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Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 22 3 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
On a complex manifold, a divisor on a complex manifold is a locally finite formal sum , where ranges over irreducible complex analytic hypersurfaces and . The local algebra needed here is that the local ring , identified in coordinates with convergent power-series germs, is a regular local ring and a unique factorization domain. In particular, each height-one prime is generated by one irreducible germ, and a nonzero meromorphic germ is a quotient of holomorphic germs. Reduced local equations of the same hypersurface differ by a holomorphic unit. These facts include local branches when a globally irreducible hypersurface has several branches at a singular point.
The order of a meromorphic function along a hypersurface is the exponent of its reduced local equation in the quotient's factorization. Equivalently, at a generic smooth point of , write , with a transverse local equation of and a holomorphic unit; then . Changing a reduced equation multiplies it by a unit and leaves unchanged. These local orders agree on overlaps and are constant along the generic smooth locus of an irreducible hypersurface. A nonzero global meromorphic function therefore defines its principal divisor on a complex manifoldPositive coefficients record zeros and negative coefficients record poles.
A local defining function for on is a nonzero meromorphic function whose orders there equal the coefficients of . It can be constructed as the product of local reduced hypersurface equations to the prescribed integer powers. On an overlap, has no zero or pole along any hypersurface. The unique factorization domain property then makes it a nowhere-zero holomorphic function, after choosing representatives of the germs. The holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor is obtained by gluing holomorphic frames usingThese ratios satisfy the cocycle condition, and the expressions agree on overlaps. They form the canonical meromorphic section of a holomorphic line bundle with divisor .
If globally, is a holomorphic unit on , and is a global nowhere-zero holomorphic section. Hence is holomorphically trivial. Conversely, if has a nowhere-zero global holomorphic frame , write with holomorphic units. The coefficients of the canonical meromorphic section of a holomorphic line bundle agree on overlaps and give a nonzero global meromorphic function . Since multiplication by a unit does not change orders, . Therefore
For a smooth hypersurface , the adjunction formula isIndeed, the holomorphic conormal sequence has first term ; taking its determinant yields , which gives the formula. Here the canonical bundle is the top exterior power of the holomorphic cotangent bundle.
Apply this first to . Its degree- equation is a section of , so . Since , we obtain . The restricted second equation cuts out in and has associated bundle . A second application of adjunction formula gives the canonical bundle of a regular projective complete intersection
It remains to prove that a nonzero exponent cannot yield a trivial holomorphic line bundle on . Choose a connected component and a hyperplane meeting but not containing it. Such a hyperplane exists: a positive-dimensional compact projective submanifold cannot lie entirely in an affine chart, since all its affine coordinate functions would be global holomorphic functions and hence constant. A hyperplane through one point and not another consequently meets properly. Its equation gives a holomorphic section of that has both a zero and a nonzero value. For , the th power has the same two properties. Were trivial, this section would be represented by a global holomorphic function, contradicting its constancy on compact connected . For , triviality would imply triviality of its positive dual power. This proves nontrivial hyperplane powers on a compact projective submanifold and henceThe degrees are positive because the two equations define a hypersurface and a surface of the specified dimensions.
The calculation uses “non-singular” in the usual smooth complete-intersection sense: the equations define reduced smooth divisors, with independent differentials along . If only their reduced zero sets are required to be smooth, polynomial multiplicities cannot determine the canonical bundle. For example, and have the same smooth quartic surface in the hyperplane for every . That surface has trivial canonical bundle, while the displayed polynomial degree sum is . Thus unreduced equations must not be substituted into the adjunction formula for the reduced surface.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 22 2 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A holomorphic line bundle is a rank-one holomorphic vector bundle: it has local trivializations whose fiberwise linear transition functions of a vector bundle are nowhere-zero holomorphic functions. Equivalently, choose local holomorphic frames and write on overlaps, with and the cocycle relation on triple overlaps. A holomorphic section over has coefficients holomorphic on in ; consistency means .
