Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-1/3/a/solution

For the Green function of , the homogeneous solutions satisfying the left and right endpoint conditions are and . Their Wronskian is
Continuity of the kernel at and integration of require . Hence the Dirichlet modified Helmholtz Green function on an interval is
Here and . The negative sign is essential for this operator convention. Integrating the forcing against the kernel gives
This satisfies both endpoint conditions. It solves the equation classically for continuous , and in the corresponding weak sense for integrable forcing. A homogeneous difference satisfying both endpoint conditions must vanish, so the solution is unique.

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