Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 ib Paper 1 11D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Away from the source point, the Green function obeys the homogeneous equation and must satisfy the appropriate endpoint condition. Thus it has the form to the left of and to the right. It must be continuous at : otherwise its second distributional derivative would contain an unwanted derivative of a Dirac delta. Integrating across gives the jump condition .
The left and right homogeneous solutions , have constant WronskianThis is nonzero for real noninteger . Dividing the product of the left and right solutions by that Wronskian therefore gives the Dirichlet Helmholtz Green function on an intervalThe formula vanishes at both endpoints, is continuous at the source and has derivative jump one, verifying all distributional and boundary conditions. A difference of two such Green functions would be a homogeneous Dirichlet solution; it vanishes because , proving uniqueness. Although zero is excluded by the stated noninteger condition, the removable limit is .