Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/8/vi/solution

Write with . For , this branch grows. Choosing the other reduction of order solution by an integral from infinity gives, on ,
Thus for , every bounded exterior solution decays as , up to a constant factor, on each exterior interval. Equivalently the dominant-balance exponents in the Legendre differential equation are and .
There is an important exception at degree zero. Since ,
These solutions are bounded even when ; boundedness alone does not then imply decay to zero. The constants on and are independent unless continuation across the singular endpoints is specified.

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