Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-5/4/a/solution

Let be a test function supported in . Symmetric cancellation gives
The integrand is bounded by , so the limit exists and
This is a continuous linear functional on every fixed-support test space, hence a distribution. It also specifies its local order as at most one.
For the boundary value, split the ordinary complex denominator:
The real part paired with is
It converges to the principal value by dominated convergence theorem, using the same bound . In the second part set :
Here is an integrable majorant. The correct Sokhotski–Plemelj formula is therefore
The resulting functional is continuous, with bound , so it too is a distribution.
The printed PDF has the wrong sign on its delta term. For a real even nonnegative test function with , the principal value is zero while the imaginary part of every regularized integral is negative. Its limit is , disproving the printed plus sign directly. A plus sign instead belongs to the boundary value .

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