Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-2-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/3/b/i/solution

For the positive coefficient of , setting gives the reduced equation , with general solution . A fast decaying homogeneous solution of is , placing the boundary layer at the left endpoint. Thus use the right boundary condition for the outer solution: implies
The dominant balance gives width . With the inner variable and , the exact rescaled equation is
At leading order, , so . The asymptotic matching condition sets , and sets . Therefore
The additive composite expansion has zero overlap to subtract. Its graph starts at one, decreases steeply over , and then stays close to zero; its initial slope is . The right endpoint discrepancy is exponentially small. The left panel of the figure below sketches this profile. A right-end inner expansion would instead contain a growing term and could not repair the left endpoint mismatch.

New to topics? Read the docs here!