Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 ib Paper 3 4F ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 2 4F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 23 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the covariant category in this part, put and . Its global-sections functor is , the limit of the diagram. If is also an inverse image, it is a left adjoint and preserves all small colimits.
Consider the canonical pointwise-surjective mapAt , the summand contains , so is an epimorphism. In a presheaf topos epimorphisms are regular, and a colimit-preserving functor preserves their coequalizer presentations. Thus is surjective. Since preserves coproducts, some summand has a global element, yielding a section of its unique map . The constant singleton functor is a retract of a covariant representable.
Conversely, if is such a retract in a category, is a retract of , which is evaluation at by the Yoneda lemma. Evaluation preserves colimits pointwise. The colimit comparison for a retract functor is a retract of the evaluation comparison; a retract of an isomorphism is an isomorphism, so preserves all small colimits. It also preserves finite limits because it is representable. A right adjoint can be constructed byFor , precomposition gives , and applying and then gives . The presentation of every functor as a colimit of representables gives . Hence , so is an inverse image and the topos is local.
The retract condition has a precise interpretation as the initial object criterion for a covariant local topos. Write the section as a natural family . Naturality says for every . Put . Then and every satisfies . In the idempotent completion of , the object is initial: an arrow from it to must satisfy , and the identities force ; this arrow exists because and .
Conversely an initial object in the idempotent completion gives that natural family and the retract. ThereforeIf is already idempotent-complete, this is equivalent to an initial object in itself, and is evaluation there. The word is initial, not terminal, because this question uses covariant functors.
One cannot omit idempotent completion for a general small category. Take the one-object category of the monoid with absorbing zero. It has no initial object because its endomorphism set has two elements, but the natural family satisfies for every . Its covariant functor category is local. Concretely, a functor is a set with an idempotent operator, and its global sections are the fixed points of that operator.
For a topological space , there is an equally explicit criterion. If is local, apply to the epimorphism associated with any open cover , regarding the opens as subterminal sheaves. Since is a singleton exactly when , and otherwise empty, coproduct and epimorphism preservation force some .
Thus every open cover of contains itself. Conversely this open cover criterion for a local sheaf topos condition is equivalent to existence of a point whose only open neighborhood is : the union of all proper open sets cannot be all of , so choose outside it. Such a point plainly forces any cover to contain . Empty spaces fail the condition.
At this point, the stalk functor is simply , since there is only one open neighborhood. Its right adjoint is the skyscraper sheaf of setsA morphism is determined exactly by its map , because all proper opens omit . Hence , and preserves finite limits, proving locality. ConsequentlyIn a space this distinguished point is unique and closed. In a space the condition forces to be a singleton. Indistinguishable points in a non- space can all have this property; uniqueness of an actual point is not part of the general criterion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 13 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
An irreducible scheme is a nonempty scheme whose underlying topological space cannot be expressed as the union of two proper closed subsets. Equivalently, any two nonempty open subsets meet. A reduced scheme is one whose local rings have no nonzero nilpotent elements. Equivalently, every affine open subscheme has a reduced ring of regular functions. We may define an integral scheme as a nonempty scheme for which the coordinate ring of every nonempty affine open subscheme is an integral domain. We shall show that this is equivalent to being reduced and irreducible. The nonempty convention matters: the empty scheme is reduced but is not irreducible or integral.
For a commutative ring , the spectrum of a ring is reduced exactly when is a reduced ring. One direction follows since localization preserves reducedness. Conversely, if is a nonzero nilpotent element, choose a prime ideal containing its proper annihilator. Then cannot vanish at that localization, contradicting reducedness of its local ring.
The spectrum of a ring is irreducible exactly when its nilradical is a prime ideal. To see the essential implication directly, if , then is empty. Irreducibility forces or to be empty, hence or . Also is proper because the spectrum is nonempty. Conversely, if is a prime ideal, the point has closure , so the spectrum is irreducible. Combining the two criteria gives
Now suppose is reduced and irreducible. Every nonempty affine open subscheme is also reduced and irreducible: irreducibility passes to nonempty open subsets, because their nonempty open subsets are nonempty opens of . The affine criterion makes each coordinate ring an integral domain, so is integral. Conversely, suppose all its nonempty affine coordinate rings are integral domains. Their localizations show that is reduced. If were reducible, there would be disjoint nonempty open subsets; choose nonempty affine open subschemes and inside them. Their disjoint union is itself an affine open subscheme . Since are nonzero, contradicts the domain condition. Therefore
The generic point of an integral scheme is the unique point with . For existence, take a nonempty affine open subscheme . Its point has closure containing , which is dense in , so its closure in is all of . For uniqueness, both proposed generic points lie in every nonempty open subset, hence in , where the only dense point is . The function field isHere the stalk description shows that the field of fractions is independent of the choice of nonempty affine open subscheme.
