Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/ii/paper-2/31e/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ii Paper 2 31E a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The Lax-Milgram theorem states that on a real Hilbert space, a bounded bilinear form satisfying for some represents every bounded linear functional uniquely: there is a unique with for all .
The clamped trace conditions define a closed subspace of the Sobolev space . On it take and . Both are bounded by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. The Dirichlet elliptic regularity estimate on a smooth bounded domain gives for , so . The Lax-Milgram theorem now gives exactly one satisfyingTesting with compactly supported smooth and integrating by parts twice gives in distributions; the two boundary conditions hold as traces by the space's definition. This is the unique weak clamped biharmonic solution.
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