Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 336 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the outer expansion, the first-order reduced ordinary differential equation gives after imposing the right boundary condition. Its first correction satisfiesAn integrating factor givesThe left boundary is at , where the highest-derivative coefficient is already . Balancing that coefficient against gives a layer of width , not . This is a boundary layer around a moving endpoint:At leading order , and matching to the outer limit one while setting gives . The first correction satisfiesDirect differentiation of verifies the forcing. It vanishes both at zero and at infinity, so no homogeneous term is needed. The requested inner expansion isIts order- overlap constant is zero, agreeing with the outer expansion at the moving endpoint. The overlap can be chosen with .
An independent scaling check drops the reaction term only in the layer and integrates . Its decaying fast solution is proportional to . Sinceit gives exactly the same first correction. A useful additive composite expansion, with the left boundary value made exact, isThe exponentially small remainder at the right endpoint is beyond all retained algebraic orders.