Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 47 1 Solution 2026-10-14
Use the Unscaled Papkovich–Neuber representationwith harmonic vector and scalar potentials. For a torque-driven sphere chooseIts components are harmonic for , and both and vanish. HenceThe last equality follows from the no-slip boundary condition at . To check that is indeed the applied couple, the traction on the sphere, with directed into the fluid, is . Its hydrodynamic torque isHere . The applied couple balances this resisting torque. The resulting field is the rotlet of a rotating sphere in Stokes flow.
For the Lorentz reciprocal theorem for Stokes flow, let point out of the fluid domain and take the same viscosity in both flows. With , the theorem isIt follows by taking the divergence of the boundary integrand: incompressibility removes pressure-work terms, the two Newtonian strain contractions are equal, and the remaining stress divergences give the displayed body-force terms. This convention matters: on the inner boundary of an exterior domain, .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 47 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The material derivative follows surfactant carried by the moving interface. Tangential surface divergence changes the local surface area and hence dilutes or concentrates insoluble material. Normal motion changes area through the curvature: an expanding sphere has positive and its concentration decreases. The last term is surface diffusion, which smooths concentration gradients. There is no exchange with the bulk; this is conservation of insoluble surfactant on a moving interface.
The interfacial speed is of order . Diffusion dominates redistribution when the surface Péclet number satisfiesThen , and advection of is a second-order effect. Write . Since , the projected divergence of the first term is , whereas the second has divergence ; its gradient contracted with is zero. Hence .
The leading steady transport equation is . Trace-freeness and the supplied surface Laplacian identity give . Fixing the conserved total surfactant removes the uniform null mode and yieldsThis is quadrupolar surfactant distribution on a spherical interface; its spherical mean is zero because .
With outside, inside, and the normal directed out of the bubble, the interfacial stress balance with variable surface tension isNow , so . Multiplying the curvature by the tension and retaining linear terms givesThe undeformed isotropic pressure jump is kept with its normal; the perturbation terms are evaluated on the reference sphere. Products of deformation and concentration perturbations are beyond the approximation.
The imposed tensor is symmetric and traceless, so is a harmonic scalar of degree two. Its decaying partner is ; the corresponding harmonic vector uses . Linearity and rotational symmetry give precisely these tensorial modes, with the growing scalar chosen to reproduce the imposed strain. Thus in the unscaled convention one can takeThe coefficients multiply distinct decaying modes. No other angular harmonic is forced at this order.
No penetration in the steady state gives . The given tangential surface velocity implies . The tangential stress balance, with , gives , or . ThereforeThe nonuniform normal stress is unaffected by the uniform inviscid interior pressure. Its balance isSubstitution and rearrangement giveAs , : the concentration-induced Marangoni stress suppresses tangential surface motion, making the exterior boundary behave like an immobile surface despite the inviscid interior. The deformation coefficient tends to ; the clean limit is . Both small surface Péclet number and small deformation, of order , are required. This is Marangoni immobilization of a bubble in straining flow.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 50 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , and . Use the infinitesimal strain tensor, symmetric stress, zero body force, and the outward unit normal . The divergence theorem applied separately to the two displacement derivatives givesFor static elastic equilibrium, , and therefore . With traction , the divergence theorem now givesThe right-hand side is automatically symmetric because the volume stress tensor is symmetric; it can also be written as the integral of .
To prove the work identity, put . The constant symmetric tensor is equilibrated, so integration by parts givesHere the two cross terms each equal , and the last constant term restores one of them. Division by the volume proves the required identity. In particular, affine boundary displacement makes on the boundary and yields the Hill-Mandel energy identity. The zero-body force hypothesis matters: otherwise the first integration by parts has an additional volume-force term.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 50 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Interpret derivatives on the space of symmetric strains, with inner product . Assume a differentiable strain energy density with local stress , and a differentiable stable equilibrium branch under the prescribed affine boundary displacement. Thus with on ; part(a) ensures that the mean strain is exactly .
Vary in any symmetric direction . The induced displacement variation has the form , where vanishes on the boundary. Differentiating the effective elastic energy and using static elastic equilibrium givesThe last term is zero by integration by parts, since the body force is zero and has zero boundary trace. As is arbitrary,This is a work-conjugacy statement on symmetric tensors; treating off-diagonal entries as independent scalar coordinates without their contraction weights would introduce erroneous factors of two. If the minimized effective elastic energy has a nondifferentiable point, the corresponding formulation uses a subgradient rather than a claimed classical derivative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 50 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
In the Voigt elastic approximation, every local strain is . The corresponding local stress is . Differentiating the averaged strain energy density under the integral givesThe uniform strain need not generate an equilibrated local stress; this calculation concerns the stated approximation, not an assertion that it solves the heterogeneous boundary problem.