The dual bundle has fiber . Its dual frames are characterized by , and the frame relation becomes . Reciprocals of nowhere-zero holomorphic functions are holomorphic, and their cocycle relations persist. This defines the holomorphic dual vector bundle structure on , with holomorphic evaluation pairing .
Assume now that is compact and connected, and let and be nonzero global holomorphic sections of and , respectively. The function is a global holomorphic function. The maximum modulus principle, applied in local complex coordinate lines near a maximum and then propagated on the connected manifold, makes it constant. Moreover it is not identically zero: the zero locus of a nonzero holomorphic section has empty interior by the identity theorem, so the two nonvanishing loci are dense open sets and intersect. Thus everywhere.
In particular, never vanishes. The map is a holomorphic bundle isomorphism ; in a local frame its inverse divides by the nowhere-zero holomorphic coefficient of . Conversely, a holomorphic trivialization supplies the constant unit sections of both and . We have proved the two-section criterion for holomorphic triviality:
Write points of Complex projective space as lines . The complex tautological line bundle iswith fiber that very line. Its dual is the hyperplane line bundle . On the affine chart , the vector is a nowhere-zero holomorphic frame of . On ,Both ratios are nowhere-zero holomorphic functions of the affine coordinates. They exhibit the holomorphic transition functions of a vector bundle for the two bundles explicitly.
Choose a nonzero linear functional whose zero hyperplane is . At , its restriction to is an element of that line's dual and therefore defines a holomorphic section of . In the dual frame above its coefficient isThis expression is holomorphic even along , and its zero locus is exactly . Consequently is the requested nowhere-zero section; its global holomorphic extension vanishes precisely on . The extension need not, and does not, stay nowhere zero on the hyperplane.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 22 1 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The complex structure on a complex manifold splits its complexified cotangent bundle into the and eigenspaces, locally spanned by and . A differential form of type (p, q) is a smooth section of , so in holomorphic coordinates it has the expressionHere the increasing multi-indices avoid duplicating alternating factors. The exterior derivative has just two type components: the conjugate Dolbeault operator and the Dolbeault operator . On such a local expression they areHolomorphic changes of coordinates preserve these types, so the definitions are intrinsic. Comparing type components of gives and .
A real (p, p)-form satisfies , where complex conjugation acts on both coefficients and differential factors. Conjugation exchanges the two Dolbeault operators, soThus forces as well. Conversely, if , its distinct and components both vanish. ThereforeThe assertion remains valid in top degree, when the indicated type components are zero automatically.
For a holomorphic function , and . Writing its real part as givesHence the real part of a holomorphic function is a pluriharmonic function.
For the local exactness assertion, work on a smaller polydisc whose closure lies in the original one. The allowed one-variable integral is the Cauchy-Green operator in coordinate . Applied coefficientwise, it satisfies on a smaller disc and commutes with differentiation in all other coordinates; the smooth parameter dependence follows by applying the integral to a smooth compactly supported extension in the integration variable. This extension can be made with a cutoff equal to one on the smaller disc.
Begin with a Dolbeault operator closed form and decompose it uniquely as , where neither nor contains . Set . The component of is exactly , sohas no factor. It is still -closed. The component of now shows that every coefficient of is holomorphic in .
Apply the same construction in to remove its antiholomorphic differential factor. The operator preserves holomorphicity in , since it commutes with . Consequently the second subtraction introduces no previously removed factor. Continue through all coordinates, shrinking the polydisc when necessary. The final remainder has positive antiholomorphic degree but contains none of the , and hence is zero. This coordinate elimination for local Dolbeault primitives constructsIf , the original form is already zero, so one can take .
Finally let be a smooth -form on the complex projective line. Choose and the two coordinate neighborhoods and , the latter expressed in . They cover the sphere. The one-variable construction, integrating over slightly larger closed discs in each coordinate chart, gives smooth functions on and on with and .
