Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 42 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The SU(2) group consists of complex matrices with and . The SO(3) group consists of real matrices with and . Differentiate these equations along a path through the identity. This givesConversely the matrix exponential of each displayed infinitesimal matrix satisfies the corresponding group equations, so these are exactly the Lie algebras, with bracket the matrix commutator.
Using the Pauli matrices, put . They form a real basis of the SU(2) Lie algebra. The Pauli matrix commutator identity gives . Define on by . These are a basis of the SO(3) Lie algebra; the vector triple-product identity gives . Thusis a real linear bijection preserving the bracket. This is the SU(2)-SO(3) Lie algebra isomorphism. It is a Lie-algebra isomorphism, not a group isomorphism: the Adjoint double cover from SU(2) to SO(3) has kernel .
The SU(3) group is defined similarly by and on complex matrices. One SU(2) subgroup is . The real orthogonal matrices with determinant one form an SO(3) group subgroup, since real orthogonality is also complex unitarity.
Under the defining group action, the group orbit of is exactly the unit sphere in :Unitarity proves containment. Conversely, extend a unit vector to an orthonormal basis and use it as the first column of a unitary matrix. Multiplying the last column by the inverse of its determinant makes that determinant one without changing the first column. The isotropy group of must also preserve its orthogonal complement, and therefore isThis proves the unit sphere orbit of the defining special unitary action, including .
For the complex quadric, write . Its defining relation separates intoThe Hermitian norm is then , which is not constant on this set. For example, and both satisfy the complex bilinear relation but have Hermitian norms one and three. Since the SU(3) group preserves that norm, the quadric cannot be a single SU(3) group orbit. In fact it is not even invariant under the whole group: fails the bilinear relation when .
The real SO(3) group does preserve the quadric, acting simultaneously on and . Its group orbits are classified completely by . For , and is a real unit vector, giving the group orbit and stabilizer subgroup . For , the vectors and are orthonormal. Adjoining their cross product gives an oriented orthonormal frame. There is a unique rotation taking the standard frame to this one; hence the action is transitive at fixed and the stabilizer subgroup is trivial. Thus the real rotation orbits on a complex unit quadric areIn particular the real subgroup does not act transitively on the whole quadric. The parametrization with and also identifies the quadric, as a real manifold, with the tangent bundle of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 45 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take real field coordinates ; for complex scalar fields, split them into real and imaginary parts. Assume a smooth scalar potential and positive, canonically normalized kinetic terms in a relativistic theory. At a classical vacuum, . The Taylor expansion isThus the scalar mass matrix is the Hessian matrix, and its eigenvalues give squared masses of the linearized scalar excitations.
Put . Infinitesimal invariance of the scalar potential gives the identity at every field value. Differentiate with respect to and evaluate at the classical vacuum:Every nonzero infinitesimal symmetry direction therefore lies in the kernel of the scalar mass matrix. This is the classical Goldstone theorem expressed through Goldstone directions in the scalar mass matrix.
Let be the full stabilizer subgroup of . The linear map from the Lie algebra of to field space, , has kernel equal to the Lie algebra of . The rank-nullity theorem givesThere are consequently at least massless scalar directions, namely the tangent directions to the symmetry orbit through the classical vacuum. If the intended is , these are the symmetry-required Goldstone bosons. Exactly that many massless modes occur if the scalar mass matrix is positive definite on a complement of those tangent directions. A nonsingular positive field-space kinetic metric changes normalization, but not the number of zero masses.
Two qualifications are needed for the literal assumptions. A subgroup fixing the classical vacuum need not be the full stabilizer subgroup. For example, take acting on a real triplet and with . At , the scalar mass matrix is : there are two massless modes. Choosing satisfies the printed invariance condition but would incorrectly predict three. The full stabilizer subgroup is .
