Find distribution solving a differential equation

633 Views Asked by At

I think I have solved the following differential equation, but I am not sure of all steps are justified.

Exercise: Find all distributions $u \in \mathcal{D}'(\mathbb{R})$ such that

$x(u' -u) = \delta_0 - \delta_2$.

Substituting $v = u' - u$ we get

$ xv = \delta_0 - \delta_2$

Now I take the Fourier transform, however, then the distribution $v$ must be a tempered distribution, otherwise the transformation is not defined. Can we deduce from the right hand side that $v$ is a tempered distribution? For example if $\phi$ is any test function with $\mathrm{supp}(\phi) \cap[0,2] = \emptyset$, then $\langle xv,\phi\rangle = \langle v, x\phi\rangle = \langle \delta_0,\phi\rangle - \langle\delta_2,\phi\rangle = 0$, so $v$ has compact support and the Fourier Transform is justified?

Taking the Fourier transform we get:

$-i\partial_y\hat{v}(y) = 1-e^{i2y}$,

$ \partial_y\hat{v}(y) = i-ie^{i2y}$,

$\hat{v} = iy -\frac{1}{2}e^{i2y}$

If one consider $\hat{v}$ as a distribution, my book says it's a bit of cheating doing as we do above but that it works. Is that because of

$<\hat{v}',\phi> = - <\hat{v}, \phi'> = <i-ie^{i2y},\phi> = \int_{\mathbb{R}} (i-ie^{i2y})\phi dy = $ integration by parts = -$\int_{\mathbb{R}}(iy-\frac{1}{2}e^{i2y})\phi' dy$

so we can identify $\hat{v}(y)$ as $(iy-\frac{1}{2}e^{i2y})$

Now the inverse Fourier gives

$v(x) = -\delta_0' - \frac{1}{2}\delta_2 + c\delta_0$.

The next step now is to solve

$v = u' - u = -\delta_0' - \frac{1}{2}\delta_2 + c\delta_0$

Multiplying with integrating factor gives:

$\partial_x(e^{-x}u) = e^{-x}(-\delta_0' - \frac{1}{2}\delta_2 + c\delta_0) = \delta_0 - \delta_0' - \frac{1}{2}e^{-2}\delta_2 + c\delta_0 = - \delta_0' - \frac{1}{2}e^{-2}\delta_2 + c\delta_0 $.

Now integrating both sides gives

$e^{-x} u = c\theta(x) - \delta_0 - \frac{e^-2}{2}\theta(x-2) + d$

which gives

$u = c\theta(x)e^x - \theta(x-2)\frac{e^{x-2}}{2} + de^x - \delta_0$.

When is it justified to integrate over distributions as we did in the last step?

In the exercise, it says find all distributions in $\mathcal{D'(\mathbb{R})}$, does it follow from the motivation of taking the Fourier transform that the solution must be tempered, so we know that we have found all?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

3
On BEST ANSWER

I'd suggest to not use Fourier transfrom at all - exactly for the reason that you need to justify why you use it.

When you study $$xv=\delta_0-\delta_2,$$you don't need Fourier transform to find all solutions.

$$xv_0=\delta_0$$ has a particular solution $v_0=-\delta_0'$, and the homogenous solution $C\delta_0$, hence, $v_0=C\delta_0-\delta_0'$.

In the same spirit, $$xv_2=-\delta_2$$ has the same homogenous solution $C\delta_0$ and a particular solution $-\frac 12 \delta_2$, or $v_2 = C\delta_0-\frac 12 \delta_2$.

Therefore, $$v=v_0+v_2=\delta_0'-\frac 12 \delta_2+C\delta_0,$$where $C$ is an arbitrary constant.

Then you can safely continue with the method you already used.

If you have question why homogenous solution of $xT=0$ is $C\delta_0$ or how we can educatedly guess the particular solutions for $v_0$ and $v_2$, ask in comments.