Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / Paper 2 / 20 / c

Multiply the two displayed equations by $e^{-x}$ and subtract the one with indices reversed. The product terms combine into the Lagrange identity for a Sturm-Liouville operator:Integrating from zero to infinity givesAll factors $L_j,L_j^{\prime }$ are polynomials. The endpoint term at zero vanishes because of the factor $x$, and the one at infinity vanishes because the exponential function dominates every polynomial. Therefore, if $m\ne n$,The integral is absolutely convergent. This is orthogonality in the weighted inner product with weight $e^{-x}$; the boundary cancellation is the self-adjoint mechanism behind the Laguerre differential operator on polynomials.