Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/ia/paper-2/2b/solution

The homogeneous characteristic equation is , so its solutions are and . Because the forcing contains the latter exponential, set . Direct differentiation reduces the inhomogeneous linear differential equation to
A polynomial particular solution is , since . Therefore
The exponentially growing first term cannot be canceled by the decaying second term, so boundedness at positive infinity requires . The initial condition sets . Hence

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