Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / Paper 2 / 5 / d / iii / Solution

At $\Omega =\kappa$, the inverse-transform denominator is $-(\omega -i\kappa {)}^2$. For $t>0$, its upper-half-plane double-pole residue is the derivative of the exponential:It is also the continuous limit of both answers above as $\beta \to 0$ or $\eta \to 0$. This critically damped response tends to zero with a linear factor multiplying the exponential.

In all three cases, for $t<0$ close the contour in the lower half-plane, where $e^{i\omega t}$ decays. There are no poles inside, soAt $t=0$ its continuous value is zero and $G^{\prime }(0^{+})=1$, producing the unit derivative jump required by $(D_t^2+2\kappa D_t+{\Omega }^2)G=\delta (t)$. Thus all three formulas are causal Green's functions and all decay to zero at late times.