Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ib / Paper 2 / 10G / Solution

A sequence $f_n:S\to \mathbb{R}$ converges uniformly to $f$ if, for every $\epsilon >0$, there is $N$ such thatfor every $x\in S$ and every $n\ge N$. A map $h:M\to N$ is uniformly continuous if, for every $\epsilon >0$, there is $\delta >0$ such thatfor all $x,y\in M$.

If $f\in C_0({\mathbb{R}}^d)$, choose a ball outside which $|f|<1$. On the closed ball, continuity gives boundedness, so $f$ is bounded everywhere.

Now let $(f_n)$ be Cauchy in the uniform metric. For each $x$, $(f_n(x))$ is Cauchy in $\mathbb{R}$; let its limit be $f(x)$. Passing to the pointwise limit in the uniform Cauchy estimate shows that $f_n\to f$ uniformly. Hence $f$ is continuous. Given $\epsilon >0$, choose $n$ with $\Vert f-f_n{\Vert }_{\infty }<\epsilon /2$, and then choose $K$ so that $|f_n(x)|<\epsilon /2$ for $\Vert x\Vert >K$. It follows that $f$ also vanishes at infinity. Thus $C_0({\mathbb{R}}^d)$ is complete, as in completeness of continuous functions vanishing at infinity.

Every $f\in C_0({\mathbb{R}}^d)$ is uniformly continuous. Given $\epsilon >0$, choose $R$ so that $|f(x)|<\epsilon /2$ outside the ball of radius $R$. On the compact ball of radius $R+1$, $f$ is uniformly continuous; choose the corresponding $\delta \le 1$. If two points at distance below $\delta$ are not both in that ball, then both lie outside the ball of radius $R$, and their function values differ by less than $\epsilon$.

For the final sequence, continuity of $\epsilon$ at zero gives, for each fixed $x$,Thus pointwise convergence is compulsory. Uniform convergence need not hold: with $\epsilon (t)=t^2$,which is unbounded as a function of $x$ for every fixed $n$.

Under the additional bound $\epsilon (t)\le M|t|$, however,for $x\ne 0$, and the difference is zero at $x=0$. Hence convergence is uniform, by the uniform square-root perturbation under linear growth estimate. The pointwise answer remains yes.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.