Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-1/3/a/solution

A causal Green function vanishes before the impulse. For it solves the homogeneous linear ordinary differential equation, whose characteristic roots are . Thus it has the form
Continuity at is necessary to avoid a delta derivative in , so . Integrating its forced equation across the impulse gives the jump condition for an impulse, . The derivative from below is zero and the derivative from above is , giving
Here is the Heaviside step function. The zero initial data exclude any additional homogeneous response. By the superposition principle, the output for a general locally integrable input is
The upper endpoint causes no unwanted term in the first derivative because ; in the second derivative its unit derivative jump reproduces the input.

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