Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 33 6 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Let . The Brownian reflection principle givesHere is the reflection argument: on paths that hit before , reflect all increments after their first hitting time. The Strong Markov property gives independent Brownian motion after that time, whose sign can be reversed without changing its law. This exchanges paths ending below with paths ending above . The latter have necessarily hit , and the endpoint has no atom at , giving the displayed equality. It also shows that has a continuous distribution at every positive level.
Writing for the standard normal distribution function, the probability of staying below the barrier is thereforeSince as , the Brownian barrier survival asymptotic isAny smaller exponent gives a zero limit and any larger exponent gives an infinite limit, so this is the unique exponent producing a finite positive constant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 33 6 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the simple symmetric random walk, the increments have mean and variance . Use the polygonal interpolation from (b). The maximum functional is Lipschitz in the supremum norm, sinceEach interpolating segment is linear, so its maximum occurs at a grid endpoint. The continuous mapping theorem applied to the Donsker invariance principle givesThe limiting maximum has no atom at by the Brownian reflection principle, so the closed-tail probabilities converge at this threshold. Including does not change the event because . Therefore the random-walk maximum limit from Donsker invariance isHere is the standard normal distribution function. The normalization and the positive-threshold condition are those in the PDF; the TeX aid's is not the printed expression.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 29 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the Box-Muller transform, draw independent from the uniform distribution on and setThe radial density is for , with an independent uniform angle. The polar-to-Cartesian Jacobian determinant is , so the joint density of isThis factorization proves that both outputs have the standard normal distribution and are independent. Repeating the Box-Muller transform with fresh independent uniform pairs gives independent normal outputs; discard one extra output if the desired sample size is odd.
For the prescribed binary probabilities, generate independent standard normal values in this way and useThe standard normal distribution function gives , and independence is preserved because each threshold uses a different independent normal value.
For the probit regression posterior, introduce latent variablesGiven , these are independent variables, and normal symmetry gives . Thus this data augmentation has exactly the observed binary likelihood. With the specified normal prior distribution, the augmented joint posterior is proportional toThe latent-normal Gibbs sampler for probit regression alternates two blocks. First, given the current , draw each independently from its truncated normal distribution, namely restricted to the sign fixed by . One exact method is to use the Box-Muller transform for , form , and reject until the sign is correct. The probability of success is positive at every finite parameter value, so the method is valid, although it can be slow for a rare sign.
For direct sign-truncated normal sampling, let , and draw . An inverse transform sampling implementation isUse suitable tail or survival-function evaluations when floating-point probabilities approach zero or one; the rejection construction remains a valid alternative.
Second, completing the square in yields its full conditional distribution:Generate a fresh standard normal value by the Box-Muller transform, multiply by the conditional standard deviation, and add the conditional mean. Start from any finite , alternate these steps, discard an initial transient and use the retained values to approximate its posterior distribution. These are dependent Markov chain Monte Carlo samples, rather than independent posterior draws. Each block is an exact Gibbs sampling update for the augmented posterior, whose marginal in is the requested posterior.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 37 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For any , on the event one has . The Markov inequality therefore gives , including the trivial value one at . Taking the infimum proves the Chernoff bound.
For with finite moment-generating functions, independence givesConsequentlyAn effective bandwidth is an exponential-moment measure of demand at a chosen tail parameter : independence makes these quantities additive. The spare capacity pays for the desired exponential tail bound. For a cumulative-demand process over time , the corresponding bandwidth would be ; here the time horizon is one. It is generally larger than mean demand because it charges for fluctuations, and mathematical optimization over selects the useful tradeoff.
For independent normal distributions, putThe Gaussian effective bandwidth is . For and , the sufficient condition becomes . Its left side is minimized at , givingThis is a sufficient Chernoff safety margin, not the exact normal tail quantile.
Indeed , so, writing for the standard normal distribution function,The exact Gaussian chance constraint is thereforeThis is necessary and sufficient when , even when is negative. The Chernoff coefficient is more conservative.
