Paper 4, Section II, A

Asymptotic Methods | Part II, 2009

The differential equation

f′′=Q(x)ff^{\prime \prime}=Q(x) f

has a singular point at x=∞x=\infty. Assuming that Q(x)>0Q(x)>0, write down the Liouville Green lowest approximations f±(x)f_{\pm}(x) for x→∞x \rightarrow \infty, with f−(x)→0f_{-}(x) \rightarrow 0.

The Airy function Ai⁡(x)\operatorname{Ai}(x) satisfies (∗)(*) with

Q(x)=xQ(x)=x

and Ai⁡(x)→0\operatorname{Ai}(x) \rightarrow 0 as x→∞x \rightarrow \infty. Writing

Ai⁡(x)=w(x)f−(x)\operatorname{Ai}(x)=w(x) f_{-}(x)

show that w(x)w(x) obeys

x2w′′−(2x5/2+12x)w′+516w=0x^{2} w^{\prime \prime}-\left(2 x^{5 / 2}+\frac{1}{2} x\right) w^{\prime}+\frac{5}{16} w=0

Derive the expansion

w∼c(1−548x−3/2) as x→∞w \sim c\left(1-\frac{5}{48} x^{-3 / 2}\right) \quad \text { as } \quad x \rightarrow \infty

where cc is a constant.

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