Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-2-of-the-earth-sciences-geology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2025/paper-3/7/a/solution

Assume sufficient decay and differentiability to justify integration by parts and exchange of integrals; Schwartz functions are one convenient class. With the stated Fourier transform convention, integrate first in :
The boundary contribution vanishes under the decay assumption. The Fourier transform of a derivative consequently turns constant-coefficient spatial differential operators into multipliers. Repeating it gives , so the heat equation becomes an independent temporal ordinary differential equation at each wavevector.

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