Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/prelims/mathematics-v/5/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2023 Prelims Mathematics V 5 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Write . The transient satisfies the heat equation and homogeneous mixed boundary conditionsThe left condition is a Neumann boundary condition and the right one a Dirichlet boundary condition. Separation of variables, , givesThe condition removes the sine term. The condition then selectsThere is no nonzero mode with , because a linear satisfying both conditions is zero. There is no growing mode either: integration by parts gives , so every nonzero mode has .
These Sturm-Liouville eigenfunctions have orthogonality and squared normExpand the initial transient in this half-integer Fourier cosine series. Its coefficients areThe integration formula follows by integration by parts; the cosine at the endpoint is zero. Thus the half-integer cosine expansion of a linear profile givesAt the Fourier series reproduces everywhere, including the endpoints; its coefficient decay gives uniform convergence. For every the exponential factors allow termwise differentiation and verify the heat equation and both boundary conditions. The sudden switch-on of nonzero heat flux is incompatible with the spatial derivative of the constant initial temperature at the corner . Accordingly, the positive-time boundary derivative must not be inferred by differentiating the initial Fourier series term by term at that corner.
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