Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 3 19F Solution 2026-10-14
The left group action on the homogeneous polynomials is , since . Every SU(2) matrix is conjugate to with . In the monomial basis , its eigenvalues are . Consequently the character of the homogeneous polynomial representation of SU2 isThe quotient is interpreted by continuity at the endpoints: and . The introductory action and character requests are independent of parts (i)–(iii), so this root Solution slot has been restored.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 43 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A SU(2) matrix has the form with . Comparing this with the Pauli expansion givesConsequently all four Pauli coefficients must be real, and their norm condition isConversely, the Pauli matrix multiplication law gives and , so these conditions imply unitarity and determinant one. For complex coefficients the determinant equation alone would not imply unitarity.
On either open hemisphere,Both signs are necessary globally. The two hemispheres meet along , and the full four-coefficient constraint is exactly the unit sphere in . The coefficient map and its inverse are smooth, establishing SU(2) as the three-sphere as a manifold, not merely a dimension count.
For two real coefficient quadruples, expanding the matrix product with the Pauli matrix multiplication law givesFor an infinitesimal second factor, . Thereforewhile . These variations are tangent to the unit sphere because .
On a hemisphere, differentiation of the norm constraint gives , and henceContracting with the Pauli-coordinate left-invariant vector fields on SU(2) and using givesThe Pauli matrix multiplication law gives exactly the same expression for , soIt follows thatThis uses the Pauli matrix commutator identity. The commutator of two first-order vector fields is again a vector field, and the matrix entries of span the four coordinate functions . Equality of their actions on these entries determines the tangent field. ThereforeThe real tangent field underneath is generated by the flow ; left multiplication transports that tangent consistently, explaining its left invariance. The rescaled generators have the usual positive-sign angular-momentum commutator.
To determine the Haar measure, compute the metric induced from the unit three-sphere. Since , its line element isThe rank-one matrix determinant lemma givesThus the Pauli-coordinate Haar measure on SU(2) isup to an overall normalization. To check its group invariance, fix one unit coefficient quadruple and multiply by it. The product formulas define a linear transformation of the other quadruple. The norm of a product is the product of norms, as follows either from or directly from the dot and cross products. Fixed multiplication by a unit quadruple is therefore an orthogonal transformation of . It preserves the round sphere metric and volume, on both the left and the right, proving that this is the invariant measure.
The same density can be checked directly against the vector fields. On a fixed hemisphere, is constant, andThe second term vanishes because its contractions involve either or , both symmetric in . Thus the density has zero divergence along every invariant tangent direction.
The hemisphere chart becomes singular at the equator, but its volume is finite:Both hemispheres give total volume , so probability-normalized Haar measure is on each hemisphere. Finally, the three-sphere is closed and bounded in , hence compact; its smooth identification with SU(2) proves that is a compact group. The finite integral reflects this compactness, and the equatorial divergence is only a coordinate artefact.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 56 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Rescale the ambient coordinates by . For each and , take the relatively open set where . Define a manifold chart by retaining all the except :Here is the open unit open unit ball. The inverse of this manifold chart is explicit:The coordinate labels in retain their original indices. All the are nonzero, so this inverse exists; the strictly positive radicand makes it smooth on the whole open open unit ball. Projection and this inverse are continuous, so each manifold chart is a homeomorphism onto an open subset of .
These manifold charts cover the ellipsoid, because at every point at least one is nonzero. On an overlap with a different chart , the coordinates of are the retained for together withIts domain is the open subset of . The displayed functions, and the reverse transition functions obtained by exchanging , are smooth. Transitions between identical charts are the identity; opposite-sign charts with the same omitted coordinate do not overlap. The ambient subspace topology is Hausdorff and second countable, as it is inherited from Euclidean space. Thus this coordinate-projection atlas of an ellipsoid is a smooth atlas, proving the ellipsoid is a smooth manifold of dimension . The rescaling also gives a diffeomorphism with the unit sphere .
For the three-sphere, use its identification with SU(2) rather than separate local constructions. With the Pauli matrices , put . These form a real basis of the SU(2) Lie algebra and satisfyFor , the identification SU(2) as the three-sphere isThe matrix is unitary with determinant one. Conversely, every SU(2) matrix has this form, and both the correspondence and its inverse are smooth.
The left translations are diffeomorphisms. Define three left-invariant vector fields byMatrix multiplication makes these vector fields smooth globally. Since is an isomorphism from the SU(2) Lie algebra to , the three vectors are linearly independent at every point, and each is nowhere zero. This is the parallelization of a Lie group by left translations.
