Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2001 / Paper 1 / 3

Laplace identities. The one-sided Laplace transform isfor $\mathrm{Re}p$ sufficiently large that the integral converges. For a piecewise smooth function of exponential order, integration by parts givesDifferentiating under the integral givesIteration also yields $\mathcal{L}[f^{\prime \prime }]=p^{2}F-pf(0)-f^{\prime }(0)$. For real $k$ and $p>0$, taking the imaginary part of $(p-ik{)}^{-1}$ gives

Transformed differential equation. Let $G=\mathcal{L}[g]$, using the initial values $g(0)=1,g^{\prime }(0)=0$. ThenSumming the three contributions givesFor $\alpha \ne 0$, the condition $G(p)\to 0$ as $p\to \infty$ fixes the integration constant:It is simpler to invert the derivative: $\mathcal{L}[tg]=-G^{\prime }=1/(p^2+{\alpha }^2)=\mathcal{L}[\sin (\alpha t)/\alpha ]$. ThusThis is the sinc function. Its Taylor series begins $1-{\alpha }^2{t}^2/6+O(t^4)$, verifying both initial values. For a direct differential check set $h=tg=\sin (\alpha t)/\alpha$. Then $h^{\prime \prime }+{\alpha }^{2}h=t{g}^{\prime \prime }+2g^{\prime }+{\alpha }^{2}tg=0$. For $\alpha =0$, take the continuous limit $\boxed{g(t)=1}$, which also follows from $G=1/p$.