Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 1 / 3

Away from $x=\xi$, the homogeneous equation has solutions $e^x,e^{-x}$. A basis adapted to the two boundary conditions is $u(x)=\sinh x$ at the origin and $v(x)=e^{-x}$ at infinity. Their Wronskian is $u{v}^{\prime }-u^{\prime }v=-1$. The Green function must be continuous at $\xi$, while integration of $-G_{xx}+G=\delta (x-\xi )$ across the source givesThese conditions give the Dirichlet half-line Green function for minus d2 plus 1:where $x_{<}=\min (x,\xi )$ and $x_{>}=\max (x,\xi )$. The second term is the image that enforces $G(0,\xi )=0$; both terms decay as $x\to \infty$.

For the finite forcing interval, $y(x)={\int }_0^{\mu }G(x,\xi )d\xi$. When $x\le \mu$, split the integral at $\xi =x$:When $x\ge \mu$, the entire source interval lies to the left, giving the Dirichlet half-line response to uniform interval forcingThis solution is unique: a homogeneous difference satisfying the origin condition is proportional to $\sinh x$, which cannot decay at infinity unless its coefficient is zero.

The left-hand value at the junction isThe right-hand value isThus the piecewise Green function solution is continuous, withIts derivative is continuous as well: both one-sided values equal $-\frac{1}{2}(1-e^{-\mu }{)}^2$. Only the second derivative jumps, consistently with the step in the forcing and the absence of a Dirac delta source.