Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-2/5/b/ii/solution

The result of part (i) vanishes identically on the open interval , so its first and second derivatives also vanish there. Substituting into the equation of motion immediately gives
Thus the force has no negative-time prehistory, consistent with the causal Green function of a damped oscillator. In fact, direct inversion or the positive-time substitution above identifies ; the given numerator corresponds to a negative exponential force with this Fourier convention. Here is the Heaviside step function; its value exactly at the jump does not affect the transform.

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