Integrate the ordinary differential equation across one step, using the fundamental theorem of calculus:
The midpoint quadrature rule approximates the integral by . Approximate the unknown midpoint state by the midpoint value of linear interpolation between the endpoint states:
Combining these approximations gives the implicit midpoint rule
It is an implicit time-stepping method because its new state occurs inside the evaluation of . An equivalent derivation uses a straight-line approximation on the step and imposes the ordinary differential equation at its midpoint, a one-stage collocation method.
The streamlines are contours of . Since , the exact streamfunction is negative inside the rectangle and zero on its perimeter. It has one interior minimum, with closed anticlockwise streamlines: a broad northward interior flow returns southward along the west wall; flow is westward near the north edge and eastward near the south edge. The western parts of the streamlines are closely packed because the western boundary current is much faster.
Figure 1.
Exact linear-drag basin streamlines and flow direction for the specified Pluto parameters
. Details.
The figure uses the exact ordinary differential equation solution, so it also remains consistent with both wall conditions when the asymptotic scale separation is only moderate. It depicts the stipulated dynamical model, not observed winds or a reconstruction of the source illustration.
Seek , with . The ordinary differential equation is
Its constant particular solution and characteristic exponents are
Both are positive; the two homogeneous solutions are and . Their product satisfies . At small ,
For the rectangular basin, choose zero streamfunction on its connected impermeable boundary. The factor already gives zero at . Enforcing yields the exact result
where
The narrow Stommel boundary layer approximation requires
Then is negligible, and , giving
It is an asymptotic formula: at the remaining mismatch is of order . Expanding the eastern exponential as well gives the familiar leading Sverdrup balance interior plus western correction,
Printed inequality. The original PDF explicitly has as well as . The first sign is reversed for the requested small-friction limit. This can also be disproved directly: if and , the printed approximate bracket at the western wall is , while at the eastern wall it is . The latter is of the same order as the retained basin-scale signal, violating the boundary condition at leading order. The exact expression above remains available without imposing the erroneous inequalities.
For the linear three-reservoir carbon model, with concentrations as a column vector, the linear ordinary differential equation is
A homogeneous normal mode has , where . For negative real eigenvalues the e-folding relaxation time is . The row sums vanish, so has and
Equal effective concentrations generate no exchange. Summing the reservoir budgets gives
Thus injected carbon dioxide is conserved after emissions cease: the model redistributes it but contains no permanent removal. The zero normal mode records this conserved excess mass, rather than a long but finite decay.
To check the other normal modes are damped, set and . Then
The similarity transformation is a symmetric negative-semidefinite matrix with a one-dimensional kernel, so the remaining two eigenvalues are strictly negative.
Define the two concentration differences and . For zero emissions and , their ordinary differential equation is
Writing the positive decay rates as , their characteristic equation is
Consequently
For , the first normal mode rapidly equalizes the fast reservoirs, giving . The slower evolution treats them as a combined capacity exchanging with , giving . Therefore
The timescale ratio is in the joint limit. Since the conserved normal mode has , the hierarchy is .
For a Hermitian operator , the operator exponential is a unitary operator, with . Differentiation and give
When , this is the first-order ordinary differential equation with . Multiplication by makes its derivative zero, proving
Equivalently, the commutator expansion for exponential conjugation has successive nested commutators , whose exponential series sums to this expression.
Put , initially for real . Besides the Laplace transform of a derivative, use multiplication by the original variable in the form
Transforming the Bessel differential equation, with its given initial conditions, yields
The constant terms cancel, leaving . This first-order ordinary differential equation integrates to
The initial value theorem for Laplace transforms gives , so . Thus the Laplace transform of the Bessel function J0 is
For complex with , choose the analytic square-root branch agreeing with the positive square root on the positive real axis.
For the forcing , part (b) now gives . On the other hand, the same multiplication rule gives
Taking an integral from zero divides the Laplace transform by . By uniqueness of the Laplace transform,
A direct check also explains the cancellation. This expression has and . The Bessel differential equation says , so integration from zero gives . Hence , and both initial conditions hold.
