Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-1/2/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 2 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The two homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions on force negative separation constants. The initial profile is an even function, so only the even sine-family eigenfunctions are needed:They obey and . Odd eigenfunctions have zero projection onto the even initial data. Hence the initial coefficients areThe desired eigenfunction expansion is thereforeAt this is the Fourier series of on the interval; its coefficients are absolutely summable. Each term satisfies the partial differential equation and side conditions. For the additional Gaussian decay in justifies termwise differentiation. Since and , the whole series decays uniformly as .
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