Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-60/1/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 60 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put and impose homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, as required by the stated continuum eigenvalues. Let be the unscaled one-dimensional Dirichlet discrete Laplacian. For , the vectors satisfyThe identity follows by adding the two neighboring sines; the values at vanish. These mutually orthogonal vectors form the discrete sine transform basis. Consequently their tensor products give all two-dimensional modes, not merely a few candidate eigenvectors.
In a compatible grid ordering the axial operator is . The nine-point operator isIndeed, the added Kronecker product supplies the diagonal neighbors with weight , subtracts from each axial neighbor and adds to the central coefficient. Thus it has exactly the coefficients of the second discretization. On the eigenvalues areandEquivalently, .
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