Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/10/i/solution

The time dependence gives , and the angular derivative vanishes for these radial normal modes. The Laplacian in polar coordinates therefore yields
Multiplication by puts the Sturm-Liouville problem in the form
The relevant self-adjoint operator is in the weighted inner product with weight . A physical displacement is regular at the origin, excluding the logarithmic singular solution. In particular is bounded and there; regular eigenfunctions also have . This origin condition is needed in addition to the fixed outer boundary.

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