Write . A steady state is a nonnegative zero of . If , the bracket is strictly negative for every , so only exists. If , there are exactly two nonnegative steady states,
For an autonomous scalar ordinary differential equation, a steady state with is locally asymptotically stable, while one with is unstable. Here
At the positive steady state, use to obtain
Therefore zero is stable for and unstable for , whereas the positive steady state is stable whenever it exists. At the omitted equality , ; zero is nonhyperbolic but still attracts every nonnegative initial state.
Set and . The chain rule turns the equation into the parameter-one Bessel differential equation. By the regular-at-zero solution property supplied in the paper,
For a nonzero solution, , so forces . Conversely, every positive zero supplies the admissible eigenfunction with eigenvalue .
Here is a direct justification of the infimum characterization that does not assume a minimizer exists. Let and choose its sign so that on . The first positive zero exists by the oscillatory large-argument behavior of the Bessel function of the first kind. At zero, its Frobenius series for Bessel functions gives . At one, its zero is simple by uniqueness for a regular second-order ordinary differential equation. Expanding and using the equation for gives the Ground-state representation of a Sturm-Liouville energy:
For completeness, apply the identity first on . The discarded boundary term is . It tends to zero at both ends: and at zero, while and at one. Taking achieves equality, so
The infimum is over the stated smooth admissible functions with finite energy; the equality also proves attainment by a multiple of .
Put and . Then
The second row is the original damped harmonic oscillator equation and the first row defines the auxiliary velocity. This converts a second-order ordinary differential equation into two first-order equations without changing the required two initial values.
Take the inner surface to be free of traction, as appropriate to an empty cavity with no surface tension. At the outer surface the imposed pressure is compressive when positive. The outward normal vectors are at and at , giving
Integrating the ordinary differential equation from part (ii) between the two surfaces gives
The outer stretch follows from incompressibility:
Hence an expression entirely in terms of the inner stretch and the reference radii is
Equivalently . For an expanding shell, ; when on this range, , correctly describing an outward tensile loading. If an inner pressure were present, the same derivation would give on the left. Thus the empty-cavity condition specifies the pressure reference needed for the requested answer.
Let denote derivatives of the strain energy density with respect to its three principal stretches. The principal stress formula for incompressible hyperelasticity is
It follows by applying in principal axes. Equal tangential principal stretches and material isotropy give at . Differentiating the reduced strain energy density by the chain rule gives
The unknown pressure cancels in this difference. Substituting in part (i), and then using the supplied derivative of , gives
Consequently the desired ordinary differential equation is
For completeness, the supplied derivative follows from : , and differentiating gives . At the undeformed value the division must be interpreted by a limit; the spherically symmetric deformation with has and should be handled directly by the radial equilibrium equation.
The diffusion generator is . By the Feynman-Kac formula, the required conditional characteristic function solves
Use separation of variables in the form . Since and , the temporal factor satisfies the ordinary differential equation
Thus , and
This is bounded in absolute value by one, so it lies in the uniqueness class of the Feynman-Kac formula. As an independent check, integrating the stochastic differential equation gives . The independent Brownian increments have the normal distribution with mean zero and variance , yielding exactly the same characteristic function. For , the conditional distribution is a point mass at , and the same boxed expression still applies.
Here the diffusion generator is . The Feynman-Kac formula gives
Try , where and . Substitution and collection of the coefficients of and the constant term give
The solutions of these ordinary differential equations, with the terminal conditions imposed, are
For , define the conditional variance
Then the required conditional characteristic function is
In particular, for this exponent is . The variance is nonnegative for either sign of , and its limit at is . Hence the solution is bounded in absolute value by one and the Feynman-Kac formula identifies it with the required expectation. The value gives one directly, including that case without dividing by .
For an independent check, the integrating factor and the Itô product rule give
The stochastic integral has a normal distribution because its integrand is deterministic; the Itô isometry gives its variance as . For this is the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck transition distribution. The formula also covers the unstable case , and degenerates to deterministic motion when .
For a constant , set both ordinary differential equation derivatives to zero:
These equilibrium concentrations are unique for each input. For a loss rate other than one, divide the corresponding production term by .