Even with the full stabilizer subgroup, symmetry does not exclude an accidental massless scalar. Take rotating , with an invariant singlet , andAt the full continuous stabilizer is trivial, but the scalar mass matrix is . One zero direction is the Goldstone boson; the other is an accidental massless scalar at quadratic order. The proof establishes the symmetry-required count, not unconditional equality with the total number of massless fields. The statement concerns global internal symmetry; gauging it changes the physical interpretation through the Higgs mechanism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 45 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Assume and . The vacuum manifold is the sphere . Choose . For the given generators, whereas and are nonzero and independent. The Adjoint representation of SU(2) rotates this sphere, and the full connected stabilizer subgroup of is generated by . Hence the classical symmetry pattern isThe central element of SU(2) acts trivially on the triplet and belongs to this stabilizer; it does not add a separate broken direction. The gauge-field-free representative has zero gauge field strength and constant scalar magnitude. Locally near this nonzero classical vacuum, unitary gauge aligns the triplet along the third axis.
First make the gauge normalization explicit. Write the gauge kinetic term as , where if is the matrix used inside the printed trace. Canonical normalization of a gauge kinetic term givesFor a conventionally normalized component trace, and . If the trace is the ordinary matrix trace in the displayed three-dimensional representation, and . The PDF does not specify which trace convention is intended; both are covered by this formula.
In unitary gauge, the gauge covariant derivative isExpanding this kinetic term and the scalar potential gives the complete physical-field LagrangianHere a square of a vector means its contraction with the Minkowski metric, in signature . The labels 1 and 2 represent massive vectors; 3 represents the surviving Abelian vector.
To display their charge and all interactions more clearly, put , , and defineWith the sign of gauge field strength printed in the paper, and . Thus the same Lagrangian becomesThe physical masses areIn particular, literal adjoint matrix trace gives ; the standard canonical component convention gives . These are descriptions with differently normalized couplings, not different physical spectra.
The complex vector pair carries opposite charges under the unbroken U(1) gauge symmetry. The gauge field strength terms contain cubic interactions, quartic interactions, and four-vector interactions involving the charged fields. There is no pure Abelian cubic or quartic self-interaction. The Higgs mode has cubic and quartic scalar interactions and couples through . It is neutral and has no tree-level interaction. This is the physical charged-vector Lagrangian for an adjoint SU2 Higgs model.
If the angular fields and were retained, their vanishing potential masses would identify the two Goldstone bosons of the ungauged triplet. In the gauge theory they mix with the broken-direction gauge fields and can be removed by gauge fixing; the Higgs mechanism uses them as the longitudinal polarizations of the two massive vectors. They are not additional physical massless scalars. The physical degrees of freedom are conserved: before rearrangement, and afterwards.
This is not the Standard Model electroweak interaction. It has three original gauge bosons, leaving two massive charged vectors and one massless neutral vector, with no massive neutral Z boson. The Standard Model instead has , a complex Higgs doublet, and three massive vectors plus the photon. Its charge is , not just the surviving . Adding fermions cannot supply the missing gauge generator or turn the surviving neutral vector into both a photon and a Z boson. In particular, the usual right-handed fermions in the Standard Model are SU(2) singlets; they would have zero charge if only were available, instead of the charges produced by hypercharge.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 7D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Möbius transformations are bijections, so they preserve which coordinates of a triple are equal. Conversely, part (i) implies transitivity within each equality pattern. For a pattern with fewer than three distinct entries, extend the chosen distinct points to a triple before applying part (i); this works also for , when the projective line has exactly three points. There are therefore five orbits of a group action.
We first count . Its first column can be any nonzero vector, giving choices. The second must be outside the first column's one-dimensional span, giving choices. HenceFor the all-equal pattern take . Its stabilizer subgroup consists of upper triangular matricesof order . Its group orbit has order .
The three exactly-two-equal patterns have representatives , and . Each stabilizer subgroup fixes and individually, so it is the diagonal subgroup of order . Each group orbit has order ; their repeated-coordinate positions keep these three orbits distinct.
