Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-differential-equations-and-applications-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/a/3/c/solution

For the two normalizations agree, and the Laguerre polynomials are orthonormal with weight . Take real . Their expansion coefficients for the requested function are
Substitute Rodrigues' formula and integrate by parts times. Differentiating transfers a factor after the two sign factors cancel. Therefore
The integral is by the Gamma function. Boundary terms vanish throughout this range.
The resulting generating function for Laguerre polynomials is
One 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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