# n-th order ODE, general solution?

• Feb 10th 2010, 02:24 PM
DJDorianGray
n-th order ODE, general solution?
Hi everyone,
I need to find the general solution of the following:

$x^{2n} \left( \frac{d}{dx} - \frac{a}{x} \right)^n y = ky$

where $n$ is a positive integer. Any help would be appreciated, I don't know where to start from (finding out where to start, at least in this problem, seems like the hard part). Thanks :)
• Feb 10th 2010, 03:17 PM
Jester
Quote:

Originally Posted by DJDorianGray
Hi everyone,
I need to find the general solution of the following:

$x^{2n} \left( \frac{d}{dx} - \frac{a}{x} \right)^n y = ky$

where $n$ is a positive integer. Any help would be appreciated, I don't know where to start from (finding out where to start, at least in this problem, seems like the hard part). Thanks :)

First, tell us about $k$. What I would suggest is to look at $n = 1, 2, 3$ etc, and solve and then look for patterns.

Yes -a very nice pattern!
• Feb 10th 2010, 03:27 PM
DJDorianGray
I can solve for n = 1, but n = 2 is already quite complicated. And even if I had a pattern, how do I generalize?
• Feb 10th 2010, 03:51 PM
Jester
Quote:

Originally Posted by DJDorianGray
I can solve for n = 1, but n = 2 is already quite complicated. And even if I had a pattern, how do I generalize?

This is what I got for n = 1, 2 and 4

$
n=1,\;\;\;y = c_1 x^a e^{-k/x}
$

$
n = 2,\;\;\;y = c_1 x^{a+1} \sinh \frac{\sqrt{k}}{x} + c_2 x^{a+1} \cosh \frac{\sqrt{k}}{x}
$

$
n = 4,\;\;\;y = c_1 x^{a+3} \sinh \frac{k^{1/4} }{x} + c_2 x^{a+3} \cosh \frac{k^{1/4} }{x} + c_3 x^{a+3} \sinh \frac{i k^{1/4} }{x} + c_4 x^{a+3} \cosh \frac{i k^{1/4} }{x}
$

Do you see a pattern?
• Feb 10th 2010, 05:04 PM
shawsend
If it get's too cumbersome, you can if you wish work on in in Mathematica using this code:

Code:

nval = 1; myop = D[#1, x] - (a/x)*#1 & myeqn = FullSimplify[x^(2*nval)*     Nest[myop, f[x], nval]] == k*f[x] FullSimplify[DSolve[myeqn, f, x]]
Here's n=3 using the code although I haven't checked it throughly and where I've left the Mathematica-specific notation in since I just copied it directly over so I didn't have to type in the latex. :)

$x^{2+a} \left(e^{-\frac{k^{1/3}}{x}} C[1]+e^{\frac{(-1)^{1/3} k^{1/3}}{x}} C[2]+e^{-\frac{(-1)^{2/3} k^{1/3}}{x}} C[3]\right)$

As a check of the code, here is n=2 which I believe is the same as Danny's solution:

$e^{\frac{\sqrt{k}}{x}} x^{1+a} C[1]+\frac{e^{-\frac{\sqrt{k}}{x}} x^{1+a} C[2]}{2 \sqrt{k}}$

Double-check everything though ok.