Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/ib/paper-2/16d/b/solution

The Duhamel principle superposes the response to source impulses:
This expression uses the source at the origin, is causal, and has zero initial data in the distributional sense. Its integral over the plane is , consistent with the injected total amount.
For the finite-duration source and , set . The causal diffusion from a finite-duration planar point source becomes
With , or by differentiating the supplied exponential integral, this is
If , both arguments are small. Their logarithmic constants and cancel, leaving
At the origin this logarithmic expression is exact for , obtained as the limit . The leading spatial correction is . If also , the leading value is .

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