Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/ia/paper-2/2b/solution

Write . Direct differentiation gives
The homogeneous linear differential equation therefore has . A linearly independent pair of solutions is
Their Wronskian is , which never vanishes; the argument also includes .
For the inhomogeneous linear differential equation, the same substitution gives . Since implies , and then implies , integration gives . Thus the required solution of the initial value problem is

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