Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-algebra-1-and-differential-equations-1-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/5/b/i/solution

Write the elliptic differential operator as . At an interior maximum, and . Therefore there, contradicting .
The extreme value theorem ensures that a maximum exists on the compact closed disk. It cannot lie in the interior, so the maximum is attained on . The drift terms disappear at a stationary point, which is why the strict-sign proof is so short.

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