For the Reuss elastic approximation, use the convex conjugateUnder differentiable strictly convex duality, the local strain produced by uniform stress is . Set . Averaging the local strains gives . At the maximizing stress in , the stationarity condition is precisely . ConsequentlyThus the derivative of each approximate energy is its own mean stress, includingFor positive linear elasticity, and , giving the useful check and . More general convex duality gives the same conjugacy relation with subgradients when differentiability or strict convexity is absent.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 50 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
At a perfectly bonded elastic interface without an interfacial force, displacement and traction are continuous:Tangential derivatives of the common displacement trace are also continuous. Thus the jump of a piecewise constant displacement gradient tensor annihilates every tangential vector, and has the form . Taking its symmetric part shows that the strain jump is , whereThe adjoint formula follows from for symmetric stress tensors. Tangential-tangential strain components are therefore common to all layers. Conversely, such gradient jumps can be realized by continuous piecewise affine displacement in the layered geometry.
Take positive elastic stiffness tensors with their usual minor and major symmetries, and a positive comparison elastic stiffness tensor . A fictitious layer can have the same tangential displacement derivatives and the same traction as the physical layers. Hence . The common traction condition giveswhere is the positive acoustic tensor, with components . Solving for givesExpanding the two occurrences of gives exactly the symmetrization over and in the directional elastic strain Green operator specified in the paper.
For any two layers, the inverse identity for their acoustic tensors proves the required resolvent relation without interchanging noncommuting tensors:With , this identity also gives . ThereforeThese finite-dimensional operators are inverses. Define . Then , and averaging strains and stresses givesEliminating the fictitious strain yieldsAll products have the displayed order; the elastic stiffness tensors need not commute.
It remains to justify the inverse and comparison independence. Consider two compatible equilibrated layer solutions with the same mean strain. Their difference has zero common tangential-tangential strain, so , with because is injective and the mean difference is zero. Their traction difference is one common vector . ThereforePositive elastic energy forces every to vanish. In particular, if , all physical layer strains vanish. Their common tangential components then force , and their zero traction gives . Hence , proving that is invertible. Finally, every positive choice of constructs the unique layer solution for the same . Its averaged stress is unique, so the displayed effective stiffness is independent of the fictitious comparison material. This is the exact layered constitutive response, rather than a claim that piecewise constant fields meet arbitrary finite-body boundary data.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 50 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the actual displacement field, let be an admissible trial displacement, and set . On the displacement-prescribed part of the boundary, . With actual stress , the supporting-plane inequality for the convex strain energy density givesBoth and satisfy static elastic equilibrium with the same body force, so . On the traction-prescribed boundary their tractions agree. Since , integration by parts givesSubtracting the prescribed external-work representative proves the minimum potential energy principle in elasticity:Strict convexity gives uniqueness of the minimizing strain, although rigid displacements can remain when the boundary conditions allow them.
For the comparison bound, put and use the lower conjugate, with its infimum sign convention,Its defining inequality is , hence for every . Integrate this pointwise majorant for each compatible strain, then take the infimum over the same admissible set. This provesNo convexity of is used for this inequality. If , it yields only the extended-real upper bound . For example, and give for every finite . A useful finite bound requires a suitable comparison energy; choosing a sufficiently stiff quadratic comparison makes the usual excess energies concave. The derivative used below additionally presupposes finite differentiable duals, or an appropriate supergradient formulation.
Now normalize , take positive constant , and write . For phasewise constant elastic polarization , its lower conjugate contribution is constant within each phase. The remaining minimization isWrite the minimizing strain as , where comes from a zero-boundary displacement field. The static elastic equilibrium equation is , so the supplied elastic strain Green operator gives . Its zero mean removes the cross term with the constant . Using its reciprocity and projection property , we obtainHere the brackets in the last two terms denote the spatial integral and tensor contraction, not just a phase average.
Let . The zero output mean and reciprocity of imply that it annihilates constant elastic polarizations on either side. Thus subtracting and from the phase indicators does not change their bilinear integral. Define the fourth-order block tensorsConsequently , , andThese identities follow from reciprocity and ; no phase independence assumption is needed. The phase polarization comparison bound, valid for every polarization with finite dual terms, is thereforeIn particular, it can be optimized over the phase elastic polarizations without changing the upper-bound direction.
To derive the final displayed form, impose the stationarity equations in the question. For , put ; these are dual strains, initially distinct from the comparison solution's phase averages. Reciprocity of givesThus stationarity is exactlyThe comparison solution has phase meanso the dual strains become its phase means at stationarity. Multiplying the stationarity equations by and summing gives .
