SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR A FUNCTION TO HAVE A LAPLACE

TRANSFORMATION:

1. A function should be piecewise continuous in the interval.

- A function is called piecewise continuous on an interval if the interval can be broken into a
finite number of subintervals on which the function is continuous on each open subinterval (0
≤ t ≤ A for any A > 0) and has a finite limit at the endpoints of each subinterval

2. A function f(t) has a laplace transform if it is of exponential order b.

- A function f(t) is said to be of exponential order b if there exist constant M and b such that
for some t0 ≥ 0

|f(t)| ≤ Me bt for all t ≥ t0

Equivalently, a function f(t) is said to be of exponential order b if

Limit t ->∞ e-bt|f(t)| = a (finite quantity)

Geometrically, it means that the graph of the function f on the interval (t0,∞) does not grow
faster than the graph of exponential function Mebt. Then the laplace transform, F(s)=L{f(t)},
exists for s >b.