Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / iii / Paper 336 / 2 / a / ii

Write $E=\mathrm{erf}z$, $g=e^{-z^2}$ and $b=2/\sqrt{\pi }$. The first correction in the inner expansion satisfies ${\mathcal{L}}_0{Y}_1=2zE$. Direct differentiation verifies that $zE+bg$ is a particular solution. Adding the constant and error function homogeneous solutions gives $Y_1=zE+bg+A+BE$.

The left boundary condition forces $A=-b$. Re-expanding the outer expansion at $x=sz$ givesTherefore $Y_1\sim z$, with no constant term in its large-$z$ overlap. Since $E\to 1$ and $g\to 0$, this sets $B=b$. Thus the required half-order correction isIt vanishes at zero and has the correct linear overlap. Keeping this $O(\sqrt{\epsilon })$ term is essential even though the outer solution has no correction of that order.