For the all-distinct pattern use . Its stabilizer subgroup is the scalar subgroup of order , and the group orbit has order . Stabilizers of arbitrary triples are conjugates of the displayed representative stabilizers. In summary the equality-pattern orbits of projective triples haveThe sizes add to , and each orbit size times its stabilizer order is , as in the orbit-stabilizer theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 3 7D i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Identify the projective line with one-dimensional subspaces of : use for finite , and . This convention turns the matrix action into the stipulated Möbius transformation.
Since and are distinct projective points, are a basis. Write . Both and are nonzero, because is different from . The matrix with columns and is invertible and sends the lines of to those of , respectively. This constructs the requested map without separate exceptional formulas at infinity.
A matrix fixing and is diagonal, say with . To fix it must also satisfy , so the stabilizer subgroup of is precisely . Any two solutions differ on the right by one of these matrices. ThusEquivalently, after dividing out scalar matrices the projective general linear group action on the projective line is sharply three-transitive on a projective line.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 44 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a differentiable curve in the SO(3) group with , differentiating gives , where . Conversely, if is a real skew-symmetric matrix, is an orthogonal matrix and has determinant . HenceThe displayed generators of the SO(3) Lie algebra areThey are linearly independent and span the three independent entries of a real skew-symmetric matrix. Equivalently, . The vector triple-product identity then givesThus the structure constants of a Lie algebra in this basis are
Use a real, antisymmetric convention throughout the SO(3) vector Higgs model. With gauge coupling , the gauge covariant derivative and gauge field strength areThere is no factor of in these formulas because are real antisymmetric generators. For a local non-Abelian gauge transformation , with in the SO(3) group, the compatible transformation of the gauge potential isIt gives and . These covariance laws fix the relative signs in the gauge covariant derivative and gauge field strength.
An SO(3) invariant quartic scalar potential isSince , this scalar potential is gauge-invariant. Its minimum is the sphere , rather than a preferred direction in the internal vector space.
Writing , the cross product form of the gauge covariant derivative is . In components this isCorrespondingly, the gauge field strength has components
A covariantly constant vector Higgs field has constant norm, becauseThe last equality uses antisymmetry of the gauge potential. On a connected region write this norm as . If , the vector Higgs field is identically zero. If , the SO(3) group acts transitively on unit vectors, so choose a smooth local non-Abelian gauge transformation rotating to . In this unitary gauge, with constant. This is a local construction, and is global on a trivial contractible region; a nontrivial bundle can require more than one gauge patch.
For nonzero , substituting the constant aligned vector Higgs field into gives . For nonzero gauge coupling, the most general compatible gauge potential and gauge field strength arewhere is an arbitrary real one-form. Thus the surviving gauge group is the stabilizer subgroup of . A covariantly constant vector Higgs field does not force the gauge field strength to vanish: it only requires the curvature to annihilate that field.
For the Higgs mechanism, choose a vacuum of the SO(3) invariant quartic scalar potential, so the constant norm is . The canonically normalized kinetic term then containsThe two broken-direction gauge bosons have mass (or if the sign of is unrestricted), while the gauge boson remains massless. The two angular Goldstone bosons supply the massive vectors' longitudinal gauge-boson polarizations. The radial fluctuation remains a physical scalar field, with for this normalization. The condition selects backgrounds without broken-direction gauge potentials; fluctuations about such a vacuum exhibit the two massive modes. Constancy of the norm alone does not require it to minimize the scalar potential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 3 15F b i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
If is -transitive, it is transitive by extending one-element tuples to -tuples. Apply -transitivity to tuples beginning with to see that the stabilizer subgroup is -transitive on the remaining elements.
