Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-76/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 76 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The integrand is an entire function, so the defining contour is immaterial. A rectangular contour, closed far to the right where the Gaussian function decays, gives the exact horizontal-tail identityThe constant is the half-line Gaussian integral. Expand the endpoint amplitude in this Watson lemma. Alternatively, repeated integration by parts gives the same expansion, including purely imaginary , because every derivative of is integrable on the positive real axis. Thus, on each fixed ray in the stated quadrant,The remainder is measured on the exponential endpoint scale. When that scale grows, this formula does not resolve terms exponentially small relative to it.
Write . The endpoint term has modulus . For it is exponentially small, and at it is oscillatory of order . For it dominates the constant. The quadrant asymptotics of the error function therefore give the requested leading asymptotic expansionsThe boundary ray belongs to the constant-dominated case because of the extra factor . On the imaginary axis this gives , consistent with . The constant/exponential dominance exchange is an anti-Stokes line phenomenon; it should not be confused with dropping the constant everywhere in the quadrant.
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