Method of Frobenius: Equal Roots to the Indicial Equation

We solve the equation x2 y'' + 3 xy' + H1 - xL y = 0 using a power series centered at the regular singular point x = 0. (You should
check that zero is really a regular singular point.)

Let y =
n=0 an x
n+r
. Then, inserting this series into the differential equation results in

Hr + 1L2 a0 xr + Ian Hn + r + 1L2 - an-1 M xn+r 0

n=1

The indicial equation is Hr + 1L2 = 0 and we have a repeated zero r = -1. We also have the recurrence relation
an-1
Hn + r + 1L2
an =

valid for n 1.

For r = -1, we obtain the recurrence relation

an-1
an =
n2
A little work shows that

1
Hn!L2
an =

where we have set a0 = 1. The first solution to the DE is therefore

1 xn
Hn!L2
y1 =
x n=0

To find the second solution, we need to solve the general recrrence relation without using r = -1!! In this case the solution is easy
to find:
a0
Hr + 2L2 Hr + 3L2 Hn + r + 1L2
an =

Han L r=-1 . To do this, we take the natural log of both sides:

d
We need to calculate dr

ln an = ln a0 - 2 HlnHr + 2L + lnHr + 3L + lnHr + 3L + + lnHr + n + 1LL

Now we differentiate with respect to r:

a'n 1 1 1
= -2 + ++
an r+2 r+3 n+r+1

We can rewrite this as

1 1 1
a'n = -2 an + ++
r+2 r+3 n+r+1

We now evaluate the derivative at the zero r = -1 to obtain

2 Equal_Roots_Example.nb

2 J1 + + + nN
1 1 1 1
+ +
H-1L = -
2 3 4
a'n
Hn!L2

The second solution is therefore

y2 = J 1x N lnHxL - 1 +
Hn xn
xn 2
Hn!L Hn!L2
n=0 2 x
n=1

1 1
where Hn = 1 + 2
+ 3
+ + 1n .