For clarity, the concave biconjugate here uses another infimum: . The lower conjugate is concave, since it is an infimum of affine functions. At a differentiable finite point, its supporting-plane inequality shows that minimizes this last expression when . HenceSubstitute both identities into to obtainThis is the requested final bound with the accompanying phase equations. It remains valid at any well-defined stationary choice; asserting existence of such a differentiable choice for arbitrary would require extra hypotheses. Without stationarity, the earlier is the correct general bound. In the concave closed excess-energy case ; for general excess energies replacing the concave biconjugate by without proof would reverse the needed majorant logic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An isotropic simple fluid has local stress determined by the deformation history of the material element. A viscometric flow is one whose relative deformation history is that of steady simple shear flow, up to rigid changes of frame. At a given element the shear rate is constant along its history, although it can differ between elements. This includes the locally simple-shear kinematics used in standard viscometric measurements.
Use the component-first velocity gradient . The first two Rivlin-Ericksen tensors areIn the axes of a steady shear , the relative deformation gradient over a lag is , since . The material history is determined by , and its tensor symmetries exclude and stress components. The remaining symmetric stress consists of an isotropic part, one shear component, and two independent normal-stress differences. The relevant matrices areThus span the allowed stress components. Material isotropy and reversal of the shear show that their scalar coefficients depend on . Define the viscometric functions bySolving for the matrix coefficients givesThis is an exact steady-viscometric representation, rather than an assumption that the fluid is everywhere a second-order fluid. The shear viscosity measures the shear resistance, while and measure the first and second normal-stress differences generated by shear. Their zero-rate values are understood as limits when these exist. An isotropic pressure changes neither normal difference.
For a flow in the lubrication approximation with gap , longitudinal scale and speed , the shear-rate scale is . The viscous shear force per unit volume scales as . Quadratic viscoelastic normal stresses scale as ; their longitudinal gradients, and the comparable mixed-component corrections, contribute forces of scale . Therefore the normal-stress smallness in lubrication criterion isEquivalently, the thin-gap aspect ratio must multiply the shear-based elastic parameter to give a small quantity: . Normal stresses need not themselves be smaller than the shear stress; it is their effect on the leading force balance that matters. If the flow changes on an additional short time scale , the term also requires for its neglect. Material coefficients should be evaluated at the characteristic shear rate.
Now take positive cylinder rotation, measure counterclockwise from the rightward horizontal, and let increase outward through the film. The tangent has upward component , so the tangential gravitational acceleration is . To leading order in , neglect inertia and higher-order hydrostatic or capillary pressure gradients, and write . Tangential force balance and the shear-free free surface givehenceThe wall shear stress is . It opposes rotation on the uphill side and assists it on the downhill side.
For a power-law fluid, . Its inversion must retain the sign:Integrating with the no-slip boundary condition yieldsThe volume flux per unit axial length is . The integrated bracket is , so the power-law coating on a rotating cylinder hasAt the gravitational term vanishes by continuity. Steady mass conservation makes independent of .
On the uphill half, put and . The local flux is , withIt has a unique maximum atA positive coating must carry the same steady flux at every angle. The tightest local bound occurs at , not on the downhill side, where the flux increases monotonically with thickness. ConsequentlyFor the thinner positive root on the uphill side connects through to the unique downhill root, giving a periodic leading-order coating profile. At the limiting flux the two uphill roots meet at ; it is the maximum flux of this lubrication model, with a possible limiting corner resolved by neglected higher-order effects. For the check is . All these conclusions require the resulting film to remain thin enough for the lubrication approximation and for the neglected normal stresses and inertia to satisfy their scaling restrictions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A simple fluid reduces to a linear viscoelastic fluid when its deformation and rotation over the relevant memory interval are small enough to linearize the constitutive history about an isotropic relaxed state. Small amplitude is essential; small frequency is not. For example, arbitrarily high-frequency oscillation can still be linear if its strain amplitude is sufficiently small. The relaxation modulus is the shear-stress response to a unit small step of shear strain.
Choose the harmonic convention . If the imposed shear rate is , the corresponding shear stress is . Substitution into the constitutive convolution gives the complex viscosity:For a nondecaying elastic part this formula is understood through the limit from a positive Laplace damping parameter. The complex shear modulus is , so is the storage modulus, the loss modulus, and in this convention.
Creep is the progressive deformation produced by a held stress. For a small step of shear stress, define the creep compliance by from a relaxed state. Writing hats for Laplace transforms, the same constitutive law gives . Since , this yieldsHere is the Heaviside step function. Inversion determines the full creep response, including any instantaneous elastic strain jump. Equivalently, the causal relaxation/creep convolution includes that jump through for .
For the Maxwell fluid, . Thus the two material responses areThe creep response is an elastic jump followed by constant-rate viscous deformation. The zero-frequency shear viscosity is .
For the wall problem, take and denote the shear component of stress by . The incompressibility constraint is satisfied, and the advective part of the material derivative vanishes because no field depends on . With no imposed longitudinal pressure gradient, momentum conservation and the linear Maxwell law giveThe initial conditions are in ; the no-slip boundary condition is , with decay as . Transforming these equations givesChoose the analytic square-root branch in with , so that the spatially increasing solution is excluded. The Maxwell start-up shear layer consequently hasThe Bromwich inversion formula now givesThe vertical Bromwich contour is directed upward and lies to the right of all singularities, including the origin and the branch points at and . A cut joining these branch points is a possible continuation into the left half-plane; inversion only requires the stated right-half-plane branch.
