Substitute the Laplace contour-integral method for a linear differential equation into the differential equation and use . Integration by parts around a closed contour avoiding singularities gives
It suffices to solve , giving
Nonzero contour integrals arise by enclosing one or both double poles . At , the residue is
The conjugate pole gives the conjugate expression for real . Taking real and imaginary linear combinations yields the real solutions
Their derivatives are , , and their Wronskian is , so they are linearly independent on every interval avoiding zero. Both extend analytically across zero and remain independent as functions; the vanishing Wronskian at zero reflects the singular leading coefficient of the printed differential equation there.
Insert
into the equation. Since and , use and integration by parts:
The integral vanishes when
so, up to a constant and on a consistently chosen branch,
The remaining contour condition is
This is the Laplace contour-integral method for a linear differential equation.