Their difference is a holomorphic function on the annulus . Its Laurent series splits asThe first series extends holomorphically throughout , while the second extends throughout , including infinity, where it has value zero. Thus and agree on the overlap and glue to a global smooth function . Both corrections are holomorphic, soThis Laurent gluing of Dolbeault primitives on the projective line uses no Hodge theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 20 5 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Riemann surface is a connected one-complex-dimensional complex manifold: it has local complex coordinates with holomorphic transition maps. These coordinates induce an orientation and a conformal structure. Fix a closed oriented topological surface of genus . A point of Teichmüller space is a marked Riemann surface , where is an orientation-preserving marking. Two pairs are equivalent if there is a biholomorphism with isotopic to . Thus the marking remembers how curves on the reference surface sit in ; forgetting it gives the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, obtained by quotienting by the mapping class group.
For , the uniformization theorem supplies a unique curvature- hyperbolic metric in each conformal class. A pants decomposition has cuffs, and their positive lengths together with their real twists give Fenchel–Nielsen coordinates. HenceFor completeness, is a point, whereas is the upper half-plane, parametrizing marked complex tori with .
The Wolpert generic spectral rigidity theorem says that, for fixed , there is a closed proper real-analytic exceptional subset of such that a hyperbolic surface outside that subset is determined up to isometry by its unmarked length spectrum, equivalently its Laplacian spectrum. This is an unoriented isometry statement: reversing orientation cannot be detected by either spectrum.
The Huber spectral equivalence theorem says that two closed curvature- hyperbolic surfaces have the same Laplacian spectrum, with multiplicities, if and only if they have the same unmarked length spectrum, with multiplicities. One may consistently count unoriented closed geodesics including their iterates; alternatively, the primitive multiset determines the multiset with iterates and conversely. This equivalence comes from the Selberg trace formula.
The Buser finite length spectrum theorem is the finite-determination ingredient: for each and there is a finite number such that, for any two closed hyperbolic surfaces of genus with hyperbolic systole at least , equality of their length multisets through implies equality of their entire length spectra. The finite-length statement is used in Buser's chapter on Wolpert's theorem. It determines the full spectrum, not necessarily the isometry class.
Here is a proof of the Buser finite length spectrum theorem through finite spectral matching by polynomial invariants. We use the following subsidiary results, stating the required content. First, Mumford's compactness theorem makes the part of the genus- moduli space of Riemann surfaces with hyperbolic systole at least compact. Second, marked hyperbolic holonomy representations of a closed oriented surface lift from to , and normalized representatives can be chosen continuously on sufficiently small parameter charts. Their hyperbolic translation length satisfiesThird, the length spectrum of a compact hyperbolic surface is locally finite, and metrics on compact marked parameter charts are uniformly bilipschitz equivalent. Finally, the Hilbert basis theorem implies that a descending sequence of algebraic sets in a finite-dimensional affine space stabilizes. These are compactness, holonomy, elementary geometric finiteness and algebraic finiteness results; none is the finite unmarked-spectrum assertion we are proving.
By compactness, finitely many relatively compact marked charts cover the thick moduli space of Riemann surfaces. Choose normalized lifted hyperbolic holonomy representations on these charts and take their compact closures. Their finite union is a compact set of determinant-one matrix tuples representing every surface in the thick part, possibly more than once. Each tuple records the images of the generators of the fundamental group. Thus sits in a fixed finite-dimensional real matrix space. Every group word is a polynomial in these matrix entries: multiplication is polynomial, and for a determinant-one two-by-two matrix its inverse is its adjugate, also polynomial. Consequently each is a polynomial on the ambient space. Squared traces remove the sign ambiguity of the lift, and is strictly increasing for positive .