Conversely, given two ordered -tuples of distinct elements, transitivity first supplies carrying their first entries to each other. Conjugating the given stabilizer hypothesis shows that the stabilizer of the target first entry is -transitive. An element of that stabilizer then maps the remaining entries of the image tuple to their targets. Composing the two elements proves -transitivity. For , the condition on zero-tuples is vacuous.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 3 7D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a group action of a finite group on a set and a point , the orbit-stabilizer theorem iswhere is the stabilizer subgroup. The map is well defined because elements of the same coset act identically on . If , then , so their cosets agree; every orbit point has the form , giving surjectivity. This is a bijection. Lagrange's theorem, for any subgroup , yields the counting formula.
Apply the conjugation action of the finite p-group to its nontrivial normal subgroup . Normality ensures the action stays inside . The singleton orbits of a group action are exactly the elements of . Every larger orbit of a group action has size a positive power of , by the orbit-stabilizer theorem and Lagrange's theorem. ThereforeSince is nontrivial, its order is divisible by . The intersection contains the identity and has cardinality a positive multiple of , so it contains a nonidentity element. This proves the central intersection property of normal subgroups of finite p-groups.
For the proper subgroup , let act by left multiplication on the left cosets . A coset is fixed by every exactly when . Both groups have the same finite size, so this inclusion is equality; the fixed cosets are precisely those with . Hence their number is . All non-singleton orbits of a group action have size divisible by , soSince is proper, is a positive power of greater than one. The fixed-coset count is nonzero, because itself is fixed, and is divisible by . Therefore the normalizer strictly contains :This is the normalizer condition for finite p-groups. The proof also covers , whose action fixes all cosets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 3 7E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For a group action, the orbit of a group action of is , and its stabilizer subgroup is . The orbit-stabilizer theorem gives : the map is a well-defined bijection from stabilizer cosets to the orbit.
Within one orbit, the stabilizer subgroups are conjugate, since . Their sizes are therefore equal. Summing stabilizer sizes over a single orbit gives , and summing over all orbits yieldsNow count the pairs fixed by the action in two ways. Holding fixed gives choices of , whereas holding fixed gives choices of . ThusCombining the two identities proves Burnside lemma:The finiteness hypotheses justify these cardinality sums. If is empty, every sum and the orbit count are zero, so the formula still applies.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 308 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Skyrme model represents the three pions by a field in the special unitary group ,with Pauli matrices . Near , the three tangent components are the pion fields, with a normalization scale suppressed here. Define . In one useful sign convention with metric , the action consists ofwhere and the last term is optional, with proportional to a common pion mass squared. The first term is a nonlinear sigma model kinetic term, and the second is the four-derivative term of the Skyrme model. For a static configuration of size , the two derivative contributions scale as and , whereas a mass term scales as . This Derrick scaling explains why the four-derivative term can stabilize a finite size instead of allowing collapse.
A finite-energy field configuration approaches a vacuum, conventionally . Compactifying space makes a map . The topological baryon number in the Skyrme model is its degree of a map between oriented manifolds,The sign convention makes the standard decreasing hedgehog have . Smooth evolution with the vacuum boundary condition preserves this integer. A Skyrmion is a localized soliton in such a sector; the unit soliton, after quantization, models a nucleon, and higher positive charges model multi-baryon systems. The topological conservation law is distinct from an ordinary Noether charge of isospin. Classical pion fields are bosonic, so obtaining fermionic nucleons also needs the quantum-statistics choice discussed below.
The derivative theory has global chiral symmetry , acting by . The simultaneous pair acts trivially, so the faithful connected action can also be viewed as on . In the massless theory the choice of vacuum breaks this to the vector subgroup. For fixed , the vacuum-preserving symmetry of the Skyrme model requires and acts by . This is isospin, effectively because and act the same way. A usual common pion-mass term explicitly preserves only this vector subgroup; full chiral symmetry is then an approximate massless-limit symmetry, not an exact symmetry of that term. Independent axial rotations change the vacuum and are not extra localized rigid-rotor coordinates in a sector with fixed boundary vacuum.
The space-time symmetry is the Poincare group, comprising translations and Lorentz transformations, including spatial rotations. Parity acts as , since pions are pseudoscalars. For a static finite-energy solution, translations change its position; spatial rotations and isorotations change its orientation. These transformations generate collective coordinates, but a particular field can be unchanged by certain combined transformations.
