Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ia / Paper 2 / 7B / i / a / Solution

Inserting the Dirac delta forcing into the integral gives the impulse responseIt is zero before the impulse and obeys the homogeneous equation afterward. Integrating the equation across zero gives $\alpha [y(0^{+})-y(0^{-})]=1$, exactly the jump $1/\alpha$ in this formula. Thus the formula also verifies the differential equation as a distribution; assigning a particular value at the jump does not affect that distribution.