its top generator, naturality of the cup product gives . Equivalently, precomposition scales the Hopf invariant by degree. HenceThe coefficient is , not : multiplication in is being used, rather than postcomposition by a degree- map of the target sphere.
For , the only nonzero cellular boundary is , multiplication by . Thus its cellular cohomology givesLet again generate , and let be the class of the four-cell cochain. Collapsing the three-sphere gives a map which pulls the degree-two generator back to and the degree-four generator back to . Hence , now interpreted modulo . Every other product of positive-degree classes vanishes by dimension. This is the cohomology ring of a Hopf attachment with a sphere summand. More explicitly, if ,If , there is additionally a generator of degree three, with . The displayed description of the groups uses , so the zero case is included. In particular, a nonzero kills the degree-three cohomology but can leave torsion in degree four.
There are no one-cells, and attaching cells of dimension at least three does not change . Thus is simply connected. The Hurewicz theorem in degree two gives
To compute , choose a map representing . This Eilenberg–MacLane space can be realized by the classifying space of . On the map is the standard inclusion; on it is constant, and it extends over the four-cell since . Its homotopy fibre is the pullback of the universal circle bundle . The map on is an isomorphism, so the long exact sequence of homotopy groups of a fibration gives and . Therefore the Hurewicz theorem identifies the latter with .
Over , the circle-bundle total space isThe first summand is the Hopf fibration total space over , and the second is the trivial bundle over . Their intersection is the fibre over the wedge point. The Mayer–Vietoris sequence gives , with generators from the two three-spheres. These are the lifts of and . The circle bundle over also has a 2-connected total space, so lifting and the Hurewicz theorem identify with .
Over the attached four-disc the bundle is trivial. The resulting relative pair has the homology of , so and . Its boundary map sends a generator to the lift of the attaching map, namely . The long exact sequence in relative homology now givesApplying Smith normal form to this one relation proves the third homotopy group of a Hopf attachment with a sphere summand:Since , the greatest common divisor is positive even when . This derivation uses the required map to an Eilenberg–MacLane space and determines the extension, rather than merely the orders of its pieces.
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Use integer coefficients. The mapping-torus homology from Mayer–Vietoris works for every continuous map , without assuming that the mapping torus is a fiber bundle. Project to the time circle and choose two open arcs, one containing the seam and one away from it. The inverse image of the seam arc is a mapping cylinder neighborhood with a deformation retraction to its target copy of ; the inverse image of the other arc is a product with a deformation retraction to . Their intersection has two components, each with a deformation retraction to . Label the upper component first. With the convention that the second inclusion in the Mayer–Vietoris sequence has a minus sign, its homology map isIndeed, the upper component includes into the seam neighborhood by the identity, while retracting the lower component across the seam applies . Put and , and replace target coordinates by . The map becomes . Negating gives a direct sum of and an isomorphism. Canceling the latter summands in the long exact sequence yieldsIn particular, there is a short exact sequenceNo splitting of this short exact sequence is assumed at this stage.
For the torus, take the coordinate loops and as the basis of . Their lifts to have endpoint displacements . Applying changes those displacements to its columns, soThis also follows from the identification of the first homology group with the abelianization of the fundamental group. The Künneth theorem gives , with generator the product orientation class. If are the dual degree-one cohomology classes, then evaluates to one on this generator, andThus the degree-two homology map is multiplication by , as in homology of an integer torus endomorphism. The claim that the torus map is a homeomorphism requires to be a unimodular matrix, equivalently an integer inverse or ; nonsingularity over alone would only give a covering map of finite degree. The particular matrix here is unimodular.
For this matrix, andIts kernel is zero and its Smith normal form is , so its cokernel is . The maps on and are zero. Substituting into the short exact sequences, and splitting the degree-one extension because its quotient is free, gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 4 11G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
A Smith normal form of an matrix over a principal ideal domain is a diagonal matrixwhere and . It is guaranteed to exist for every matrix over a principal ideal domain. The entries are determined up to multiplication by units; over they are conventionally chosen positive.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ib Paper 4 11G b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Present a finitely generated abelian group as the cokernel of an integer matrix . Changing by the invertible row and column operations used in its Smith normal form does not change the isomorphism type of the cokernel. Ifthenwhere factors with may be omitted. This is the Fundamental theorem of finitely generated abelian groups; the rank of an abelian group and invariant factors are unique.
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The structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain applies because every Euclidean domain is a principal ideal domain. It says that a finitely generated -module is isomorphic towhere the nonzero nonunits are unique up to multiplication by units. They are the invariant factors.
For , multiplication by is the linear map . Since is finite-dimensional over , is a finitely generated torsion module over the polynomial ring , so it has no free summand. Choosing each invariant factor to be monic givesThe basis of each cyclic summand makes multiplication by a companion matrix. Concatenating these bases therefore puts in rational canonical form.
On , a polynomial annihilates multiplication by exactly when it is divisible by . It follows that the minimal polynomial and characteristic polynomial areThe second identity follows blockwise from the characteristic polynomial of a companion matrix. Since every divides , the product annihilates every cyclic summand. Thus , which is the Cayley-Hamilton theorem.
For the displayed matrix, the given generators of are the columns ofElementary row and column operations over give the Smith normal formConsequently the nonunit invariant factors areand, as a check,
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Matrices over a Euclidean domain are equivalent when for invertible matrices , equivalently when one can pass between them by invertible elementary row and column operations.
For a nonzero matrix, move a nonzero entry to the top left and use Euclidean division and row or column operations to replace it by any nonzero remainder. Repeating terminates with an entry dividing every entry; otherwise adding an offending entry into its row would permit one more strict Euclidean reduction. Clear its row and column, then apply induction to the remaining submatrix. This proves equivalence to a diagonal matrix. It is in Smith normal form when, up to units,
Applying these operations over does not change the isomorphism type of the quotient. If the Smith form of is , thenIt is finite exactly when every is nonzero, equivalently , and then
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 112 5 b Solution 2026-09-28
Distinct components of the positively oriented torus link have linking number one. Since every component also has framing relative to the Seifert framing, the surgery linking matrix and hence the intersection form of the surgery trace areIts Smith normal form is . The surgery exact sequence, equivalently the kernel and cokernel of , gives
In Kirby calculus, sliding the components over one chosen component diagonalizes the framed link to a split -framed unknot and zero-framed unknots. Hencewhere denotes boundary connected sum.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 112 5 c Solution 2026-09-28
With zero framings, the surgery linking matrix isIts eigenvalues are on the span of and on the complementary subspace, so . For , its Smith normal form is , and therefore
Handle slides reduce this surgery diagram to the standard surgery diagram of the lens space ; equivalently, the generator of the cokernel has linking pairing . Thusup to the orientation convention for surgery. When , the matrix is and the exceptional answer is , with .