Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 76 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the long-wave convection equation with broken Boussinesq symmetry, use a sufficiently smooth real temperature field. To make the spatial average and integrations meaningful, take a periodic pattern, or an existing long-interval average with bounded derivatives and vanishing averaged endpoint fluxes. Boundedness of the temperature alone does not guarantee all those averaging properties. Multiply the evolution equation by and average. Integration by parts givesand . Thus the energy method yieldsThe energy square completion for long-wave convection starts fromPut . The energy identity becomesSince pointwise,Therefore excludes growth of the mean-square temperature, for arbitrary amplitude within this smooth averaging class. This is a nonlinear energy-stability criterion, not a proof of pointwise monotonicity at each position. A spatially constant component instead decays through the term. The criterion is sufficient; it need not coincide with the linear instability threshold.