StewartHolmes
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Homework Statement
Solve
u_{tt} - 4u_{xx} = 0, x \in \mathbb{R}, t > 0
u(x, 0) = e^{-x^2}, x \in \mathbb{R}
Homework Equations
General solution to the diffusion equation:
u(x, t) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi kt}} \int\limits_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^\frac{{-(x - y)^2}}{4kt} \varphi(y) \, dy
The Attempt at a Solution
u(x, t) = \frac{1}{\sqrt{4\pi kt}} \int\limits_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^\frac{{-(x - y)^2}}{4kt} e^{-y^2}
That's about as good as I've got. Integration by parts gets me no further. I've tried to combine the exponents in the integrand, but that leaves me with
- \frac{x^2 + y^2 - 2xy + 4kty^2}{4kt}
I have an example in a textbook where they do similar, then complete the square so that they can substitute p, then integrate \int\limits_{-\infty}^{\infty}e^{-p^2} \, dp as \sqrt{\pi}... but I can't complete the square in this case.