Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 2 / 20 / a

For a separated nonzero solution $T=f(x)g(y)$, substitution and division by $fg$ givesThe homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions impose $g(0)=g(1)=0$. For a nonzero spatial factor, integration by parts gives ${\lambda }^2{\int }_0^1{g}^{2}dy={\int }_0^1(g^{\prime }{)}^{2}dy$, so the separation value is nonnegative. The zero value gives only a trivial linear $g$ under these boundary conditions. The nontrivial separated factors, for $a\ne 0$, are thereforeFor the intended forward diffusion equation, assume $a>0$. The superposition principle gives a Fourier sine series, whose coefficients must expand the initial ramp in the interior:Consequently the standard heat-flow solution isIt satisfies both lateral boundary conditions for $x>0$, and tends to $y$ as $x\downarrow 0$ for $0<y<1$, also converging to the ramp in the L2 norm. The exponential coefficient decay justifies differentiating the series for positive $x$.

There is a genuine incompatibility in the printed data: at $(0,1)$ the lateral condition demands zero while the initial condition demands one. Thus no function satisfies every stated value at that corner. The displayed series solves the usual consistent interpretation with initial data on $0<y<1$ and lateral data for $x>0$; it cannot be continuous at the upper initial corner. This discrepancy is present in the original PDF.

The sign of $a$ is also unstated. If $a=0$, the spatial equation with two zero endpoints forces $T=0$, incompatible with the ramp. If $a<0$, the separated Fourier coefficients grow like $e^{n^2{\pi }^{2}x/|a|}/n$ and fail to be square summable for every $x>0$; these data therefore have no forward solution in the standard L2 space class. The positive-$a$ assumption is essential to the stated heat-flow interpretation.