Enumerate the unoriented nontrivial free homotopy classes as , including the iterates, and write for their geodesic lengths at . The uniform finiteness of short geodesic classes follows here directly: on each of the finitely many compact marked charts, choose a fixed reference metric and a uniform bilipschitz constant . A class with somewhere on that chart has reference length at most . Only finitely many classes have that reference length, and a finite union of these finite collections is finite. In particular, for every the candidate setis finite. If two parameters in have equal lengths for classes , then . These candidate sets depend on the fixed compact set and the source label , not on the number of labels currently being matched.
For every , define in the full ambient space of pairs of matrix tuples as follows. Require an injective choice with andand independently require an injective choice with andThere are finitely many possible pairs of choices because every is finite. For each choice these are finitely many polynomial equations. Therefore is a finite union of algebraic sets, hence an algebraic set. Restricting an injective matching to its first entries provesThe Hilbert basis theorem now supplies such that for all . This step takes place in a fixed affine space and uses polynomial equations, so it gives stabilization of the actual sets, not just stabilization of germs at individual parameters.
For , stabilization gives injective partial length matchings in both directions for every . Fix any length . Only finitely many labels have length at or at , by local finiteness. Take large enough to contain every such label at . Its injective matching into the labels at preserves , and hence preserves length, so the multiplicity of at is at most its multiplicity at . The reverse matching gives the opposite inequality. Thus the two multiplicities are equal for every , proving equality of the entire unmarked length spectra. No assumed global matching or unjustified exchange of infinitely many neighborhoods is needed.
Finally choose a numberSuppose the two length multisets agree through . For each of the first labels at , select a distinct equal-length label at , which is possible precisely because the truncated multisets agree with multiplicity. Each selected label belongs to the corresponding . Do the same in the reverse direction. Then , and the previous paragraph proves equality of the full length spectra. Since was selected using only the fixed thick genus- parameter space, the resulting finite depends only on . This proveswith each intersection interpreted as a multiset. By the Huber spectral equivalence theorem, the corresponding entire Laplacian spectra also agree. This is the finite matching reduction needed before the analytic and geometric rigidity steps in the Wolpert generic spectral rigidity theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 20 4 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Subgroups of a finite group have Gassmann equivalence whenSumming over the conjugacy classes gives . Equivalently, their coset permutation representations have the same character of a representation. In particular, almost conjugate subgroups need not be conjugate.
Put , , and . Begin with the sphere punctured at three points. Its fundamental group is , and the epimorphism sending to defines a connected regular -sheeted covering space. Around the punctures the monodromies have cycles of lengths . Fill each lifted puncture by a disk, using the local branched covering models , and . This produces a closed oriented surface , with acting by homeomorphisms that are smooth in these local models. This construction works even if one of is one.
Triangulate the base sphere with the three marked points as vertices and two faces. Lifting this triangulation givesso the Euler characteristic isIn the hyperbolic case , this is equivalently the triangle cover construction for Sunada surfaces. Take the hyperbolic triangle groupand its epimorphism with the same images. All finite-order elements of are conjugate to powers of its three elliptic generators. Because their images have the same exact orders, is torsion-free and . It can be assembled from hyperbolic triangles of angles . Both examples below belong to this hyperbolic case.
For and to be smooth surfaces normally covered by , the subgroup actions must be free. The precise condition is that neither subgroup meet any conjugate in of a nonidentity power of , or . These are exactly the possible point stabilizers. Then and are regular coverings, with deck transformation groups respectively. No normality of in is needed: normality would concern the further covering of the base orbifold, not these coverings from . For a free subgroup ,
Choose any -invariant smooth Riemannian metric on , for example by averaging an arbitrary metric. It descends to both quotients. On functions let be the unitary action of , and let for . The averaging operator projects orthogonally onto the -invariant functions, which identify with functions on . The trace formula underlying the Sunada theorem isThe expression is a class function, because commutes with . Thus Gassmann equivalence makes the two sums identical. Alternatively, apply the same averaging formula to each finite-dimensional Laplacian eigenspace: its invariant dimension is . This proves equality of every eigenvalue multiplicity and hence isospectrality of the two quotient metrics.
