Differential Equations (Lecture 3) 9 October 2009

6. Laplace transform of the Heaviside function

Recall that the Heaviside (step) function is defined as follows
(
1, if x > a
H(x − a) =
0, if x < a

Show that the Laplace transform of the Heaviside function is given by

1 −as
L{H(x − a)} = e
s

7. Laplace transforms involving error functions

Recall the definitions of the error function
Z x
2 2
erf (x) = √ e−y dy
π 0

and the complementary error function

Z ∞
2 2
erf c(x) = 1 − erf (x) = √ e−y dy
π x

Note that
erf (0) = 0, erf (∞) = 1, erf (−x) = −erf (x)

Exercise 1: Calculate the following Laplace transforms

  r
1 π
L √ =
x s
√
r
1 π
L{2 x} =
s s

Exercise 2: Show the following identities:

n  x o 1 2 2
L erf = ea s · erf c(as)
  2a  s
a 1 √
L erf √ = (1 − e−a s )
2 x s
   √
a 1
L erf c √ = e−a s
2 x s
√
 ax √ a
L e · erf ( ax) = √
s (s − a)
√ 1
L eax · erf c( ax) = √ √

√
s ( s + a)