Choose , , and , , . The following Python code plots the requested equilibrium concentrations and defines the functions used in part (c):
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def hill(u, K, n):
    u = np.asarray(u)
    return u**n / (K**n + u**n)

X_grid = np.linspace(0, 5, 501)
Y_eq = 2 * hill(X_grid, 1, 2)
Z_eq = 3 * hill(X_grid, 2, 4)
plt.figure(figsize=(6, 4))
plt.plot(X_grid, Y_eq, label="Y equilibrium: K=1, n=2")
plt.plot(X_grid, Z_eq, label="Z equilibrium: K=2, n=4")
plt.xlabel("X concentration")
plt.ylabel("Equilibrium concentration")
plt.legend()
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
The Hill constant sets the half-maximum input: and . Increasing that constant shifts activation toward larger . The Hill coefficient changes steepness rather than the half-maximum position; the normalized slope at is . Because the two examples also differ in and maximal production, compare normalized responses when isolating the effect of alone. Both curves vanish at zero and saturate toward their respective maxima.
Figure 1.
Independent Hill activation and convergence from two initial states
. The left panel shows different half-activation inputs and Hill coefficients. The right panel integrates the two independent output equations at fixed X=2; dashed curves start above equilibrium and solid curves start at zero. Details.
For the Poisson process, and , so
This is an ordinary differential equation in time for each fixed , with solution
Consequently
The initial condition is interpreted as , with all other initial probabilities zero. Normalization follows from . The mean and variance are both , as expected for independent events arriving at constant rate.
Take profiles and with , and use a prime for differentiation with respect to . The chain rule gives , and . Therefore
These are coupled ordinary differential equations for a right-moving travelling wave with speed . A first-order formulation, using , is , , . In particular a positive profile has , consistent with depleted substrate behind the travelling front and fresh biological growth factor ahead.
Let . The spatial ordinary differential equation gives , so its leading outlet behavior is
Again this is a square-root drainage boundary. For the separable aquifer drawdown, the dimensional drainage flux is
Equivalently, with , it is for an exact separated profile. Integrating the spatial ordinary differential equation gives . This verifies the global mass conservation check
Thus the late drainage flux follows an inverse-square power law, while stored water decays inversely with time.
The aquifer drainage hydrograph starts at zero, rises linearly in the early rainfall similarity solution, and approaches the total recharge if rainfall lasts long enough for a finite-length steady state. Indeed, steady mass conservation gives and , hence . At , the outlet flux stays continuous for a regular inherited flux profile, then recedes as water drains; the eventual decay is proportional to . An arbitrary transition requires the full time-dependent partial differential equation, so matching an early rainfall formula directly to a separated drought formula is only a schematic approximation.
Figure 1.
Schematic aquifer drainage response during rainfall and drought
. Details.
The curve illustrates these regimes and a possible . Its numerical shape and the relative duration of the regimes are schematic; the early rainfall and late drought formulas apply in their respective asymptotic ranges.
With , substitute into the dimensional Boussinesq equation for an unconfined aquifer:
For a positive draining profile, take . Normalize , so has the dimensions of height. The temporal ordinary differential equation integrates to
The spatial ordinary differential equation and boundary conditions are
Here has units of inverse length with this normalization. The scale freedom between and is fixed by the chosen value ; the amplitude of , and hence , must be matched to the available water.
This separable aquifer drawdown is exact if the inherited height profile has the separated spatial shape. For a general rainfall-generated initial condition, it describes the late drought regime; it cannot reproduce an arbitrary profile at the instant rainfall stops merely by choosing one temporal constant.
The two external stream velocities impose
Let and seek over . The nonlinear term is then , so the leading ordinary differential equation is
For , this is the first-order linear differential equation . Its integrating factor is , giving . An integration using the error function gives
The two far-field boundary conditions require and . A second integration uses
Consequently
The relation between and cancels the extra term when differentiating. It gives the familiar error function mean velocity profile
to first order in . The additive constant does not affect this velocity profile at the retained order; its interpretation comes from the transverse velocity.