Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/6/b/i/solution

For a nonzero separable solution , separation of variables gives
These Dirichlet boundary conditions follow because is not identically zero. If , the affine function obeys both conditions only when . If , also has only the zero solution under both conditions.
For , . The first boundary condition forces , and the second forces for a nonzero solution. Hence all nonzero spatial modes are
The identically zero function is also a solution. Allowing includes it in the displayed family. Here is the interval length and labels the eigenvalues of the operator with these boundary conditions.

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