Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-distribution-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/3/a/ii/solution

If , let be its extension by zero to . Its compact support is contained in , so this extension remains a test function. The restriction of a distribution is
Extension by zero preserves convergence in the space of test functions, so this defines a distribution on .
Choose a partition of unity subordinate to the neighborhoods from the hypothesis. For an arbitrary , local finiteness and compactness of give a finite decomposition . Each term is a test function supported in one . Thus
Since this holds for every test function, . This is the locality of distributions.

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