Paper 1, Section II, 14B

Further Complex Methods | Part II, 2014

Obtain solutions of the second-order ordinary differential equation

zww=0z w^{\prime \prime}-w=0

in the form

w(z)=γf(t)eztdtw(z)=\int_{\gamma} f(t) e^{-z t} d t

where the function ff and the choice of contour γ\gamma should be determined from the differential equation.

Show that a non-trivial solution can be obtained by choosing γ\gamma to be a suitable closed contour, and find the resulting solution in this case, expressing your answer in the form of a power series.

Describe a contour γ\gamma that would provide a second linearly independent solution for the case Re(z)>0\operatorname{Re}(z)>0.

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