|
Important
Dates
|
To
sit for exam in |
Submit application by |
|
Semester 1, 2009/10 |
5pm,
5 Jun 2009
(End of week 20 in
Semester 2 of the previous academic year) |
|
Semester 2, 2009/10 |
5pm, 6 Nov 2009
(End of week 12 in
Semester 1 of the same academic year) |
| |
|
|
Exam |
Exam date in Semester 1 |
Exam date in Semester 2 |
|
Paper 1 |
17 Aug 2009 |
18 Jan 2010 |
|
Paper 2 |
19 Aug
2009 |
20 Jan 2010 |
|
Paper 3 |
21 Aug
2009 |
22 Jan 2010 |
|
Papers 1, 2 and 3 are
always held on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, respectively, in week 2 of a
semester. If the exam day falls on public holiday, it will be
rescheduled. |

Objective
To ensure
that the Ph.D. candidate has sufficient background and breadth in
mathematics for him to embark on his research.
All new graduate students are admitted
to the Graduate Programme (by default).
Students who are interested in the Ph.D. degree must pass the
Ph.D. QE
within stipulated duration before they are allowed to convert or upgrade
from Graduate Programme to Ph.D..
Graduate students who
fail the
Ph.D. QE and those who choose not to take the
Ph.D. QE will complete the
requirements for the M.Sc. degree.
Example:
-
A student with only
an honours degree who wishes to pursue an M.Sc. degree would complete
the requirements for an M.Sc. degree. He/she need not sit for the
Ph.D. QE.
-
A student with only
an honours degree who wishes to pursue a Ph.D. degree directly would
have to pass the
Ph.D. QE within stipulated duration. Upon
passing the examination and successfully converting to the Ph.D. programme, he/she would complete the requirements for a Ph.D. degree.
However, he/she will not get an M.Sc. degree. If the student fails the
Ph.D. QE, he/she would complete the requirements for an M.Sc. degree
instead.
-
A student with M.Sc.
degree who wishes to pursue a Ph.D. degree would have to pass the
Ph.D. QE
within stipulated duration. Upon passing the examination
and successfully converting to the Ph.D. programme, he/she would
complete the requirements for a Ph.D. degree. If the student fails the
Ph.D. QE, he/she would complete the requirements for an M.Sc. degree
instead. This implies that the student may eventually get two M.Sc.
degrees.
Note that for example 3, if the
student already holds an M.Sc. degree in mathematics from NUS, he/she
will not be allowed to complete another degree in the department.

Format
There are two components for the
Ph.D. QE, a comprehensive examination and
qualifying examination. A student has to pass both the comprehensive
(written) and qualifying (oral)
examinations. The comprehensive examination assesses the student's background
while the qualifying examination evaluates his/her suitability and preparation
status for research at Ph.D. level.
COMPREHENSIVE (WRITTEN)
EXAMINATION
-
There are three written papers:
Paper 1
(Algebra), Paper 2 (Analysis) and Paper 3 (Computational Mathematics). -
Each paper lasts
for three hours.-
Papers 1, 2 and 3 will be held on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday in week 2 (academic calendar) of every semester. An
examination will be rescheduled if it falls on a public holiday.
-
A candidate is
only allowed at most two attempts per paper within the
stipulated duration for completing
Ph.D. QE.
-
A candidate may choose to sit for one, two or all
three papers in one semester, subject to (4) above.
-
A candidate must register for the Comprehensive
(Written) Examinations by the stipulated
closing date.
During registration, he/she
has to indicate the paper/s to be attempted.
-
Registered candidates
will be informed of the examination time and venue,
via email, nearer the
examination dates.
-
No changes
are allowed for the choice of paper/s after registration is closed. -
A candidate will be
informed of the result (pass/fail) for each paper.
If a candidate fails
a paper, he/she may opt to be re-examined on the same
paper or the one that has not been chosen in the first attempt,
subject to (4) above. -
A candidate is considered to
have passed the
Comprehensive (Written) Examinations when he/she has passed at least two
out of the three papers within the
stipulated
duration for completing
Ph.D. QE.
-
A candidate who wishes to
retake a paper after the release of results must register by the stipulated closing date.
QUALIFYING (ORAL) EXAMINATION
-
A candidate is invited to
register for Qualifying (Oral) Examination only after he/she has passed
the Comprehensive (Written) Examination. -
A candidate is required to present a 45-minute talk
on his/her field of research.
-
After the talk, the candidate will be interviewed by
a panel of three examiners in the field of his/her research. The panel
will consist of the candidate's thesis advisor, a staff member nominated
by the department and a member from the graduate programme
committee.
-
In assessing the oral
presentation, the candidate’s knowledge of the research area in a broad
sense will be emphasized. Thus, in addition to a good presentation, a
candidate is expected to demonstrate a good understanding of a broad
range of topics in the chosen area of research.
-
In the event that the candidate is a new incoming
student without a pre-assigned supervisor, the department will appoint
another staff member to sit on the panel.