If for some , the action of gives an isometry between the quotients for every such metric. Nonconjugacy is therefore necessary. To make it sufficient, choose the quotient orbifold metric generically so that its regular locus has no nonidentity local isometries; this is the equivariant, or orbifold, version of the Sunada local isometry lemma. Smooth perturbations on regular coordinate balls provide this genericity while their lifts remain smooth on . Any isometry between and , when composed locally with their projections, would then identify the same points of the base regular locus. By continuation it is an isomorphism of their coverings of that locus, and the classification of connected covering spaces forces to be conjugate in . Thus nonconjugate subgroups give non-isometric isospectral quotients for a suitable generic invariant metric. The genericity belongs to the base regular locus; the covering metric on itself necessarily has the prescribed deck symmetries.
For genus two, an explicit choice is the following permutation group on twelve labels, with permutation products composed from right to left:These parameters are those in Kang's genus-two construction. They admit a direct finite verification. Starting with and iterating , the successive sizes are , after which the set is unchanged. Thus , and direct multiplication gives and . The conjugacy-class triples , obtained as , areThis proves Gassmann equivalence. The subgroup fixes the labels , whereas has no common fixed label, so they cannot be conjugate even in the full symmetric group. Both are groups of order eight, so they meet no nonidentity order-three element. The only order-two power of iswhich is central in and lies in neither subgroup. This also excludes its conjugates and proves freeness. The quotient Euler characteristics and genera are thereforeThe covering surface has genus nine.
For genus three, use , of order . Let stabilize a nonzero vector and let stabilize a two-dimensional subspace. Both have index seven and order twenty-four. An element fixes nonzero vectors. Hyperplanes correspond to nonzero dual vectors over , so the number fixed in the dual action is , the same number. Equality of these permutation characters proves that the point and hyperplane stabilizers are almost conjugate.
They are not conjugate. In coordinates where fixes , its elements include all matrices with arbitrary row and . An invariant plane containing would project to a line invariant under every , which is impossible. A plane not containing would be the graph of a linear functional on the quotient, and arbitrary would move that graph. Thus stabilizes no plane, whereas every conjugate of does.
Choose the concrete generatorsOver , each of has order seven. The same closure iteration has sizes , verifying that generate . Since seven does not divide , neither stabilizer contains a nonidentity power of these generators, or any conjugate of such a power. We may therefore use in the triangle cover construction for Sunada surfaces. The quotient calculation isHere the covering surface has genus forty-nine. Choosing the generic invariant metrics described above completes both requested pairs.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 20 3 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here “bumpy” means a nowhere locally homogeneous metric, not the different convention concerning nondegenerate closed geodesics. A smooth Riemannian metric has this property if every local isometry between connected open subsets is the identity on its domain; in particular, no two distinct open subsets are isometric. The Sunada local isometry lemma states that, on a compact smooth manifold without boundary of dimension at least two, such Riemannian metrics form a residual set and are dense in the topology. The dimension restriction matters: in dimension one, arclength coordinates always give nontrivial local isometries.
An element of the jet bundle of maps records the source point , target value and all derivatives through order . If and , there are derivative multi-indices of order , and components for each one. ThusFor the projection onto , the fiber has dimension . In source and target coordinates its Taylor coefficients identify it withThis is a coordinate-dependent identification for , since a change of coordinates mixes different derivative orders. For the fiber is canonically ; for higher orders, truncation to the previous jet bundle of maps is an affine bundle modeled on . For the fiber is a point.
The density assertion in the printed question requires distinct closed domains. Literally, for , the identity is an isometry for every Riemannian metric, so is the whole metric space and its complement is empty. Merely indexing the same closed ball twice has the same defect. The intended assertion is for distinct embedded closed balls and , with an isometry meaning an onto diffeomorphism preserving the metric. The proof below establishes precisely this corrected assertion.
