Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-2-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/2/c/solution

When , the forcing has nonzero integral , violating the Fredholm alternative condition. There is no bounded solution. Directly, integration gives ; cancellation of its logarithmic divergence at requires , while cancellation at requires .
For , the constant is a particular solution. Subtract it from any solution. The remainder satisfies the Legendre differential equation, whose general solution is a combination of and the logarithmically unbounded Legendre function of the second kind. Boundedness removes the latter coefficient, giving
The constant forcing is orthogonal to for , consistently with Orthogonality of Legendre polynomials and the Fredholm alternative.

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