Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ii/paper-1/14b/c/solution

For real , the exponential decays as , so two allowed contours run from to and from to . For real , it decays as , so reverse the construction: run from or to . These are the infinite contours in the diagram.
For their integrals are
for the corresponding orientation changes only an overall sign. Taking the sum of the two exponentials produces a solution independent of :
Its nonzero Wronskian with on proves linear independence.

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