Distinct embedded closed balls are regular closed sets, so at least one of and contains a nonempty open set. Indeed, if both were empty, taking closures would give both inclusions and hence equality. Interchange the labels if necessary and choose a nonzero nonnegative smooth bump function supported in . For any given Riemannian metric , make the localized volume perturbationThe Riemannian volume form satisfies . ThereforeIf the original volumes agree, every sufficiently small makes them unequal. If they already disagree, continuity preserves that inequality for sufficiently small . An onto isometry must preserve volume, so each of these perturbed Riemannian metrics belongs to . Finally in : all derivatives of tend to zero uniformly on compact sets. This proves density of for distinct closed balls, in fact in every positive dimension. The localized volume perturbation settles this particular density claim directly. It also does not imply the stronger Sunada local isometry lemma by itself, since a general local isometry need not send one preselected basis ball onto another.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 20 2 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the following skew-symmetric matrix, whose columns reduce modulo three to four of the specified nonzero tetracode words:Set , , and define the full Euclidean lattices . Their determinants have absolute value , sinceFor arbitrary positive real numbers , put and . This is the tetracode length-isospectral lattice construction. We prove equality of the length multisets by an explicit bijection, not just equality of the shortest lengths.
Modulo three, both lattices have image . The matrix has rank two over ; its four column lines are precisely the four lines in . Also modulo three, so . Each nonzero tetracode word has exactly one zero coordinate. Every therefore has some coordinate divisible by three. Moreover, all four coordinates of have the same parity, because every entry of either is odd.
For , choose the least index with and set . The coordinate reflection bijection for tetracode lattices will show that . First, , so . Second, positive-lattice membership implies . HenceThe expression in parentheses has th coordinate zero and every other coordinate even, by the common parity and . Thus . Together the congruences modulo three and four say , which is precisely .
Conversely, if , the same reflection has unchanged reduction modulo three, and now . ThusIts th coordinate is and its other coordinates are even multiples of two, so it vanishes modulo four; it vanishes modulo three as well. The reflected vector is in . The chosen index is unchanged by reflection, including for vectors reducing to zero, so this map is an involution between the two lattices. It preserves every and therefore preserves . The two lattices have the same length spectrum, including every multiplicity, for every positive choice of weights.
To prove a genuine failure of isometry, chooseThese four numbers are linearly independent over : changing the signs of the independent square roots in the multiquadratic field isolates each coefficient of a rational relation. If an orthogonal transformation maps to , thenand . Comparing rational coefficients of the independent in the diagonal entries gives . Consequently is diagonal with entries .
Such a coordinate sign change must preserve modulo three. For each zero coordinate , there are exactly two opposite nonzero tetracode words. Preserving their line requires the other three signs to be equal. Taking two different zero coordinates forces all four signs to be equal. Thus or , either of which would imply . ButThis contradiction proves and are not isometric. Allowing affine isometries changes nothing: translating the image of zero back to zero reduces them to the orthogonal case.
For the flat tori, take period lattices equal to the dual lattices:The standard spectrum of a flat torus lemma states that its characters of a real torus are indexed by the dual of its period lattice. Here they are for , with Laplacian eigenvalue . These characters give a complete orthogonal basis, so our length-preserving bijection proves that and are isospectral manifolds. The second standard lemma is that an isometry of flat tori lifts to an affine isometry of their Euclidean universal covers. Its orthogonal part maps the period lattices to one another, and therefore maps their dual lattices to one another. This would give the impossible isometry . Hence and are isospectral non-isometric flat four-dimensional tori.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 20 1 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the nonnegative Laplacian convention and on the unit sphere. In polar coordinates the Euclidean Riemannian metric is , its volume form is , and therefore the Laplacian in polar coordinates isConsequently the required restriction identity isFor the opposite sign convention all eigenvalues below change sign, and the restriction identity changes accordingly.
Let be the vector space of degree- homogeneous polynomials in variables, and let be its subspace of harmonic polynomials. Write for . Substitution in the Laplacian identity givesThus each restricted harmonic polynomial is a spherical harmonic with eigenvalue .
