Past exam of the year 2 of the earth sciences (geology) course of the University of Oxford / 2025 / Paper 3 / 7 / a / Solution

Assume sufficient decay and differentiability to justify integration by parts and exchange of integrals; Schwartz functions are one convenient class. With the stated Fourier transform convention, integrate first in $x$:The boundary contribution vanishes under the decay assumption. The Fourier transform of a derivative consequently turns constant-coefficient spatial differential operators into multipliers. Repeating it gives $\mathcal{F}[u_{xx}]=-k_x^2\hat{u}$, so the heat equation becomes an independent temporal ordinary differential equation at each wavevector.