The Newtonian limit holds fixed while , so . Then . With , the inverse Laplace transform gives the complementary error function profileThis is diffusive momentum penetration in a Newtonian fluid, with thickness of order .
The elastic limit instead holds fixed while . Write . On the chosen branch, , so the Laplace transform time-shift rule yieldsAn elastic shear front travels at speed : the material ahead is at rest, while that behind moves at the wall speed. Indeed the limiting displacement is , whose shear strain is . A nonzero pointwise velocity gradient at the front is interpreted distributionally, or by smoothing the ideal wall start.
The use of linear viscoelasticity is conditional, rather than automatically justified for arbitrary . The material derivative simplifying to a time derivative does not remove the nonlinear constitutive effects of finite shear strain. In this Maxwell problem the rapid elastic response supplies the natural strain scale , which must be small for linearization through start-up. Away from the front, the strain accumulated over an effective memory interval must likewise be small. In the late diffusive regime its characteristic size is , which decreases with time. Large absolute wall displacement alone is not a disqualification for a fluid with finite memory; it is relative deformation during that memory that matters. In the elastic limit, where memory does not decay, the explicit strain behind the front confirms the condition . Without such a small-strain restriction, the computed field is a formal linear response and need not describe an arbitrary simple fluid.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
With its material state fixed by a prescribed deformation history, the differential pom-pom model is a simple-fluid constitutive law. The stress depends on the local history of a material element through its molecular stretch and orientation, without gradients of that history between neighbouring elements. A differential representation does not prevent a material from being a simple fluid.
To see the history dependence explicitly, use the component-first velocity gradient , so the tensor evolution is . Let be the relative deformation gradient, satisfying and . Along a material trajectory, an integrating factor givesThus is a functional of the local deformation history and its prepared initial state. If the initial is a positive-definite matrix, it retains that property, so is well defined. Given this , the scalar stretch solves , where . Its variation of constants formula again depends only on that local history:The differential pom-pom model also satisfies material frame indifference. Under an observer rotation, and transform as objective tensors, while is a scalar. The extra skew part of the transformed velocity gradient has zero contraction with symmetric , so the stretch equation is unchanged. The tensor evolution uses an upper-convected derivative, and the final stress transforms objectively. Initial values cannot be independently forgotten when specifying a finite-past experiment: a fully specified prepared state, such as rest, is part of the history specification.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
At rest the tensor equation relaxes toward and the stretch equation relaxes toward one. ThusThe equilibrium nonpressure stress is isotropic and can be absorbed into the arbitrary pressure in incompressible flow.
For the linear response, put , and take the velocity gradient to be . The first-order tensor equation isIts matrix trace has no forcing, because incompressibility gives . Starting relaxed, . The first-order stretch equation is , hence . Consequently , and its anisotropic stress is . From the relaxed remote past,The linear and second-order response of the differential pom-pom model therefore hasThe stretch time does not enter the linear shear relaxation modulus.
For the second-order fluid constants, additionally make the slow-flow expansion: count as first order and as raising the order by one. IteratinggivesUsing the Rivlin-Ericksen tensor convention , the identityreduces this to . Since , normalization givesStretch first changes at second order. Its equation gives . Multiplication by therefore adds only an isotropic stress at second order; multiplying its second-order increment by the anisotropic first-order term would be third order. Absorb these isotropic corrections into to obtainComparison with the viscometric functions parametrization yieldsEquivalently, in , the constants are and . The general small-amplitude linear response above permits fast oscillation; the local second-order fluid expansion also requires the slow-flow ordering just used.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 53 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose the extending direction as and write . The uniaxial extensional flow, satisfying incompressibility, hasStarting from rest, symmetry preserves . The differential pom-pom model tensor equation becomesPut . For , the solutions areIf , both transients decay, givingIf , the axial component is instead and grows exponentially without bound, while . At the boundary , which lies between the two stated regimes, grows linearly and .
Normalization makes the molecular orientation finite even when the unnormalized conformation tensor diverges. For , direct division by givesFor , the divergent axial component dominates the matrix trace, soThe same normalized limit holds at , agreeing continuously with the limit of the subcritical expression. The limiting orientations have nonnegative eigenvalues and unit matrix trace, as required for the normalized molecular orientation.
Now set . Its limiting value isThe scalar stretch equation is . If , its coefficient is eventually bounded above by a negative constant. The variation of constants formula gives a bounded solution, converging toIf , the coefficient is eventually positive, and the positive stretch grows without bound. At equality a bounded stretch would imply , which contradicts boundedness. Thus equality is not an additional bounded steady regime.