Topics
PAPER 1 - ALGEBRA
Syllabus
-
Sets:
Cardinals, ordinals. Countability. Zorn’s Lemma.
-
Linear algebra:
Finite-dimensional vector spaces, bases. Tensor product. Isomorphism of
Mn(F)
and End(Fn).
Orthogonality, examples of classical groups. Diagonalization, Cayley-Hamilton
theorem, spectral theorem, Jordan canonical form.
-
Group theory:
Significance of classification of finite simple groups. Central and
derived series. Structure of finitely generated abelian groups. Group
presentations. Representations of finite groups.
-
Ring and module theory:
Euclidean domain, principal ideal domain, unique factorization domain.
Polynomial rings, reducibility. Noetherian rings, Hilbert basis theorem.
Some noncommutative rings,
e.g.
matrix rings. Free and projective modules.
Exactness.
-
Field theory:
Fundamental theorem of algebra, algebraic closure. Classification of
finite fields. Examples of Galois groups.
-
Category theory:
Examples of categories, functors, natural transformations, adjoint
functors.
Suitable
textbooks
-
G D
Crown, M H Fenrick & R J Valenza,
Abstract Algebra,
Marcel Dekker (NY,
1986)
-
A I Kostrikin,
Introduction to Algebra,
Springer Universitext (NY, 1982)
Suitable reference books
-
T W
Hungerford,
Algebra,
Springer Graduate Texts in Math 73 (NY, 1974)
-
S Lang,
Algebra,
Springer (NY, 2002), rev. 3rd ed.
PAPER 2 - ANALYSIS
Syllabus
-
Properties of the reals such as Bolzano-Weierstrass,
Heine-Borel and equivalent of norms in Rn.
-
Differential calculus of Rm
valued functions on subsets
of Rn.
Continuity and uniform continuity, differentiability, partial
derivatives, Jacobians, implicit and inverse function theorems.
-
Differential equations: existence and
uniqueness theorem of initial value problems.
-
Infinite sequences and series of numbers
and functions. Absolute and uniform convergence, equi-continuity,
Arzela-Ascoli theorem, Weierstrass approximation theorem.
-
Riemann and Riemann-Stieltjes integrals,
fundamental theorem of Calculus.
-
Line integrals, surface integrals,
differential forms. The theorems of Stokes and Green and the
divergence theorem. Change of variables in multiple integrals.
-
Metric spaces, completeness, limit and
continuity.
-
Functions of bounded variation and
absolutely continuous function.
-
Definition and elementary properties of
Lebesgue measure.
-
Borel measures, measurable functions and
simple functions.
-
Lebesgue integral and its elementary
properties.
-
Convergence theorems.
-
Various types of convergence such as
almost everywhere, in measure, in mean.
-
Multiple integrals and changing the
order of integration (Fubini’s theorem).
-
Lebesgue’s differentiation theorem,
Vitali’s covering lemma.
-
Basic properties of
Lp
spaces, such as density of
C¥
functions, approximation
identities, Riesz representation theorem.
-
Hilbert space and its basic properties.
Cauchy-Riemann equations. Analytic
functions. Contour integration. Cauchy integral formula. Taylor series.
Residues and poles. Laurent series. Isolated singular points,
removable/essential singularities, poles, residues, residue theorem,
improper real integrals and their evaluation using the residue theorem.
The argument principle. The open mapping theorem and the maximum modulus
principle. Conformal mapping and linear fractional transformations.
Harmonic functions.
Remarks
The paper will test more on content instead of tricks. Students are
usually expected to score at least 60% of the total mark in order to pass
the paper.
Recommended
textbooks
-
(For Part I of this syllabus) Walter Rudin:
Principles of Mathematical Analysis
(first 10 chapters),
3rd edition, McGraw Hill
-
(For Part II of this syllabus) H.L. Royden:
Real Analysis, 3rd edition, Macmillan
-
(For Part II of this syllabus) R. Wheeden, A. Zygmund: Measure
and Integral: An Introduction to Real Analysis, Marcel Dekker
-
(For Part III of this syllabus) James W. Brown,
Ruel V. Churchill:
Complex Variables and Applications, 7th edition, McGraw Hill
PAPER 3 - COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS
Syllabus
-
Fundamentals of
Computational Mathematics
-
Approximation
theory: polynomial interpolation; piecewise polynomial interpolation;
orthogonal polynomials; least squares approximation
-
Numerical
integration: trapezoidal rule, Simpson’s
rule and Newton-Cotes formulas; composite trapezoidal rule and
Simpson’s
rule; Richardson extrapolation and Romberg integration
-
Matrix computation:
matrix norms and vectors norms; direct and iterative methods for
linear system (basic and Krylov subspace iterative methods);
eigenvalue problem; QR factorization; singular value decomposition;
linear least squares problem; Iterative mthods for nonlinear systems:
fixed point methods, Newton’s method;
-
Numerical Solution of
ODEs and PDEs
-
For initial value
problems: Runge-Kutta methods; one-step methods; multi-step methods;
consistency, stability and convergence
-
For two-point
boundary value problems: shooting and finite difference methods
-
Finite difference
discretization for Poisson’s equation, heat equation and wave
equation; consistency and stability analysis
-
Optimization Theory
and Computation
-
Optimization
theory:
convex
sets, hulls, cones and polar cones; convex functions; subgradients;
KKT-optimality conditions; Lagrangian dual problems; weak and strong
duality theorems
-
Numerical optimization: Newton's method and conjugate gradient methods
for unconstrained optimisation; exterior penality function methods;
Barrier function methods; Methods of feasible directions
Recommended
textbooks
-
Richard L. Burden and J. Douglas Faires,
Numerical Analysis, 8th edition, Thomson/Brooks/Cole, 2005.
-
L.N. Trefethen and D. Bau, III, Numerical Linear
Algebra, SIAM, 1997.
-
G.D. Smith, Numerical Solution of
Partial Differential Equations: Finite Difference Methods, 3rd
edition, Oxford University Press, 1985.
-
J. Nocedal and S.J. Wright, Numerical
Optimization, 2nd edition, Springer, 2006.

Sample Papers
Algebra |
Analysis 1 |
Analysis 2 |
Computational Mathematics

Registration
Download registration form
here.
Completed
registration forms should be returned to the department before the
registration deadline by fax (+65-67795452) or email (AskMathPG@nus.edu.sg) or in
person at the general
office.

|