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
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 by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Choose the convention , where is the Dirac delta distribution, together with . The Green's function is continuous at and obeysThese 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, thenFor take and . Their Wronskian is , and henceFor take and , giving andBoth formulas satisfy the endpoint conditions, continuity, and the unit jump directly. The unique solution of the boundary value problem isThe 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 .
New to topics? Read the docs here!