Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 322 1 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let and let denote present stellar age, rather than time measured from the galaxy's birth. With a fixed initial mass function, constant star formation rate also gives a constant number of births per unit time, as in the birth-age distribution under constant star formation. Counting the supplied stellar evolution model's remnants as part of the population, ages have a uniform distribution on . Integrating the constant birth rate therefore givesOutside this interval the cumulative fraction is zero or one as appropriate.
Write for the birth-mass parameter and . The normalization cancels when integrating the initial mass function:Thus the mass-tail fraction isIt is one at and below the lower cutoff. The normalization constant has no effect on any number fraction.
For evolutionary-state selection by stellar lifetimes, a red giant has completed its main sequence lifetime but not its giant lifetime. Its stellar lifetime regions in a mass-age diagram are bounded byThe lower boundary meets at and the upper boundary meets it at . A white dwarf lies above the upper lifetime curve, within the same age interval.
The probability integral transform, applied to the decreasing mass-tail coordinate, makes uniform on : . The independent birth age gives uniform on , so number fractions are areas in a unit square. Since , the red giant region becomes , a triangle with vertices , and . Its area is . The white dwarf region is a triangle of area . Hence the present individual-star fractions areThe rest are on the main sequence under the given toy lifetime model.
For the binary stars, draw two independent mass-tail coordinates , but only one shared age coordinate : components born together are coeval. The coeval binary population therefore occupies a uniform unit cube . At a fixed age , the state probabilities for either component areTheir evolutionary states have conditional independence given . They generally do not have unconditional independence, because sharing an age correlates their states. The binary fractions below are slice areas averaged over .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 322 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For this stellar population, let denote initial mass in units of the solar mass, and let denote present stellar age. Constant formation of equal numbers of stars per unit time makes the stellar age a uniform distribution on Gyr, so is uniform on . The normalized initial mass function has probability density function for , since . ConsequentlyThese formulae have the stated age and mass domains; outside them the relevant cumulative fractions saturate at zero or one. The probability integral transform makes uniform on : gives . The time-independent initial mass function and constant number formation rate give independence of and . All fractions here count objects, including white dwarfs, using the stipulated stellar evolution law.
A red giant hasThus the mass boundaries are and for positive . Equivalently, for the red giant region runs from to the age cap , and for it runs from to . There are no red giants with . Boundaries have zero probability and their endpoint convention does not affect the fractions. In the uniform square the red giant region is , with triangle vertices , and . The white dwarf region is the triangle .
At fixed , define the conditional probabilities of a red giant, white dwarf and main sequence star by , and . Their interval widths areIntegration over the uniform distribution of age gives the individual-star fractionsThe systems form a coeval binary population: the two binary star components have the same age. Their masses are independent, so has uniform probability density function on and their states have conditional independence given . Unconditional independence of their states would be incorrect: older systems make both evolved states more likely. The law of total probability now givesThe subtraction removes the double counting of systems containing two red giants.
Starburst galaxy 2026-10-06
A starburst galaxy undergoes an episode of rapid star formation. An instantaneous-burst idealization places all newly formed stars at one stellar age, so their present evolutionary-state fractions follow from the initial mass function at that fixed age rather than from an average over formation times.

