Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/3/b/solution

Choose the convention , where is the Dirac delta distribution, together with . The Green's function is continuous at and obeys
These conditions follow by integrating its differential equation across ; continuity prevents a derivative of the Dirac delta distribution. If and are homogeneous solutions satisfying the left and right boundary conditions, respectively, and is their Wronskian, then
For take and . Their Wronskian is , and hence
For take and , giving and
Both formulas satisfy the endpoint conditions, continuity, and the unit jump directly. The unique solution of the boundary value problem is
The factor in the first formula matters: this Green's function is for the original monic differential operator, with ordinary measure , rather than for the operator multiplied by .

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