Paper 2, Section II, 32A

Asymptotic Methods
Part II, 2021

(a) Let x(t)x(t) and ϕn(t)\phi_{n}(t), for n=0,1,2,n=0,1,2, \ldots, be real-valued functions on R\mathbb{R}.

(i) Define what it means for the sequence {ϕn(t)}n=0\left\{\phi_{n}(t)\right\}_{n=0}^{\infty} to be an asymptotic sequence as tt \rightarrow \infty.

(ii) Define what it means for x(t)x(t) to have the asymptotic expansion

x(t)n=0anϕn(t) as tx(t) \sim \sum_{n=0}^{\infty} a_{n} \phi_{n}(t) \quad \text { as } \quad t \rightarrow \infty

(b) Use the method of stationary phase to calculate the leading-order asymptotic approximation as xx \rightarrow \infty of

I(x)=01sin(x(2t4t2))dtI(x)=\int_{0}^{1} \sin \left(x\left(2 t^{4}-t^{2}\right)\right) d t

[You may assume that eiu2du=πeiπ/4\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{i u^{2}} d u=\sqrt{\pi} e^{i \pi / 4}.]

(c) Use Laplace's method to calculate the leading-order asymptotic approximation as xx \rightarrow \infty of

J(x)=01sinh(x(2t4t2))dtJ(x)=\int_{0}^{1} \sinh \left(x\left(2 t^{4}-t^{2}\right)\right) d t

[In parts (b) and (c) you should include brief qualitative reasons for the origin of the leading-order contributions, but you do not need to give a formal justification.]