The function is continuous and strictly increasing from zero to infinity. Consequently there is a unique critical extension rate defined byand the molecular stretch remains bounded precisely for . This is distinct from the tensor threshold . If , for example, the normalized orientation can remain well defined and the stretch remain bounded for some rates above the tensor threshold; divergence of alone does not prove divergence of the physical stress.
In the requested doubly subcritical regime, write . The steady uniaxial extension of the differential pom-pom model hasThe isotropic pressure cancels from the tensile normal-stress difference. Hence the extensional viscosity isorIts zero-rate limit is , recovering the Trouton ratio of three. The restrictions exclude both loss of a finite tensor steady state and loss of a finite stretch steady state; neither denominator may be continued through its singularity as a physical steady constitutive response.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 54 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An elastic deformation is reversible: after removal of the deforming loads the material returns to its reference state, and its instantaneous stress is determined by its current deformation rather than a plastic or viscous history. In the infinitesimal approximation the displacement field gives the infinitesimal strain tensor . The Cauchy stress tensor is defined by traction on a plane of unit normal ; absence of body couples makes .
Let be the recoverable elastic energy per unit mass. The local mechanical power per unit volume isbecause the symmetric Cauchy stress tensor annihilates the antisymmetric part of the velocity gradient. Conservation of energy during the deformation gives . Since for arbitrary symmetric strain rates,Here the derivative is the gradient on the space of symmetric tensors, with the double-contraction inner product. This convention accounts for the two occurrences of each off-diagonal entry; treating six independent coordinates without their corresponding factors would give an erroneous factor of two in shear components.
Take a stress-free reference state of mass density . The Taylor series of the elastic energy starts quadratically:Using gives , the relation of linear elasticity. If the reference state has initial stress, the first-order expansion also retains that constant stress. Symmetry of stress and strain gives the minor symmetries , while equality of the mixed second derivatives of elastic energy gives the major symmetry . Thus the elastic stiffness tensor is a symmetric map on a six-dimensional strain space: there are independent coefficients.
For twofold elastic symmetry, choose the symmetry axis as . Rotation through is , and transforms the infinitesimal strain tensor into . Components are even and are odd. Invariance of elastic energy excludes every coupling between these parity classes. In the engineering strain ordering , with corresponding stress ordering , the symmetric stiffness matrix has the formIts symmetric even block has ten independent entries and its symmetric odd block has three. Hence a twofold axis leaves independent coefficients. No invariance under other rotation angles has been assumed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 54 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a homogeneous lossless elastic solid, insert the plane wave into the equations of linear elasticity. Put , , and . The resulting eigenvalue problem isThe minor and major symmetries make this acoustic tensor a real symmetric matrix. For a stable material it is positive-definite, so its three positive eigenvalues give three real positive phase velocities and therefore three slownesses . Coincident eigenvalues are possible, so there need not be three distinct speeds. For distinct eigenvalues the displacement polarization are orthogonal; in an anisotropic solid they are generally quasi-longitudinal and quasi-transverse rather than exactly longitudinal and transverse. Stability, or at least strong ellipticity in elasticity, is required for the assertion about positive real speeds.
The elastic slowness surface is the locus of the three vectors . Its equation isFor each wavefront normal there are three radial sheets, which may meet at degeneracies. To obtain the energy flux directly, multiply the elastic equation by . Forthe symmetry of stress gives . Thus the instantaneous elastic-wave energy flux is . With a real branch polarization , harmonic averaging givesNow differentiate along a regular slowness surface sheet and contract with . The terms containing cancel by symmetry and the original eigenvalue equation, leavingEvery tangent is consequently perpendicular to : the energy flux is normal to the slowness surface. At a degenerate point this statement is made on the limiting branches, rather than assuming a unique normal.
For completeness, equality of the mean kinetic and strain energies gives . Differentiating the acoustic tensor equation in the wavevector variables similarly givesThus the group velocity is the elastic energy velocity. The homogeneous elastic dispersion relation is degree one in , so differentiating at gives .
The elastic wave surface is the unit-time locus of these group velocities. From an impulsive point source, the propagating wavefronts at time are its sheets scaled to . A particular source may fail to excite a mode in some directions, and its amplitudes require the source polarization and geometrical spreading; the wave surface determines the arrival geometry. It does not specify all near-field motion between the radiative fronts. Geometrically it is the envelope of the planes : tangent variation gives , so is the appropriately normalized normal to the slowness surface.
In a symmetry-plane cross-section write , and . The two envelope conditions giveThe numerator is the signed curvature numerator of the slowness surface cross-section. At a simple inflection point, and . Then and are linearly independent. These are precisely the local conditions for an ordinary cusp. The slowness curvature and wave-surface cusps relation explains why a smooth nonconvex slowness surface can generate a cusped wavefront and multiple ray arrivals.
