Solution

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

Write the equation as with the positive Sturm-Liouville operator from part (a). A Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction expansion therefore gives , where weighted orthogonal projection gives
Here the product-to-sum formulas reduce the integral to half the sum of the integrals of and . Consequently
At , use the continuous limits of the terms. The coefficients are , so the resulting endpoint series converges. Completeness is the ordinary Fourier sine series completeness after . For an independent check, solving with zero endpoint values gives
Its numerator vanishes at zero, and it has the same orthogonal projection coefficients. Positivity of proves uniqueness.

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