Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/12/b/solution

The field is continuously differentiable on all of , a simply connected domain. Its vanishing curl therefore implies a global potential of a conservative vector field, so is an exact differential. This global domain condition matters: curl-free fields on domains with holes need not have single-valued potentials.
Integrating gives . Matching forces , so ; matching then forces . Consequently
The additive constant does not affect the field or any endpoint difference.

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