There is an important boundary qualification. If , then deterministically, and for the exact requirement is , not . For example, , , satisfies the printed square-root condition but has . Thus both Gaussian non-strict displayed forms require positive total variance, which follows if at least one flow is present and its variance is positive. With no positive variance, the deterministic boundary in an upper-tail chance constraint must be treated separately. If , the target upper bound is at least one and imposes no restriction; the displayed square-root discussion naturally assumes .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 26 3 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For , write for the standard normal distribution function. Since the Brownian running maximum is nonnegative, gives simply .
For and , reflect the Brownian motion after its first hit of . This is a stopping time, and the Strong Markov property together with symmetry of Brownian increments shows that reflection preserves its law. On paths that hit , it sends the endpoint to . Thus the event with endpoint at most maps to endpoints at least , all of which necessarily hit . This provesThe same reflection gives . If , every path with has hit , so subtracting that endpoint tail gives the complete answer:The expressions agree at . This is the joint distribution of Brownian motion and its running maximum. In particular has the distribution of and has no atoms for . If , the pair is deterministically, so the requested probability is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 124 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
One general form of the Erdős-Kac theorem is the following. Let be a real strongly additive arithmetic function, with for all primes, and defineIf , then under the discrete uniform distribution on ,Here the arrow denotes convergence in distribution and is the standard normal distribution. Equivalently, the probability of being at most tends to the standard normal distribution function for every real . Replacing by is equivalent, because the difference is bounded by .
This is a general bounded-prime-weight form, not just the special case . In that case the Mertens theorem for reciprocal primes gives and , so the classical prime-factor central limit theorem is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 124 5 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let , , and let be the cumulative distribution function of . Since the prime omega function is integer-valued, is constant on every half-open interval between consecutive points of the lattice .
Choose and put , . Then , and has the same value throughout . The standard normal distribution function is continuous, so the definition of the Kolmogorov distance giveswhere the second inequality follows by taking a limit from below at . The triangle inequality therefore yieldsThus the integer lattice forces the lower bound:This lattice obstruction to normal approximation does not require a quantitative Erdős-Kac theorem; it follows directly from discreteness and the positive standard normal density near zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 205 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Fix the normalizationThe Lasso penalty uses the L1 norm. All arguments below apply to every minimizer; uniqueness of the coefficient vector is not assumed.
The Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions are the subgradient optimality conditionThese conditions are necessary and sufficient because the objective is a convex function. They use the subgradient of the absolute value, coordinate by coordinate.
Put . Centered columns imply , so the subtraction of in the model contributes nothing to the score. The Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions becomeMultiply by . Since and , this gives the prediction inequality from Lasso stationarity:This is the desired version of the Basic inequality for the Lasso. Using stationarity directly preserves the coefficient on the squared prediction norm.
For the Gaussian score event for the Lasso, write for column . The assumed Euclidean norm and the multivariate normal distribution of giveThe may be correlated, which does not affect the union bound. Use the following sharp two-sided Gaussian tail bound, valid for with the standard normal distribution and every :For completeness, the difference satisfies , , and as . It first increases and then decreases to zero, so it is nonnegative. This bound avoids introducing an unnecessary factor two.
Here is the standard normal distribution function. With , the union bound yieldsConsequentlyThe score event uses the supremum norm of ; the centering term still vanishes because .
We next work deterministically on . LetBy Holder inequality, . Since , the triangle inequality givesSubstituting both inequalities into the Basic inequality for the Lasso producesBecause , this also proves the relevant Lasso cone condition, . The assumed Compatibility condition for the Lasso therefore applies to :Set . Combining these inequalities givesIf , discarding the nonnegative term shows . If , compatibility gives , and the preceding inequality then gives . In either case , soThis is a fast prediction bound and an inactive-coordinate error bound on the same event. It is the fast-rate Lasso prediction bound under compatibility.
Finally, the same argument bounds the active-coordinate L1 norm byIf , then , and . When this implies ; when it implies . Thus the sign function obeysThis is Lasso sign recovery under compatibility. It concerns the sufficiently large nonzero coefficients; it does not assert that every estimated inactive coefficient is zero.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 207 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Couple the Wald test statistics as , where the joint centered bivariate normal distribution of is fixed. Increasing either enlarges, pointwise in this coupling, the event . Its probability is consequently nondecreasing in each treatment effect.