Every nonempty open subscheme contains , so taking a germ there defines . If a section has zero germ, restrict it to any nonempty affine open subscheme . Its image in is zero. Since this coordinate ring is an integral domain, the section is zero on . Such affines cover , and the sheaf gluing axiom makes the section zero on . Thus the generic-point embedding of regular functions is
For a nonreduced reducible fibre between integral schemes, take both source and target to be the affine line over , and use the ring homomorphismBoth coordinate rings are integral domains, so both schemes are integral. At the target closed point , the scheme-theoretic fibre has ringby the Chinese remainder theorem. Its underlying space has two distinct closed points, so it is reducible. The class of is nonzero but has square zero, so it is not reduced. Even a morphism between integral schemes can have a fibre consisting of two nonreduced double points.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ib Paper 2 4E Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For topological spaces, continuity means that is open in for every open set in . Equivalently, inverse images of closed sets are closed. A homeomorphism is a bijection for which both the map and its inverse are continuous.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 4 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Construct the free product from the empty word and all finite alternating words , whose syllables in a free product are nonidentity elements of tagged copies of , with adjacent syllables from different factors. Multiply by concatenating, multiplying adjacent elements in the same factor, and deleting identities until the word is reduced. The normal form theorem for a free product gives a unique result; reducing three concatenated words gives the same result under either parenthesization, so multiplication is associative. The empty word is the identity, and the inverse reverses the word and inverts each syllable. Each factor embeds as words of length one.
The universal property of a free product says that for every group and group homomorphisms there is a unique group homomorphism extending both. Explicitly, send a reduced word to the product of its syllable images; reduction preserves this product. This gives existence, while generation by the two factors gives uniqueness.
A standard form of Klein's combination theorem, or the ping-pong lemma, is the following. Let nontrivial subgroups of the homeomorphisms of a topological space have disjoint nonempty subsets withAssume also that at least one factor has at least three elements. Then the generated subgroup is . The cardinality hypothesis cannot simply be omitted: the same involution swapping two disjoint sets would otherwise provide a counterexample with both factors equal to .
Here is the ping-pong lemma proof. A reduced word of odd length begins and ends in the same factor, so repeated application of the displayed inclusions sends the other factor's domain into that factor's domain. Disjointness shows that the word is not the identity. For an even reduced word, relabel the factors so that , and invert the word if necessary to make it begin with and end in . Choose . The conjugate reduces to an odd-length word beginning with and ending with , both in , so it is nontrivial. Thus no nonempty reduced word lies in the kernel of the natural group homomorphism , proving the theorem.
For an explicit example, let be the one-dimensional Real projective space, and take the Möbius transformationsFor every nonzero integer , sends into , while sends into . Indeed when , and . Both transformations have infinite order. Hence the ping-pong lemma gives , a free product of two nontrivial finitely presented groups.
A finitely presented group admits a group presentation with both and finite; it is the quotient of the free group on by the normal closure of . Ifwith disjoint generator sets, thenMaps from this group presentation to any group are exactly pairs of maps from and , so the universal property of a free product proves the formula.
For a group homomorphism , choose a word representing for each . The presentation of a semidirect product isThe presentation maps onto the specified semidirect product. Conversely, its conjugation relations allow any word to be written as a word from followed by one from . The natural maps from the two factors to the presented group satisfy the full action relation, because conjugation agrees with first on generators and hence on all elements. They define the reverse group homomorphism . The two maps are inverse on every generator, proving the group isomorphism. There are finitely many cross-relations, so the result is again a finitely presented group.
Apply this to the specified permutation action. The presentation isEliminate and . The last cross-relation becomes , already implied by . ThusBoth factors are nontrivial finitely presented groups, as required.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 4 13E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A quotient topological space of a topological space is obtained by an equivalence relation : its points are the classes , and the canonical surjection is . The quotient topology declares a subset of the quotient open exactly when is open in . More generally a surjection onto a set specifies the same topology by this condition.
For a Hausdorff source with a non-Hausdorff quotient, use and when . Any nonempty open inverse image is a nonempty open subset of invariant under rational translations. It contains an interval , and for every real there is a rational with ; hence it contains every . Thus has the indiscrete topology.
It has distinct points, for instance the classes of and , but neither has a proper nonempty open neighbourhood. The quotient is not Hausdorff, even though is a Hausdorff space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 113 4 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For a point and an abelian group , the skyscraper sheaf , with , isRestrictions are identities or the map to zero, so it is a flasque sheaf. The global sections equal and higher cohomology vanishes:No closed-point assumption is needed for this calculation of skyscraper sheaf cohomology. On an arbitrary topological space, its nonzero stalks are at points of when ; only for a closed point is the nonzero stalk confined to .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 118 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Treat as the trivial group if is not abelian. The restriction maps satisfy the presheaf identities. To verify the sheaf gluing axiom, take an open cover of . If , every section group is trivial. If , at least one contains . Every two such opens have an overlap containing , so compatibility forces all their sections to have the same value . Opens not containing have their unique trivial section. The value is exactly the unique glued section. Thus the stated presheaf is a skyscraper sheaf, including for nonabelian groups.
For the stalk of a sheaf, take the direct limit over neighbourhoods of . If some neighbourhood of omits , neighbourhoods inside are cofinal and all their groups are trivial. If every neighbourhood of contains , every group in the system is and every transition map is the identity. Consequently, on the arbitrary topological space in the question,Membership in this closure means exactly that every neighbourhood of contains . In particular . If is a closed point, the closure is just and the familiar point-supported answer results. The separation assumption is not present in the printed question, so it cannot be imposed silently.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 4 13E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Let be an open cover of in its subspace topology. Write with each open in . Since is a closed set, is open, and is an open cover of the compact space . A finite subcover restricts to a finite subcover of . Hence the closed subset is compact.
If is an open cover of in its subspace topology, the inverse images under the restricted continuous map form an open cover of . Take a finite subcover; the corresponding cover . Thus the continuous image is compact. Neither argument assumes a Hausdorff space or asserts that a compact set must be closed set in an arbitrary topological space.