Paper 2, Section II, B

Variational Principles | Part IB, 2018

Derive the Euler-Lagrange equation for the integral

I[y]=∫x0x1f(y,y′,y′′,x)dxI[y]=\int_{x_{0}}^{x_{1}} f\left(y, y^{\prime}, y^{\prime \prime}, x\right) d x

when y(x)y(x) and y′(x)y^{\prime}(x) take given values at the fixed endpoints.

Show that the only function y(x)y(x) with y(0)=1,y′(0)=2y(0)=1, y^{\prime}(0)=2 and y(x)→0y(x) \rightarrow 0 as x→∞x \rightarrow \infty for which the integral

I[y]=∫0∞(y2+(y′)2+(y′+y′′)2)dxI[y]=\int_{0}^{\infty}\left(y^{2}+\left(y^{\prime}\right)^{2}+\left(y^{\prime}+y^{\prime \prime}\right)^{2}\right) d x

is stationary is (3x+1)e−x(3 x+1) e^{-x}.

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