Green's Function Solution to ODE. Boundary Conditions Problem.

LukeMiller86
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Use Green's Functions to solve:

\frac{d^{2}y}{dx^{2}} + y = cosec x

Subject to the boundary conditions:

y\left(0\right) = y\left(\frac{\pi}{2}\right) = 0

Attempt:

\frac{d^{2}G\left(x,z\right)}{dx^{2}} + G\left(x,z\right) = \delta\left(x-z\right)

For x\neq z the RHS is zero so the complementary solution consists of sinx and cosx terms but with different superpositions on either side of x = z since the first derivative is required to have a discontinuity there.

Assume a form G\left(x,z\right) = A\left(z\right)sinx + B\left(z\right)cosx for x < z

and G\left(x,z\right) = C\left(z\right)sinx + D\left(z\right)cosx for x > z

I'm just following an example from a book that then continues to state that according to the boundary conditions B and C are equal to zero, seems simple but I'm unclear as to how they achieve this. I don't see how to apply this and discern B and C being zero, I seem to just find A,B,C and D all zero. Also how would one proceed in the case of the boundary conditions stating G and its first derivative equal to zero and achieve A and B zero?

Cheers
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Okay, for the first one is it the case that x is valid over the interval \left[0&lt;x&lt;\frac{\pi}{2}\right], therefore z is valid over the same interval? That seems to solve my problem with the maths.

For the second boundary case would it be that it is equally possible to say A = B = 0 as it is to say C = D = 0.

Thanks.
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top