Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 48 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and . The forcing acts on the fast initial-time scale, so first remove a localized particular solution. Expanding the coefficient there givesA particular choice is , henceIts initial value is and its initial derivative is . The localized forcing determines WKB phase constants; omitting it before imposing the initial conditions would miss the permanent free oscillation.
For the homogeneous part, the slow-time equation is . Write its WKB approximation as , normalizing . The leading amplitude transport equation gives and leading phase .
To include every contribution on bounded slow-time intervals, the first phase correction is needed. If the local phase wavenumber is , the real part of the amplitude-phase equation gives . The WKB phase correction for a slowly varying oscillator, anchored to zero at the initial time, is thereforeThere is no first-order bulk amplitude correction in this normalization. At , the homogeneous initial value must be and its initial derivative . Since and , these give and . The requested forced approximation isfor with fixed . The approximate initial value is exactly one through this order and its derivative is . The particular-solution residual is uniformly localized and ; the corrected homogeneous residual is on the long interval, producing solution error after integration over times of order .
The WKB approximation requires the relative frequency-change parameterIt therefore fails when , even though the coefficient has no finite-time zero. This is the Bessel transition for an exponentially decaying oscillator. Introduce the shifted slow time and amplitudeThe exact rescaled equation isFor fixed its right side is smaller than every algebraic power of . The leading transition problem is consequentlyWith this becomes , the order-zero Bessel differential equation. This identifies the governing equation without solving it.
The amplitude-phase series also supplies overlap data while , although its bounded- absolute error estimate is not uniform up to the transition. For matching, combine the earlier sine and cosine terms into through first order. In the overlap , their phase isto the retained order. Thus amplitude and phase matching as requireThese are oscillatory amplitude-phase conditions, rather than pointwise ratio statements at zeros. The smaller phase term records the first overlap correction if required. The rapidly varying matching constant must be retained as data; there is no single epsilon-independent limiting phase. The two matching conditions determine the leading transition solution, which is deliberately left unsolved.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 336 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The Bessel function of the first kind has at zero, while the Bessel function of the second kind has . Since , these yield a constant and a linear function of , explaining the late-time behavior. At large positive ,Matching to fixes and . The large- and small-argument asymptotic expansions thereby connect the oscillatory WKB approximation to the nonoscillatory late-time solution through one Bessel transition for an exponentially decaying oscillator.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 336 3 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
First remove the small damping term by writingThe transformed linear ordinary differential equation isThe leading frequency is . Its WKB approximation has amplitude and phase . The initial conditions selectThis leading expression has and . Its WKB approximation for a slowly varying oscillator requires , so it fails around .
To resolve the Bessel transition for an exponentially decaying oscillator, shift to , put and rescale . The exact transformed equation isFor fixed its leading form is . The substitution turns it into the order-zero Bessel differential equation, so . In the overlap , matching the large-argument Bessel functions to gives, with ,Here and are the Bessel function of the first kind and Bessel function of the second kind; the symbol in this question is unrelated to the leading inner function in the preceding question.
At late times , the small-argument expansions givewhere is the Euler--Mascheroni constant. The solution becomes asymptotically linear rather than maintaining the exponentially growing WKB envelope. Its leading late-time slope is . These are leading asymptotic coefficients as : near a zero of , higher-order phase corrections determine the small actual slope. The formula is not an absolute-error estimate uniform to arbitrarily late times. The exact late slope of an exponentially damped oscillator, obtained from a Kummer function and a Wronskian, provides a separate check even near those exceptional phases.