Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/ii/paper-1/30a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ii Paper 1 30A Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
In put . Expanding the cubic exponential near the endpoint givesThe substitution evaluates the coefficient using the Gamma function. Thus, numbering the first term by ,For any fixed truncation the exponential's Taylor remainder is bounded by the next power times , and replacing the finite upper limit by infinity adds an exponentially small tail. This justifies the asymptotic expansion for .
For large , the ratio of magnitudes of consecutive terms, by Stirling's formula, isThe least term consequently has index . An indexing convention starting at one changes this by one, without changing the estimate.
For the second integral, both endpoints minimize . The endpoint gives the same expansion with positive coefficients. Its first two contributions areTo check their ordering, near write . Then and , producing a contribution . Because , this is smaller than the second displayed term. It is the third term, ahead of the next contribution of order . Splitting the integral into small endpoint neighborhoods and an interior interval, where the phase is strictly positive, makes the endpoint estimates rigorous.
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