Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / iii / Paper 70 / 1 / a / Solution

Use the half-line Fourier transform and finite-time boundary transformsThe half-line Fourier transform is analytic for $\mathrm{Im}k<0$ under spatial decay. All spectral integrals below have their usual oscillatory, or vanishing Gaussian damping, interpretation until absolute convergence is established.

The free Schrodinger equation has the local divergence identityIntegrating in $x,t$ gives the global relation for the half-line free Schrodinger equationLet $D_{+}=\{\mathrm{Re}k>0,\mathrm{Im}k>0\}$. Orient its boundary from $i\infty$ down to $0$, and then from $0$ to $+\infty$, so that $D_{+}$ lies on the left. Fourier inversion followed by contour integration in the second quadrant yieldsThis is a complex spectral representation involving the initial trace and both boundary traces. The contour deformation works because each boundary-time integrand contains $e^{-i{k}^2(t-s)}$ with $s\le t$, which decays in the second quadrant, as well as $e^{ikx}$ for $x>0$. This fixes both the quadrant and the orientation; changing either without changing the signs would produce an incorrect representation.