Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 79 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Multiply the equation by . Its left side is an exact derivative, yielding the first integralFor a solution continuous at the singular endpoint, the limiting value is . This can also be established from the exact integrating-factor formula below, without assuming uniform bounds on derivatives near zero.
Away from zero, the outer expansion has leading term . The endpoint value at one requires if an exponentially amplified homogeneous term is to be avoided. It follows already thatTo exhibit the matching and explain the required boundedness, first set , for a representative without an order-one homogeneous contribution. The leading inner expansion obeysIntegration giveswhere is the exponential integral. For , , matching the outer term . For , , so the intermediate solution behaves as and reaches order one on a second scale .
On this second scale, the first integral becomes, at leading order, . Equivalently its differentiated equation is , as in the hint. The matching solution that tends to zero as isIt has at large , matching the intermediate region, and . Thus the nested layers at an essential singular endpoint connect an order- outer solution to an order-one endpoint value without an unbounded overshoot.
The issue of uniqueness is clarified by exact integration. PutFor every fixed and every prescribed exact value of , the solution satisfying the right endpoint isAs , the integral is asymptotic to , proving . Since , the two exact endpoint values fix the two constants: for a prescribed exact , this finite- boundary-value problem is unique.
However, specifying only the leading value and uniform order-one size does not select a unique asymptotic family. To see this constructively, choose and an arbitrary bounded real constant . WriteThe right endpoint fixesEndpoint Laplace's method gives . Therefore every bounded choice of haswith changes in affecting only by . These solutions are uniformly order one: near zero their particular part has the finite limit , near one it follows the small outer solution, and the freely chosen value at is . The inner-layer homogeneous contribution is also bounded. Indeed vanishes at zero, is order one near , and is exponentially small at one.
Consequently the order-one selected value is , but algebraic asymptotic endpoint data leave an order-one interior freedom. This is beyond-all-orders boundary-value sensitivity. If “constant” were interpreted as fixing exactly and independently of , the omitted algebraic corrections would excite an exponentially large interior homogeneous term; a genuinely uniformly bounded exact family requires the higher-order tuning of . Constancy in does not preclude that parameter dependence.