Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topics-in-applied-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2007/a/4/v/solution

If , both nonconstant coefficients of are nonnegative, so it is positive for . If , its discriminant is negative, so it is again strictly positive. Therefore .
At the double root can only give a neutral zero eigenvalue if it coincides with an allowed spatial mode; it still gives no positive growth rate. This is the finite-wavenumber onset of a Turing instability, not an oscillatory crossing since the mode trace stays negative.

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