Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/ii/paper-3/8b/iii/solution

Let . The exponent-sum relation gives . Therefore the assumed boundedness of at infinity makes bounded there, up to a fixed nonzero branch factor. By part (ii), is entire and hence bounded also on compact sets. Liouville theorem makes it a constant , giving
Independence forces : if the Wronskian vanished, uniqueness for the second-order linear equation at an ordinary point would make the two solutions dependent. In fact the differential identity in part (ii) already proves constancy; the boundedness hypothesis supplies the requested Liouville route as well.

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