To count these spherical harmonics, give polynomials the Fischer inner product . Multiplication by is adjoint to , so multiplication by is adjoint to the ordinary signed Laplacian . In these finite-dimensional inner product spaces, the orthogonal complement of is exactly . Hence the Fischer decomposition isMultiplication by is injective, while restriction of a homogeneous polynomial to the sphere is injective: homogeneity recovers its value at every nonzero point. Counting monomials now gives the eigenvalue multiplicitywhere the second term is zero for .
It remains to establish that these are all the eigenvalues and their full multiplicities. Iterating the Fischer decomposition expresses every restricted polynomial as a sum of the restricted harmonic polynomials. Restricted polynomials separate points and contain the constants, so the Stone-Weierstrass theorem makes their span dense in continuous functions on the sphere, hence dense in its L2 space. The Laplace-Beltrami operator is self-adjoint, and the distinct numbers strictly increase for . Its different eigenspaces are therefore orthogonal. Any additional eigenfunction, or any additional vector in one of these eigenspaces orthogonal to its known spherical harmonics, would be orthogonal to a dense subspace and hence zero. The standard compact elliptic spectral theorem then shows that the spectrum of the round sphere is precisely with multiplicity . For this gives multiplicity one at zero and two at for . If the degenerate case is included, has two points and its Laplacian is zero on a two-dimensional function space.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 2 6 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A subgroup is a benign subgroup when there are an embedding of into a finitely presented group and a finitely generated subgroup with . Finite generation is required of , not of itself. We use Britton's lemma, the normal form theorem for an amalgamated free product, and, for the final quotient assertion, the Higman embedding theorem.
Choose witnesses and for . The amalgamated free product embeds both witnesses and their common copy of . It is finitely presented: take their two finite presentations and add the finitely many equalities identifying the images of a finite generating set of . These equalities identify all elements of , so they present precisely the amalgam. The original intersections and are preserved by the embeddings.
Now form the finitely presented groupOnly finitely many commutation relators, one for each of the chosen subgroup generators, are needed. The subgroup is exactly the multiple HNN extension of centralizing and . To prove this claim, take a word in reduced for those associated subgroups. It remains reduced in : a -pinch with a coefficient in occurs precisely when that coefficient lies in , and an -pinch precisely when it lies in . Britton's lemma therefore prevents any extra relation, and it also embeds .
Write . The subgroup is finitely generated. If , Britton reduction must first pinch , requiring ; its value is then . The remaining can represent a base element only if , and then its value is again . Conversely every commutes with both letters. Henceso the intersection is benign.
For the join, put and , again finitely generated. The subgroup generated by in isIndeed, expanding conjugate-copy syllables as or shows that the only possible Britton reductions are exactly the identifications in the indicated amalgamations; a reduced amalgam word therefore has no additional way to become trivial.
We use this elementary consequence of amalgam normal forms: if , then inside the subgroup is and intersects exactly in . A reduced expression with a syllable cannot lie in , because multiplying it by an inverse base element still leaves a reduced nontrivial amalgam word. Apply this first to with , obtaining and . Since , apply it again in to obtain .
Each element of lies in , and each element of lies in , since the corresponding stable letter centralizes it. Thus , and . Intersecting the previous identities with givesThis proves the intersection and join of benign subgroups construction with actual finitely generated witnesses inside .
Finally let be benign, witnessed by in a finitely presented group . Choose finite generators for and express both and a finite generating set for as words in . Enumerate every word on , every word on those generators of , and every finite proof in the presentation of that their substituted words are equal. Dovetail these searches and list when such a proof is found. Exactly the words representing elements of are listed: membership has a finite expression in the generators of , and every valid equality has a finite relator proof. Since is normal, these are exactly the null words of .
