Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-and-applications-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/a/3/c/solution
Past exam of the differential equations and applications course of the University of Oxford 2011 A 3 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
For the two normalizations agree, and the Laguerre polynomials are orthonormal with weight . Take real . Their expansion coefficients for the requested function areSubstitute Rodrigues' formula and integrate by parts times. Differentiating transfers a factor after the two sign factors cancel. ThereforeThe integral is by the Gamma function. Boundary terms vanish throughout this range.
The resulting generating function for Laguerre polynomials isOne can also verify convergence and equality directly: Rodrigues' formula gives , and summing reduces the double series to the exponential on the left. The absolute-value double series converges for fixed and , justifying the interchange; the formula then also holds for complex in that disk.
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