Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-74/5/a/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 74 5 a ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here the drift vanishes at the left endpoint. The outer equation is , giving after applying the right boundary value. The ordinary layer does not balance diffusion and drift: their balance selects instead.
For the square-root boundary layer at a vanishing drift, put . The inner equation isMatching requires a leading inner amplitude of order , so an inner expansion with an everywhere order-one leading term would be incorrect. This can be seen directly by integrating the original equation once:The right boundary value determinesIn the inner variable the exact representation becomesThe first term enforces , while the second is zero there and matches for large . One would expand this integral in the overlap region, determine successive outer terms from the right boundary, and subtract their common expansion. The endpoint layer has width and an interior peak, while its value at the endpoint remains one. This distinguishes it from the ordinary exponential layers in the two preceding cases.
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