Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / Paper 1 / 3

Trying $y=x^m$ in the Cauchy-Euler equation givesso the homogeneous solution isContinuity with zero value at the singular endpoint excludes the second branch. Use the left and right adapted solutions $\ell (x)=x$, $r(x)=x^{-4}-x$, whose Wronskian isThe Dirichlet Green kernel for an Euler operator with exponents one and minus four is thereforeIt vanishes at both endpoints, is continuous at $x=\xi$, and has first-derivative jumpThus $L_{x}G=\delta (x-\xi )$ with ordinary source measure $d\xi$. For bounded forcing the Green function representation isThe apparent singular prefactor in the first term is canceled by the integral's decay at zero. The only regular homogeneous solution vanishing at $1$ is zero, so this solution is unique in the stated regular class.

For the piecewise source, split the integrals at $1/2$. If $x<1/2$, the needed integrals are ${\int }_0^x{\xi }^{6}d\xi =x^7/7$ and ${\int }_x^{1/2}({\xi }^6-\xi )d\xi$. If $x>1/2$, only ${\int }_0^{1/2}{\xi }^{6}d\xi =1/896$ remains. Simplification yieldsAt the interface both expressions have value $-31/8960$ and derivative $129/4480$, so no unintended Dirac delta source appears. Their second derivatives have the allowed jump associated with the discontinuous forcing.