The example below uses a positive orthotropic stiffness in normalized units: , , , , and all normal off-diagonal stiffnesses zero. In the symmetry plane , its two in-plane acoustic tensor eigenvalues are , and its out-of-plane shear speed is . The in-plane shear sheet is nonconvex and produces the marked cusps; the construction uses an actual stable elastic tensor.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 54 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the solid exterior to the cavity, and choose outward from the solid, hence into the cavity on its boundary . Subtraction of the incident solution from the total solution gives the scattered displacement field equationsThe traction-free cavity condition for the total field gives on . The scattered field has zero initial displacement and initial velocity before the pulse reaches the cavity and satisfies an outgoing radiation condition, excluding an additional incoming elastic wave. Equivalently one seeks the causal response to this prescribed boundary traction. Although the incident plane pulse extends across an infinite plane, the causal scattered field from the bounded cavity has finite propagation distance at each finite time.
To prove energy uniqueness for traction-driven elasticity, take the difference of two solutions with the same initial conditions, body force, boundary traction and outgoing condition. It satisfiesFor a large enclosing ball , multiply by and integrate over . Integration by parts givesSymmetry of stress replaces the last derivative by , and major symmetry of the elastic stiffness tensor makes that integral the derivative of the strain energy. ThereforeThe cavity contribution is zero. On any fixed finite time interval choose beyond the causal support of the scattered difference; the outer contribution is then zero as well. This gives conservation of its nonnegative elastic energy. Positive mass density and positive strain energy imply that zero initial energy forces everywhere; the zero initial displacement field then gives . The same argument works for finite-energy outgoing solutions by taking the limit of enclosing surfaces and excluding incoming energy. Hence the causal scattered field is unique. Specifying the incident field and cavity traction alone without the initial and outgoing conditions would not establish uniqueness.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 54 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use fixed spatial coordinates in a stationary heterogeneous Earth and define the operatorHere the elastic stiffness tensor has its minor and major symmetries, and the physical body force per unit volume is . The retarded elastodynamic Green tensor is the displacement in direction due to a unit physical force impulse in direction at :It satisfies the actual Earth's homogeneous boundary conditions, including zero traction on the free surface and continuity of displacement and traction at bonded internal interfaces. Integration through gives , with . No spherical symmetry is required.
For zero initial conditions, form the convolutionApplying to this expression uses the defining Dirac delta function to give . Causality gives zero initial conditions, and each Green column supplies the required boundary conditions. The positive-energy uniqueness argument then identifies this expression with the physical response. The source factor is because is force per unit mass, whereas the Green tensor was normalized to unit force.
A force dipole is a limiting pair of opposite point forces separated by a small vector. Put at and at , and hold fixed as . Expansion of the two Dirac delta functions givesIts resultant force is zero, and integration by parts gives its radiated displacement as . Thus the source derivative of the elastodynamic Green tensor represents a dipole with force direction and separation direction .
For the surface source choose a normal from the minus side to the plus side and defineThe same normal is used in both tractions. If the elastic coefficients are continuous through the surface, the distributional gradient of a piecewise smooth displacement is . Its stress therefore has a singular part . Taking the divergence includes the regular stress jump, so a field satisfying the source-free equations on both sides has equivalent sourceIn particular, the signs follow from the chosen jump convention, not from an unspecified orientation. The elastodynamic surface-jump representation is consequentlywith the Green tensor evaluated at . The first term is a surface distribution of forces, and the second is a surface distribution of dipoles.
One can derive the same formula without multiplying discontinuous material coefficients by a surface delta. Apply integration by parts on the two sides of to the field and the reciprocal Green field . Major symmetry cancels the volume strain terms; the spatial identity iswhen the temporal terms are handled by the retarded time convolution. More explicitly, take , extend the zero-initial-data solution causally to , and integrate over all source times. Integration by parts cancels the two temporal terms, with zero endpoint terms; the causal supports subsequently reduce the representation to . The Green impulse contributes on the left. The two outward face normals are and , so their sum on the right is . Moving it to the other side gives . The same identity applied to two force Green fields with interchanged source and receiver proves the reciprocal relation ; hence the displayed surface formula follows. On a bonded material interface the Green displacement and common Green traction are continuous: is then the unambiguous version of the dipole term, evaluated with the matching one-sided coefficients. External free-surface terms vanish because both tractions vanish.
For a fault in isotropic material, the Lamé parameters giveTangential slip obeys , and ordinary fault traction is continuous across the two faces. Therefore the source is a double-couple fault source withFor a uniform patch of area with and , its integrated seismic moment tensor isThe dipole is a force in the slip direction separated in the normal direction; the dipole is a normal force separated in the slip direction. Their equal and opposite torques cancel. The symmetric trace-free seismic moment tensor has eigenvalues , with zero resultant force and torque. A temporal stress drop on a fault is not a jump of traction between its two simultaneously matching faces; it does not add a single-force layer to this tangential-slip representation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 70 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Retain , but normalize the complex potential as , so that . The Cauchy-Riemann equations give and . Since , the two stresses satisfyUsing the same unscaled from part (a) would instead put an additional on its derivative; the potential normalization matters.
