Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/paper-1/7/solution

Multiplication by puts the eigenvalue problem into Sturm-Liouville form, , with weight . If correspond to distinct eigenvalues , subtract their multiplied equations and integrate to get
The upper boundary term vanishes by the Dirichlet boundary condition. For a bounded solution near zero, has a limit because is integrable. A nonzero limit would force a divergence in , so that limit is zero; integration then gives . The lower boundary term therefore also vanishes, proving the weighted orthogonality.
Set . For , , and finiteness of gives . Thus with zero values at zero and . The radial Dirichlet spectrum in three dimensions gives
The zero and negative eigenvalues yield only the zero solution under these boundary conditions. Also .
For the forced equation, the same substitution gives . The Fourier sine series of on has coefficients
Expanding gives , hence
The value at zero is defined by a limit. In fact , so uniform convergence holds even there, by comparison with . An independent check comes from solving the constant-coefficient equation directly:
It satisfies both endpoint conditions and the forcing for , and its finite origin limit agrees with the series. For the homogeneous boundary value problem has no nonzero solution, so the solution is unique.

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