Paper 3, Section II, A

Methods
Part IB, 2017

Let L\mathcal{L} be the linear differential operator

Ly=yy2y\mathcal{L} y=y^{\prime \prime \prime}-y^{\prime \prime}-2 y^{\prime}

where ^{\prime} denotes differentiation with respect to xx.

Find the Green's function, G(x;ξ)G(x ; \xi), for L\mathcal{L} satisfying the homogeneous boundary conditions G(0;ξ)=0,G(0;ξ)=0,G(0;ξ)=0G(0 ; \xi)=0, G^{\prime}(0 ; \xi)=0, G^{\prime \prime}(0 ; \xi)=0.

Using the Green's function, solve

Ly=exΘ(x1)\mathcal{L} y=e^{x} \Theta(x-1)

with boundary conditions y(0)=1,y(0)=1,y(0)=0y(0)=1, y^{\prime}(0)=-1, y^{\prime \prime}(0)=0. Here Θ(x)\Theta(x) is the Heaviside step function having value 0 for x<0x<0 and 1 for x>0x>0.