If both null hypotheses hold, then , so this probability is maximal at the joint boundary . To check the familywise error rate across all configurations, suppose only hypothesis is true. A Type I error then occurs only if , with probability at most , where is the standard normal distribution function. This is no larger than the any-rejection probability at , since that joint event contains . If neither null hypothesis is true, the familywise error rate is zero. Hence the least-favourable null configuration for Type I error iswhere is the centered bivariate normal distribution function with correlation coefficient .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 201 6 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For , the Brownian reflection principle gives, for ,where is the standard normal distribution function. Hence almost surely; for , .
For , use the Exponential martingale for Brownian motion . At , it is bounded by because before the first hit and by continuity. The bounded optional stopping theorem gives . Its limit is , and the dominated convergence theorem yields . Equivalently, the Brownian first-passage Laplace transform isTaking proves the displayed exponential identity. The cases and are included. The restriction is what gives the upper bound on the stopped exponential.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 217 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Put , the uniform bound on the supremum norm of the gradient. The fundamental theorem of calculus on a line segment, together with the inner product inequality , givesThus is Lipschitz continuous with respect to the L1 norm. The Gaussian random variables comprising and have finite exponential moments of their absolute values. More explicitly, for , Hölder's inequality gives . Consequently and every exponential expression below are finite, including when the covariance matrix is singular.
Use the convex function . Since is an independent copy of , Jensen inequality for the conditional expectation givesFor , define the Gaussian rotation of independent copiesWriting , both rotated covariance matrices are and their cross-covariance is zero. The pair has a centered multivariate normal distribution, so its components are independent and has the same probability law as . This calculation uses no inverse of and therefore also proves the assertion for degenerate multivariate normal distributions.
The path runs from to . The chain rule and the fundamental theorem of calculus give the pathwise identityApply Jensen inequality to the uniform probability measure on . Then use Tonelli theorem and the Gaussian rotation of independent copies to obtainThis proves the Gaussian rotation interpolation inequality in the required form:The stated almost-sure domination now gives an exponential moment of an absolute standard normal variable bound. If , completing the square in the standard normal density yieldswhere is the standard normal distribution function. Hence Markov inequality gives, for every ,The exponent is minimized at . Therefore the resulting Gaussian tail bound isNo independence of from or is needed: only the given almost-sure domination is used.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 202 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let , with three independent standard Brownian motions, and set and . The radial stochastic process is a three-dimensional Bessel process, which never hits zero by the Hitting-zero classification for a Bessel process. In three dimensions is a harmonic function away from zero: direct differentiation gives .
For the stopping times , , the Itô formula givesThe coefficients are bounded by , so each stopped Itô integral is a true martingale on every finite horizon. The stopping times form a localizing sequence; as permitted, its divergence need not be proved here. Thus is a nonnegative continuous local martingale.
To see that is not a true martingale, integrate the three-dimensional multivariate normal density of in spherical coordinates. The angular integral yieldswhere is the standard normal distribution function. Therefore the reciprocal of a three-dimensional Bessel process is a strict local martingale.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 29K a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
PutThe call payoff is , and it is positive whenWriting for the standard normal density, the given risk-neutral pricing formula becomesCompleting the square givesso the two tail integrals are and , where is the standard normal distribution function. Therefore the Black-Scholes formula is
The payoff identityreplicates the call-minus-put position by one stock and borrowing the present value of . Hence put-call parity givesand therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 29K c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let and . Split the crossing event according to its endpoint:Under the Cameron-Martin theorem for a linear drift, the law of relative to standard Wiener measure has endpoint densityOn paths that cross and end at , the Brownian reflection principle reflects the path after its first hit of and changes the endpoint to . Under this reflection the density becomesThe remaining exponential is the Cameron--Martin density for drift . Thereforewhere the last equality uses the symmetry of the normal distribution. Subtracting the crossing probability from one givesEquivalently, in terms of the standard normal distribution function,This is the finite-horizon maximum of Brownian motion with negative drift formula.