Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-76/3/b/i/solution

Interpret the Fourier transform as a distributional Fourier transform. Exponentially regularize the Heaviside step function:
As , the first term tends to in the tempered distribution sense, since its integral is and it concentrates at zero. The second tends to . Therefore
The principal-value convention is essential: the printed is not an ordinary integrable function at zero. This normalization also satisfies , the Fourier transform of a derivative version of .

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