Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-algebra-analysis-and-differential-equations-1-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2006/8/solution
Past exam of the algebra, analysis and differential equations 1 course of the University of Oxford 2006 8 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Write the equation as with . Homogeneous solutions vanishing at the left and right endpoints are and . Their Wronskian is . The Dirichlet Green kernel for minus second derivative plus one is thereforeIt vanishes at , is continuous at , and its first derivative has jump . Thus in the distributional derivative sense, with the sign appropriate to . Integration against gives the required boundary-value solution. The kernel is positive and symmetric, as is also apparent in the figure.
For the specified step forcing only contributes at , givingThe discontinuity in gives a piecewise twice-differentiable solution with continuous value and first derivative, rather than a jump in itself.
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