Transporting the left-invariant vector fields to the three-sphere gives the quaternionic left-invariant frame on the three-sphere:Directly, and on the unit three-sphere. Thus the vectors are tangent and form a global orthonormal frame of a vector bundle. The three-sphere is a parallelizable manifold, with tangent bundle .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 308 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
There is an exact rational-map description of sigma-model lumps and a restricted variational rational-map description of Skyrmions. The first follows from a Bogomolny equation; the second separates angular and radial dependence in a field that generally does not saturate a Bogomolny bound.
For the exact example, take the two-dimensional O3 nonlinear sigma model with a unit field , energy , and a fixed limit at infinity. Regular fields then have a one-point compactification to maps . Choose the orientation so that the stereographic fieldhas positive charge when it is holomorphic. Equivalently, this is the CP1 nonlinear sigma model since the target sphere is the complex projective line. Its energy and topological charge areSubtracting gives , so for ,The Cauchy-Riemann equations therefore give the minimal-energy fields. A holomorphic map from the compactified domain Riemann sphere to the target Riemann sphere is a rational map , with common polynomial factors cancelled. Its degree of a rational map of the Riemann sphere is . Poles of are coordinate singularities, not singularities of . For instance, with is an exact unit lump with energy , arbitrary centre , and scale . Its density is , whose plane integral is . For negative charge use antiholomorphic maps. Scale invariance allows arbitrarily small lumps and does not by itself prevent a singular concentration limit in the time-dependent theory.
The local angular geometry of any degree- rational map is measured by its angular Jacobian of a rational map,For , the Wronskian of a rational map isAt ordinary finite points its zeros mark ramification points of a holomorphic map, where the angular density vanishes. At a pole use as the target coordinate, and at infinity use as the domain coordinate. A pole of order is ramified by . The Riemann-Hurwitz formula counts total ramification , including infinity, even if the affine Wronskian has smaller degree. For , accounts for zeros at zero; the reciprocal coordinate shows the other at infinity.
For the approximate example, the rational map approximation for Skyrmions uses spherical radius , angular stereographic projection coordinate , andThe Pauli matrices make this an SU(2) group-valued field. The boundary conditions give a continuous centre and the vacuum value at infinity; the profile must also make the energy finite. Angular degree and radial winding factorize to giveAt radii with nonzero , the angular baryon number density is proportional to . Thus the Wronskian of a rational map locates zero-density directions and reveals the holes or face directions in shell-like Skyrmion configurations.
In dimensionless Skyrme model units, insert this ansatz into the quadratic and quartic derivative energies. The angular terms integrate to or to the angular integral in the rational map approximation,First minimize over degree- maps, then solve the radial variational equationwith the stated boundary conditions. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives because has sphere average . For an isometric map such as has , , and reduces to the Skyrmion hedgehog ansatz; its profile still requires solving the radial equation. For general , angular and radial separation restrict the allowed fields. The minimum within this class is an upper bound on the full sector minimum, not a claim that every exact Skyrmion has this separated form. The original construction is Houghton, Manton and Sutcliffe's arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9705151.
A rotational symmetry of a rational map must satisfy , where are the domain and target rotations written as Möbius transformations from SU(2) matrices. Since a target rotation is an isometry, this identity implies . For , , giving axial spatial symmetry accompanied by an internal rotation. This explains the axial symmetry of the degree-two toroidal ansatz.
A useful degree-four example isIts finite ramification directions are , with the sixth at infinity. They are the six coordinate-axis directions under stereographic projection, so they are the face normals of a cube. The full map has octahedral rotational equivariance: for example , and the cyclic-axis generator obeys . These generate the cube's rotational group and give a cubic angular density. The associated profile then produces the familiar cubic charge-four approximation. Symmetry of the Wronskian is a useful necessary diagnostic but is not sufficient: replacing this map by , , leaves the same ramification directions, while the identity under becomes , whose target transformation is a sphere rotation only when . Equivariance of the entire rational map, rather than symmetry of its critical-point set alone, determines the physical rotational symmetry.
A nonzero Higgs doublet has a real radial magnitude and three real angular coordinates. For a normalized vector , the SU(2) matrix satisfies . Near the vacuum, the three broken generators can equivalently be parameterized by . A local gauge transformation removes these angular fields in unitary gauge. This coordinate choice is local about a nonzero vacuum and need not extend through zeros or topological defects.
Rotational symmetry of a rational map Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
Rotations of the domain and target Riemann spheres act as Möbius transformations represented by SU(2) matrices. A combined symmetry requires the equivariance identity for the corresponding transformations. Symmetry of the Wronskian of a rational map alone is insufficient: it tests the ramification directions, not the entire map. Target rotations preserve the angular Jacobian of a rational map, so an equivariant map has a domain-invariant angular density.