Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-2/5/d/solution

Use the same Fourier transform convention, now in the sense of tempered distributions, since the homogeneous oscillations are not integrable. Transforming gives
Since , the two roots are distinct. A distribution annihilated by this polynomial is a linear combination of Dirac delta distributions at its roots:
Fourier inversion therefore gives
The constants may be complex. Differentiating the factor also verifies that the original ordinary differential equation reduces to for .

New to topics? Read the docs here!