Use this enumerable list as relators on the finite alphabet . Its normal closure is precisely the kernel of , so it is a recursive presentation of a group for . The Higman embedding theorem now yieldsThis is normal benign subgroup quotient embedding; no word algorithm for or membership algorithm for was assumed.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 2 5 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The algebraic characterization is the Boone-Higman theorem:Here need not be finitely generated or finitely presented. We prove the equivalence using the Higman embedding theorem, Britton's lemma and the normal form theorem for a free product. The original characterization is Theorem I of An algebraic characterization of groups with soluble word problem.
First suppose the embeddings exist. Choose a word in representing some fixed , and fixed words in representing the finite generators of . Given a word in those generators, one search enumerates proofs that in the finite group presentation of . A second search enumerates all finite products of conjugates in of , and all proofs that any such product equals . All these searches are effective: a proof of equality is a finite product of conjugates of defining relators, checked in the free group, and dovetailing handles the countably many candidates.
If , simplicity gives , so is such a finite product with conjugators in , which are also elements of . The second search eventually succeeds. If , every such product is trivial, so it cannot equal , but the first search succeeds. Running the two searches in parallel thus decides the word problem for a group in . This is semidecision of nonidentity in simple subgroups; no enumeration of or word algorithm for is required. The choice of the fixed word for is an existence choice of a finite string, not an algorithm for discovering from an arbitrary presentation.
Conversely suppose the word problem for a group in is soluble. We construct a recursive simple envelope by cyclic HNN extensions, keeping all effectiveness requirements explicit. Start with , where has infinite order. Reduced free product words give a word algorithm for and an algorithm testing membership in and recovering its exponent. The original null words of are decidable and therefore enumerable, so has a recursive presentation of a group.
Inductively assume has an effectively enumerable generating set, a recursive presentation, a word algorithm, and an algorithm for membership and exponent in . Form . For each nonidentity word in , introduce distinct stable letters , and introduce another letter , with relationsLet be this multiple HNN extension of . A computable enumeration of all words of , filtered by its word algorithm, indexes the nonidentity used here. Repeated representatives of the same element cause no difficulty: their stable letters are simply distinct.
Every associated subgroup in these relations is infinite cyclic. For , the words and are cyclically reduced free product words with respectively two and four syllables; their nonzero th powers have lengths and . Therefore the reduced syllable length of an input bounds the finitely many possible exponents needed to decide membership in each subgroup and find the exponent. Membership in is immediate, and membership in is inherited from . This proves effective cyclic membership in a free product, including the crucial point that the order of is never needed.
By Britton's lemma, embeds in . To solve its word problem, repeatedly find a pinch in an HNN extension using these membership algorithms, transport the known exponent across its defining isomorphism, and remove two stable letters. With no pinch left, a word retaining stable letters is nontrivial and not in the base; otherwise the base word algorithm applies. The same reduction decides whether an input lies in : if stable letters remain it does not, and if none remain use the base cyclic-membership algorithm. This verifies the inductive effectiveness claims rather than asserting that HNN extensions automatically preserve decidable word problem. Only the finitely many stable letters in the input need inspection.
The union is nontrivial, since retains infinite order under every embedding, and has an effective countable recursive presentation: enumerate each stage's relators and dovetail the enumerations. We now prove simplicity. Let contain , and take a stage with . The commutator belongs to , so its displayed conjugation forces . Conversely, in the quotient by the normal closure of , the relation for forces ; then the relation for forces every nonidentity to be one. Thus the normal closure of contains each . All newly adjoined stable letters belong to a later , so this normal closure is all of . Hence , proving that is a simple group containing .
Finally apply the explicit two-generator HNN embedding from Question 3 to an effective countable list of generators of . Its same free-conjugate-basis argument works for every finite word, and its relations are recursively enumerable, so it embeds in a two-generated recursively presented group . The Higman embedding theorem embeds in a finitely presented group . Composing the inclusions gives , completing the proof of both directions.
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- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 2. You can publish local OurBigBook lightweight markup files to either OurBigBook.com or as a static website.Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally. Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact





