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The Fokas method uses a global relation for a linear boundary value problem between transformed boundary traces, complex spectral symmetries, and contour integration to eliminate unknown traces or construct a numerical boundary scheme. The distinction between the domains of analyticity of the transforms and the decay sectors of spectral exponentials controls valid contour deformations.

The ordinary Fourier transform does not exist. There is a real simple pole at $x=-1$, withThe two separate improper integrals diverge logarithmically. Thus no ordinary large-$k$ expansion is defined under the stated integral convention. A Cauchy principal value or a contour prescription would be additional data, and must be stated rather than silently introduced.

For completeness, the symmetric Cauchy principal value has a precise answer. The real pole contributes the principal-value Fourier transform of a real poleThe other poles are $z_{\pm }=(1\pm i\sqrt{3})/2$ with residues $r_{\pm }=1/(3z_{\pm }^2)=(-1\mp i\sqrt{3})/6$. For $k>0$, close the contour integration in the lower half-plane, with clockwise orientation. The nonreal pole contributes $-2\pi i{r}_{-}{e}^{-ik{z}_{-}}$, while the real principal-value pole supplies the half-residue above. For $k<0$, the upper-half-plane contour gives the conjugate result. With $s=\mathrm{sgn}(k)$, the exact principal-value formula for $k\ne 0$ isThese are its two nonzero asymptotic contributions: a nondecaying oscillatory real-pole term and an exponentially small complex-pole term. There is no second nonzero inverse-power term. This formula is qualified by the principal-value choice; it is not the ordinary transform requested in the statement.

Other prescriptions change the leading term. For example, replacing the real pole by its upper or lower boundary value changes the distribution by $\mp i\pi \delta (x+1)/3$, and hence changes the transform by $\mp i\pi e^{ik}/3$. This demonstrates why a pole prescription is essential. The smooth Taylor series at the origin alone would miss the decisive real-pole contribution.

Use the half-line Fourier transform and finite-time boundary transformsThe half-line Fourier transform is analytic for $\mathrm{Im}k<0$ under spatial decay. All spectral integrals below have their usual oscillatory, or vanishing Gaussian damping, interpretation until absolute convergence is established.

The free Schrodinger equation has the local divergence identityIntegrating in $x,t$ gives the global relation for the half-line free Schrodinger equationLet $D_{+}=\{\mathrm{Re}k>0,\mathrm{Im}k>0\}$. Orient its boundary from $i\infty$ down to $0$, and then from $0$ to $+\infty$, so that $D_{+}$ lies on the left. Fourier inversion followed by contour integration in the second quadrant yieldsThis is a complex spectral representation involving the initial trace and both boundary traces. The contour deformation works because each boundary-time integrand contains $e^{-i{k}^2(t-s)}$ with $s\le t$, which decays in the second quadrant, as well as $e^{ikx}$ for $x>0$. This fixes both the quadrant and the orientation; changing either without changing the signs would produce an incorrect representation.

Substitute part (b) into the spectral representation. The terms containing $\psi (ik)$ areThe transform $\psi (ik)$ is analytic for $\mathrm{Im}k>0$. Write $k=a+ib$. In the first quadrant,which decays since $x,y>0$. The Cauchy integral theorem in that quadrant equates the two integrals in the first parentheses. In the second quadrant,which decays since $a<0$, $b>0$, and $y<\ell$. The same contour integration equates the two integrals in the second parentheses. Therefore $\psi (ik)$ makes no contribution. This is upper-quadrant cancellation of reflected boundary transforms, and it uses the whole paired expression rather than attempting to discard an individual integral.

The terms involving $c$ cancel by the same two quadrant arguments with the analytic factors $k\pm \gamma$ and $\psi$ omitted. There is a sign defect in the printed reconstruction prefactor. The sides specified in part (a) form a clockwise boundary, so the Cauchy integral theorem gives a negative reconstruction sign. Indeed, integrating each spectral ray first yields $i/(z-\zeta )$, and hence the sum of the three ray integrals is $i{\oint }_{\mathrm{clockwise}}{q}_z(\zeta )/(z-\zeta )d\zeta =-2\pi q_z(z)$. Thus the printed positive prefactor reconstructs $-q_z$. The requested cancellation above holds with either overall sign, but the actual data-dependent derivative isDecay at infinity fixes the integration constant when recovering $q$ from its Wirtinger derivative.

For completeness, the missing condition at infinity and the unrestricted printed $\gamma$ deserve an explicit solvability of a decaying Robin strip check. Let $Y_n$ be orthonormal eigenfunctions from a Sturm-Liouville problem of $-d^2/d{y}^2$ with $Y_n^{\prime }(0)=\gamma Y_n(0)$ and $Y_n^{\prime }(\ell )=-\gamma Y_n(\ell )$, and eigenvalues ${\lambda }_n$. With $g_n={\int }_0^{\ell }g{Y}_{n}dy$, separation of variables givesIndeed, each coefficient obeys $q_n^{\prime \prime }-{\lambda }_n{q}_n=0$ and $q_n^{\prime }(0)=g_n$. A positive eigenvalue has one decaying exponential; a zero eigenvalue has only affine solutions and a negative eigenvalue only oscillatory solutions, neither of which decays unless its coefficient vanishes. This also proves uniqueness in the decay class and justifies reflection symmetry there. For $\gamma >0$, all eigenvalues are positive. For $\gamma =0$, the constant eigenfunction requires ${\int }_0^{\ell }gdy=0$; the apparent zero of $D$ at the origin is then removable. For $\gamma <0$, compatibility with every nonpositive eigenmode is necessary. These restrictions cannot be inferred from smoothness and reflection symmetry alone. The printed boundary value problem without any far-field condition permits additional growing or nondecaying homogeneous solutions, whereas the spectral transforms select the decaying branch.

Jordan lemma states that if $a>0$ and $g$ is analytic in the upper half-plane outside a fixed circle, withthen on the upper semicircle $C_R$,Indeed, $|e^{iaR{e}^{i\theta }}|=e^{-aR\sin \theta }$. Using symmetry and $\sin \theta \ge 2\theta /\pi$ on $0\le \theta \le \pi /2$ gives

The residue of $f$ at an isolated singularity $a$ is the coefficient of $(z-a{)}^{-1}$ in its Laurent series, equivalentlyIf $f(z)=g(z)/(z-a{)}^k$, the Taylor expansion of the analytic function $g$ shows that

For the real integral, apply contour integration in the upper half-plane toJordan's lemma removes the semicircular arc. The only enclosed singularity is the double pole at $z=i$, whose residue isThe residue theorem therefore givesIts real part vanishes because $x^3\cos x/(1+x^2{)}^2$ is an odd function, while its imaginary part is the requested integral. Hence

Differentiating under the contour integration sign givesSince ${\partial }_t{e}^{zt}=z{e}^{zt}$, integration by parts turns this intoThe integral vanishes whenHence, up to an irrelevant multiplicative constant,The remaining endpoint condition isThus each open end of $\gamma$ must lie where $\mathrm{Re}(zt-1/t)\to -\infty$; a closed contour also makes the boundary term vanish when the integrand is single-valued along it.

Consider the meromorphic functionClose the contour with a large semicircle in the upper half-plane, indenting above the three real pole $-1,0,1$. The large-arc integral vanishes by Jordan's lemma, while the upper-half-plane indentation rule givesThe three residue areTheir sum is $\cos 1-1$, so the residue theorem yields

The real part of the integrand is an odd function, so its full-line principal value is zero. Its imaginary part,is an even function. Taking imaginary parts and halving the full-line integral therefore gives

After integration by parts, the quadratic action isWith the pole prescription appropriate to the conventions in the question, its inverse kernel isFor $t>0$ close the contour in the lower half-plane and for $t<0$ close it in the upper half-plane. The enclosed pole in each case giveswhich equivalently satisfies $({\partial }_t^2+{\omega }^2)D(t)=i\delta (t)$.

The source-dependent Gaussian functional integral is evaluated by translating the integration variable by the classical sourced solution. Completing the square givesChanges in the sign of the source term or of the path-integral phase move factors of $i$ between $D$ and the exponent but leave the contraction rules equivalent.