Take the principal branch of , with its branch cut along the negative real axis and positive for . Write . For the antisymmetric crack-opening response, reflection gives on the faces. The prescribed equal face stress gives . Multiplication by the square-root factor converts this face condition to an additive jump. In fact, with and ,The Sokhotski–Plemelj theorem applied to this jump giveswhere is entire after imposing the usual finite-energy crack-tip regularity. This is the Hilbert problem for an antiplane crack, with the stress-potential phase chosen explicitly above.
For localized face loading with no additional remote loading, the far displacement is bounded and the weighted Cauchy transform decays. In particular, for compactly supported loading, at infinity and Liouville theorem sets . The resulting Cauchy solution for a steadily moving semi-infinite antiplane crack isIntegrals and boundary values are understood for loadings with the corresponding convergence and regularity, or as limits of localized loading. The reflection used above is the pure antiplane opening response: reflection with a sign change of displacement leaves both prescribed face stresses unchanged, and the usual no-extra-load uniqueness condition eliminates an unforced symmetric addition.
One can check the face stresses directly. Put . The Cauchy boundary limits giveBoth have , verifying the prescribed traction and its sign on both faces. The opposite real parts also give the required reflection. Ahead of the tip, the integral is real and is purely imaginary, so the bonded line has zero tangential displacement gradient and the two halves match.
For , take in the boxed analytic solution. The ahead-of-tip stress isNo appears: at fixed co-moving position and the specified co-moving face loading, this stress is independent of the speed. The displacement, however, still scales with , so speed independence does not apply to the whole elastic field. If is finite, the near-tip stress is inverse-square-root with coefficient .
The far-field condition is a genuine uniqueness requirement. A homogeneous stress-intensity field of a semi-infinite antiplane crack has , for real . It adds no face traction but changes the stress ahead by . Although its stress tends to zero at infinity, its primitive is , which gives unbounded remote displacement and infinite total elastic energy. Thus only asking for stress to vanish at infinity would leave the homogeneous constant undetermined; excluding that added remote stress-intensity loading selects the displayed face-loaded solution. The ordinary inverse-square-root tip singularity itself has finite energy in a bounded neighbourhood and is not being excluded.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 77 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write , and . The first balance is depth-integrated momentum conservation. Its left side is the downstream increase of horizontal momentum flux. The wind contributes the applied stress ; the remaining term is the resultant hydrostatic force associated with the sloping base of the light layer. Because , that term opposes the wind when .
For a strip of unit alongshore width and length , let be the entrained ocean-volume flux per unit area. Ocean entering the layer carries temperature and concentration but no horizontal momentum in this model. Take the reference liquid enthalpy at to be zero and setThe latent term is negative because ice has lower enthalpy than liquid at the same temperature. The incoming entrained water has zero relative enthalpy, and the outgoing minus incoming horizontal enthalpy flux is . Atmospheric heat loss therefore gives . Similarly, solute conservation givesThese are the second and third balances. Their reference-flux form has already subtracted the heat and solute brought in by entrainment; those fluxes must not be subtracted again.
There is a dimensional normalization to make explicit. With the printed specific , the physical heat-flux balance is . Thus . The displayed exam equation uses its symbol for , or implicitly works with density-normalized heat flux. The derivation below uses to keep these two meanings distinct.
With no incoming coastal jet or ice source, the conditions at areThe regular emerging layer also has , , and . Prescribed nonzero inlet fluxes would replace these conditions and destroy the coast-origin power law. A zero-thickness coast does not justify independently prescribing an arbitrary nonzero velocity there.
Integration of the solute and enthalpy balances yields wherever , and . Local phase equilibrium now givesFor , putTo leading order, . The potential-energy closure implies , and substituting it in the momentum equation givesDividing the ice flux by this last relation gives . If , , momentum gives , while the potential-energy balance gives . Thus . Substitution fixes the coefficients:This is the dilute frazil polynya similarity solution. In particular, all three variables grow as , grows as , and the solution stops being dilute when is no longer small. Density differences have been retained in buoyancy, but not in inertia or the normalized heat capacity.
To account for upward settling, one must distinguish retained suspension from crystals that leave it. A consistent depth-averaged extension has an upward exported ice-volume flux and an entrainment flux . If all phases retain the same mean horizontal velocity within the layer, its balances becomeThe last term removes the momentum carried out by the ice; its density may be restored to outside the Boussinesq approximation. Consequentlyso one may no longer set . The local equilibrium relations are unchanged, but use the new bulk concentration. The frazil export enthalpy balance also shows why a simple replacement has the wrong sign: exported ice carries negative relative enthalpy.