For the usual low-charge minimum branches of the standard model, the relevant shapes and density symmetries are the following. These are not claims about every field of a given degree, all excited solutions or arbitrary modified pion potentials.
Schematic Skyrmion configurations
. Schematic shapes of the Skyrme baryon density at low charge: sphere, torus, tetrahedral shell and cubic shell. They show shape and symmetry, rather than numerically computed density isosurfaces.For , the Skyrmion hedgehog ansatz isIts Skyrme baryon density is spherical. Indeed . A spatial rotation rotates the pion direction, so the field itself is invariant under a compensating isorotation, not under every spatial rotation alone. Its proper combined stabilizer is a diagonal .
For , the toroidal two-Skyrmion has a ring-shaped density with an axial hole and full density symmetry . The proper combined field stabilizer is an -type group: its continuous subgroup pairs axial spatial rotation by with isorotation by , and it also has discrete transverse half-turns. The angular approximation makes the axial factor two explicit. A static two-baryon minimum is consequently not simply two separate round unit lumps.
For , the tetrahedral three-Skyrmion has a tetrahedral shell with four face-hole directions and full density group . Its proper rotational group is , the tetrahedral symmetry group of order 12. The actual field symmetries again pair these rotations with isorotations.
For , the cubic four-Skyrmion has a cubic shell with six face-hole directions. Its full density group is , the symmetry group of a cube, and its proper group is , the rotational symmetry group of a cube of order 24. Cubic and octahedral symmetry name the same point group; this particular density shape is cubic. Reflections in these full density groups should not be confused with the proper rotation-isorotation group used for angular-momentum quantization.
As a concrete independent check on these shape symmetries, the rational map approximation for Skyrmions useswith and . Representative maps areTheir degrees are , and with the stated radial boundary conditions their baryon numbers equal these degrees. The angular Jacobian of a rational map is . It vanishes at branch directions. has uniform angular density; has its two branch directions on the axial poles; the Wronskian of a rational map for is proportional to , giving tetrahedrally arranged holes; has branch directions , giving the six cube-face directions. Also pairs a spatial quarter-turn with an isospin half-turn. These give illustrative approximate fields, not exact analytic solutions or a proof of global energy minimality.
To quantize, first distinguish the model's group from the chosen soliton's stabilizer subgroup . A family of the same static energy isIgnoring translations for the moment, , and different rigid orientations form the Skyrmion collective-coordinate orbit . The connected stabilizer dimensions are for the four shapes, so their orientation-orbit dimensions are ; adding translations gives . For the unit hedgehog, treating rotation and isorotation as six independent modes would double-count its locked orientation. For higher charges, arbitrary separation of constituent lumps is not an exact flat moduli space in this non-Bogomolny theory.
Let the orbit coordinates depend slowly on time. Integrating the kinetic terms gives a collective-coordinate effective Lagrangian , with positive kinetic metric after removing redundant stabilizer directions. Its angular blocks are the spatial, isospin and mixed inertia tensors. Collective-coordinate quantization produces a rotor Hamiltonian on this orbit, with translations giving center-of-mass momentum. The global symmetry supplies states transforming in spin- and isospin- group representations, and the associated conserved angular momenta. Inertia tensors determine energy splittings; group symmetry alone does not specify those tensors or their numerical energies.
The topology and the static stabilizer supply further collective-rotation constraints for a Skyrmion. The degree- configuration space has fundamental group , related to . Choosing the nontrivial Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints character gives fermionic unit baryons. Wavefunctions live on the appropriate cover, and a lifted stabilizer operation obeysThe sign depends on whether the actual field-configuration loop is contractible, not just on whether the density looks symmetric. A spatial rotation or isorotation has sign in this fermionic choice, soThus odd baryon number requires half-integer spin and isospin; even baryon number requires integers. Discrete or continuous combined stabilizer symmetries impose additional restrictions on the allowed pairs and body-fixed rotor states. They must not simply be omitted, or replaced by trivial invariance under every density symmetry. The trivial character is a possible bosonic quantization but would not produce a fermionic nucleon. Improper field symmetries, implemented using the model parity transformation, can additionally constrain parity labels; scalar-density reflection symmetry alone is insufficient to infer those labels.
