Airy ordinary differential equation Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
This second-order ordinary differential equation has the independent entire Airy functions and as a standard basis. It is distinct from the dispersive PDE in Airy equation. Its general solution is .
Airy resolvent kernel Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For , put using the principal cube root and . The decaying Green function for on the real line is
The identities among the three characteristic roots show that and are continuous, while has jump one. Its distributional derivative therefore satisfies . This is the kernel of the resolvent operator , obtained by the time Laplace transform of the Airy equation.
The scalar linear partial differential equation is an Airy equation with a first-order transport term. It is a linearization of the Korteweg-De Vries equation with an advective term retained. It is distinct from the viscous incompressible-flow Stokes equation. On the whole line its spatial Fourier transform evolves by .
Put and . The constant-shear Orr-Sommerfeld equation gives
Let and . Since and , the equation becomes
This is the Airy ordinary differential equation, yielding the Airy reduction of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation in constant shear. It is distinct from the evolution PDE represented by the existing Airy equation article.
Apply the time Laplace transform to the Airy equation. Extend past in any suitable way and write
For example, setting after makes ; the final solution for is independent of this extension. The Laplace transform of a derivative gives
Take the principal cube root for . The three characteristic roots of the spatial ordinary differential equation are
Since , only has negative real part. Thus spatial decay leaves just one homogeneous exponential, which the single prescribed Neumann boundary condition determines.
The Airy resolvent kernel on the whole real line is
It decays at both ends, is continuous together with its first derivative, and satisfies . Consequently as a distribution. A particular solution is the Green-function representation
Adding the decaying homogeneous mode to impose the boundary derivative gives
Every term is known. If denotes the spatial Laplace transform, then
The Bromwich inversion formula now gives the required integral representation:
Here is to the right of any singularities required by the growth of the data. The usual decay or growth hypotheses are understood for this Laplace transform construction; when absolute inversion is unavailable, the vertical integral is interpreted as the limit of truncated Bromwich contours. The transformed ordinary differential equation verifies the partial differential equation and initial condition, while differentiating at gives exactly and hence . The derivative compatibility makes the two data agree at the corner.
Under the Fourier transform, the operator is the Fourier multiplier operator
Its symbol is purely imaginary because is real. Consequently is skew-adjoint on with common domain and generates the strongly continuous unitary group
The Plancherel theorem gives , so every . Products of the frozen groups are also unitary; hence this is a stable family of semigroup generators with constants .
For ,
Since , the map is continuously differentiable from to . All hypotheses from part f are satisfied, so an evolution family exists on every finite interval .
In this commuting Fourier multiplier operator example the solution operator can also be written explicitly:
Its multiplier has absolute value one, directly confirming strong continuity, the evolution family law, preservation of , and the required derivatives. The equation combines the dispersive Airy equation with a time-dependent linear transport equation.
Differentiating the first auxiliary equation in , the second in , and equating and leaves precisely
so the Airy equation is their compatibility condition.
Multiplication of by gives
Hence
For , the kernel is bounded when ; dominated differentiation makes analytic for . Rapid decrease gives
For real , multiply the time equation by and let . The rapidly decreasing terms on its right vanish, leaving
Therefore
and the Fourier inversion theorem gives
Scorer function 2026-10-05
The Scorer functions are particular solutions of inhomogeneous Airy equations: and . They occur when an endpoint participates in an Airy-type transition. The NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions gives their standard normalizations.