Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 2 / 5 / c

Factor the cubic denominator as $(\omega -i)({\omega }^2+4)$. Substitution givesThere is a double pole at $i$ and simple poles at $2i,-2i$. For $t>0$, close the inverse-transform contour counterclockwise in the upper half-plane. The residue at the double pole isand the residue at $2i$ is $-i{e}^{-2t}/2$. Multiplication by $i$ from the residue theorem therefore gives $y(t)=(t/3-5/9)e^{-t}+e^{-2t}/2$.

For $t<0$, the clockwise lower closure encloses only $-2i$, with residue $-i{e}^{2t}/18$. The orientation supplies $-i$, giving $y(t)=-e^{2t}/18$. Hence the continuous solution isThe large inverse-transform arcs vanish: the rational factor is $O({\omega }^{-3})$, while the exponential is bounded on the appropriate closure.

The graph tends to zero from below as $t\to -\infty$, passes through $y(0)=-1/18$ with slope $-1/9$, reaches a small negative minimum after zero, then crosses the axis, reaches a positive maximum and tends to zero from above. The positive-time stationary points solve $8/9-t/3=e^{-t}$, and the crossing solves $t/3-5/9+e^{-t}/2=0$; these equations determine the sketch without guessing signs.

For a distributional check, $y$ and $y^{\prime }$ are continuous, while $y^{\prime \prime }(0^{+})-y^{\prime \prime }(0^{-})=1$. The jump conditions for a third-order Green function therefore produce the delta in $f^{\prime }=\delta -e^{-t}H(t)$, and each smooth branch satisfies the remaining equation. The nonzero solution for $t<0$ is consistent with the stipulated decay at both temporal infinities. Those are two-sided conditions, not a causality assumption: this is the setting of a decaying two-sided Green function of a constant-coefficient ordinary differential equation and causality versus stability of a Green function.