Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 67 / 3 / Solution

Assume $ϵ\to 0^{+}$. Since the drift $(1+x{)}^2$ is positive, the fast mode decays to the right; the matched asymptotic expansion has a left boundary layer at $x=0$ of width $O(ϵ)$, and the outer expansion uses the condition at $x=1$.

Write $y\sim y_0+ϵy_1$. The first two equations for the outer expansion areEnforcing $y_0(1)=1$ and $y_1(1)=0$, defineThen the outer asymptotic expansion isTo derive the correction, set $y_1=Eq$. Cancellation of the homogeneous terms leaves $q^{\prime }=-2/(1+x{)}^5-1/(1+x{)}^6$; integration and $q(1)=0$ give the expression above.

In the left boundary layer, set $\xi =x/ϵ$ and $y=Y_0(\xi )+ϵY_1(\xi )+\cdots$. The equation becomes $Y^{\prime \prime }+(1+ϵ\xi {)}^2{Y}^{\prime }+ϵY=0$. Put $A=e^{1/2}$ and $B=1-A$. The leading inner equation and matching give $Y_0^{\prime \prime }+Y_0^{\prime }=0$, $Y_0(0)=1$, $Y_0(\infty )=A$, hence $Y_0=A+B{e}^{-\xi }$. At the next order,Since $q(0)=53/80$, put $C=53A/80$. The matched inner correction satisfying $Y_1(0)=0$ isFor verification, the differential operator $d^2/d{\xi }^2+d/d\xi$ maps $e^{-\xi }P(\xi )$ to $e^{-\xi }(P^{\prime \prime }-P^{\prime })$. The large-$\xi$ common part is $A+ϵ(C-A\xi )$, precisely the small-$x$ outer expansion in the overlap $ϵ\ll x\ll 1$.

Adding the inner expansions and outer expansions and subtracting their common part gives the first-order composite expansion for a positive driftThis is uniformly correct through $O(ϵ)$ on $0\le x\le 1$. It satisfies the left boundary condition exactly; at the right boundary the remaining error is exponentially small. Polynomial growth in the inner correction is harmless because it is multiplied by the decaying exponential. For the smooth nonvanishing drift, the next matched terms are uniformly $O({ϵ}^2)$.