Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 328 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use the weighted Neumann heat kernel with constant drift. The spatial operator has the self-adjoint formso its homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions give a regular Sturm-Liouville problem in the weighted inner productThe constant eigenfunction is , with eigenvalue and squared norm . For , put . Substitution of in gives and the Robin boundary conditions at both endpoints. HenceIndeed,The Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction expansion is complete and orthogonal. Its heat kernel, relative to the measure , isFor a coefficient , two applications of integration by parts yieldSolving these scalar linear differential equations and summing gives the Neumann boundary-forcing formula:This depends only on the given data. In particular, the zero eigenvalue retains the changing weighted mean:The endpoint derivatives of the boundary integral are understood as interior limits. Differentiating each homogeneous Neumann eigenfunction at the endpoint before summing would incorrectly discard the prescribed boundary forcing: the short-time heat kernel makes that interchange invalid. The stated compatibility conditions give the classical boundary traces.
On , the differential operator with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions is self-adjoint in the weighted inner product with weight . Its eigenfunctions and nonnegative decay rates areTheir squared norms are and . The Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction expansion givesThis kernel acts against the measure , not Lebesgue measure alone. It is symmetric in ; the transition density against Lebesgue measure is .