Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/ib/paper-4/12b/b/solution

Taking the Laplace transform of the differential equation and using
gives
Hence
Whenever is not an eigenvalue of , the matrix is invertible, and thus
This is the Laplace-transform solution of a constant-coefficient vector ODE.
Set . The given homogeneous solution is , so the preceding formula says
for every initial vector . Equality on every vector gives the matrix identity
on the common domain of convergence and in particular away from the eigenvalues of . This is the Laplace transform of a matrix exponential.

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