For example, the two-Skyrmion axial stabilizer can be written in body-axis conventions as , with the spatial and the isospin generators. A transverse spatial half-turn accompanied by an isospin half-turn has the nontrivial sign in the Finkelstein-Rubinstein constraints. The integer-spin scalar state is therefore excluded despite even . A spin-one, isospin-zero state with zero axial body projection has the required minus sign under that half-turn; the spin-zero, isospin-one channel can also satisfy the constraints. Their relative energies require the inertia tensors.
For the unit hedgehog, these requirements reduce to rotational quantization of a unit Skyrmion: one orientation with has . With the energies are , where is its moment of inertia. Since , the purely rotational hedgehog band has positive parity; vibrational excitations need not share it. The multiplet models the spin-half proton/neutron isospin doublet; gives the Delta baryon multiplet. The familiar lowest rotor assignments for are respectively . These assignments incorporate the corresponding field-stabilizer constraints and standard inertia ordering, not a prediction from density shape alone. Deformations, vibrational modes, radiation and binding dynamics lie beyond the rigid approximation. The two symmetry roles are therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 143 1 d Solution 2026-10-03
Let have a generating set of a group with elements. Every subgroup of index gives a transitive group action of on the left cosets of , hence a group homomorphism after the cosets are labelled. Conversely, is the stabilizer subgroup of one point in this action.
A homomorphism is determined by the images of the generators, so there are at most such homomorphisms and at most point stabilizers. Therefore the finiteness of subgroups of a fixed finite index gives only finitely many subgroups of index .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ia Paper 3 5E Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
A group action of on is a map such that and . The orbit and stabilizer of areFor a finite group, the mapis a well-defined bijection from the left cosets of to . Each coset has elements, so the orbit-stabilizer theorem is
The Cauchy theorem for groups says that if a prime number divides , then has an element of order . To prove it, letThe first entries determine the last, so , which is divisible by . The cyclic group acts on by cyclically rotating the entries; rotation preserves the product condition becauseEvery orbit has size one or . The fixed points are exactly the tuples with . Their number is therefore divisible by . Since the identity gives one fixed point, there is another, and its entry has order .
Now let . Cauchy's theorem gives a subgroup of order . Let act by the conjugation action on the set of subgroups of order . It fixes . If it also fixed , then would normalize ; since , the product would be a subgroup of order , which is impossible. Every other -orbit in therefore has size , soDistinct members of share only the identity and each contributes ten nonidentity elements. Hence , forcing . Thus is a normal subgroup.
Conjugation now defines a group homomorphismBecause , its automorphism group has order . By the Lagrange theorem, the image has order dividing both and , so the image is trivial and lies in the center of . Cauchy's theorem also supplies of order . If generates , then and commute and has order . Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 3 23F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let and let be its stabilizer subgroup. Choose a sufficiently small disc about such thatPart (a) says that is cyclic and supplies a coordinate in which is . Since the global orbit map identifies no additional points within , this is also a chart on a neighbourhood of the orbit in
Use these quotient charts at every orbit. On overlaps, a local inverse branch of one power map followed by a group translate and the other power map gives the transition function; it is holomorphic. The charts therefore define a conformal structure on , and the local expressions show directly that the quotient map is holomorphic. This is the finite conformal quotient of a Riemann surface construction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 324 1 a ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Put . For ,Thus is constant on every left coset of and takes different values on different cosets. Its oracle is therefore an oracle for the hidden subgroup problem, and the hidden subgroup is precisely the stabilizer subgroup .