A slip speed requires a vertical particle-flux closure, for example for a well-mixed top boundary. A nonuniform suspension instead requires its surface concentration and buoyancy moment. The potential-energy closure must then include the gravitational energy released by rising light crystals, with scale , and any energy and buoyancy moment carried through the boundaries. For example, a well-mixed closure that transfers a fraction of this released power to entrainment and neglects additional boundary potential-energy transport would replace the original work balance byThe allocation and exported potential-energy flux are extra closure information, not supplied constants of the original model. The original work balance cannot be retained unchanged while treating settling as an additional loss of suspended ice. Phase-dependent horizontal speeds would also replace and by their separate phase fluxes.
It is important to compare total production, not merely the retained ice flux. LetIntegrated solute conservation gives , henceIntegrating the heat balance, and neglecting products of the small concentration departure with the exported flux, givesto dilute order, provided the total processed fraction , not only the retained fraction , remains small. Thus upward settling reduces retained suspension, but does not increase the leading-order total production at fixed atmospheric heat loss. Beyond that order, efficient removal can reduce the subsequent sensible cooling of crystals and enhance mixing of ocean water; the usual expectation is a larger latent-heat fraction and hence greater production. Its amount, or an unconditional larger/smaller claim, needs the settling, mixing and surface-export closures just identified. At fixed , energy conservation bounds the production by the available heat loss; it must not be inferred simply by observing fewer suspended crystals.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 77 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take an attractive nonretarded molecular potential , with molecular number densities . Its force magnitude is . For one molecule at height above a half-space, integration over cylindrical radius and depth givesIts downward force is . A sphere's horizontal cross-section a distance above its bottom has area , so its total attractive force isFor the near-bottom region dominates. Replacing its area by and extending the upper limit givesThis derives the sphere-plane dispersion force from the pairwise Van der Waals force. Hereafter denotes the magnitude of the effective repulsive interaction across water, rather than the signed attractive Hamaker constant. Its planar pressure magnitude is .
For a nearly planar freezing front, the spherical gap is . In the particle frame the incoming normal motion has speed . Axisymmetric mass conservation gives the outward gap flux per circumference . The lubrication flux law therefore givesIntegrating its axial force givesSteady particle pushing by a freezing front requires , and henceThe viscous drag is not the isolated-sphere Stokes drag: its divergence as the gap closes is essential.
For the deformed interface let and measure from the sphere's downward pole, as in the original geometry. The height below the remote melting isotherm is . Under the imposed temperature gradient, the undercooling is . With capillary depression neglected, the local phase-equilibrium pressure isHere is the absolute melting temperature; a constant reference ice density is used in the thermomolecular relation. ThusThe numerical value of will cancel from the speed relation.
In the thin spherical film, incompressibility and the incoming normal velocity giveSymmetry supplies zero pole flux. The tangential Couette contribution is smaller by and is negligible at this order. Applying the pressure-driven flux law along arclength giveswhere pressure is matched to the outer liquid at .
A cap area element is and its vertical normal component is . Put . The upward molecular and downward hydraulic forces are thereforeBalancing these forces establishes premelted-film particle pushing:The factorizations are and . They confirm positivity on the physical cap range and provide a numerically better-conditioned shallow-cap expression. Since , the shallow-cap limit within is ; it is not a limit in which the film can be identified with the flat-front gap .
The local film formula diverges right at the rim . Accordingly the thin-film calculation is an outer approximation away from a small matching fringe, not a claim of a uniformly thin film at its contact with bulk water. Both integrated stress densities vanish at that rim; in the thin-film limit the fringe contributes only a higher-order correction. Surface-tension curvature, altered thermal gradients or appreciable density-change fluxes would require a different balance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 79 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use local coordinates with the interface , solid below and fluid above, and choose the P-SV displacement potentials convention , . Let the reflected P and SV potential wave amplitudes be , while the transmitted P wave amplitude is . All four waves have the same tangential slownessThe incident and transmitted retarded times have negative , while elastic waves have positive . At the interface all waveform derivatives therefore have the same argument. displacement field continuity givesWith Lamé parameters and , the shear and normal stresses follow directly from differentiation:The fluid has no shear traction, so the coefficient of in must vanish:The coefficient of in the solid stress is ; in the fluid it is . ThusThese are the three required matching conditions; tangential displacement field need not be continuous at a solid–inviscid-fluid boundary.
Put and . From (2), . In (1), the coefficient of simplifies because . Hence . Substitute this into (3) to obtainTherefore the solid-fluid P-wave transmission coefficient isDivision by was only an elimination device; the final expression extends continuously to . The normal-incidence value is . This is a potential coefficient; longitudinal displacement field transmission additionally multiplies it by . The original PDF's bracket lies in the denominator and contains and . The converted TeX misplaces the bracket, substitutes for , and loses the final cosine.
