Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-1/10/b/iii/solution

Set for . Direct differentiation gives , so the radial equation reduces to
Boundedness of requires , and the wall condition requires . The nontrivial solutions are consequently
Their origin values are the removable limits . At , the only bounded radial solution is constant and the wall forces it to vanish, so there is no zero mode. The lowest eigenvalue is
It is below , as required by the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle. The trial value overestimates by approximately .

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