26
whose roots are
c ± J c^2 - 4 ab
2b
Preliminaries
Three possibilities of interest in accordance with the discriminant sign are:
1) If D = c^2 - 4ab > 0, then the preceding equation has two distinct real
roots
c+VJ5
2b
c-VJ5
2b
Two different particular solutions y~^1 ) = q~ and y~^2 ) = q~ corresponding to
q 1 and q 2 are linearly independent, since
q;· q~'
q~+l q;+i
and constitute what is called the general solution of ( 45):
Yk = C I ql k + c 2 q2 k
where C 1 and C 2 are arbitrary constants.
2) If D = c^2 - 4ab = 0, then q 1 = q 2 = c/(2b) = q 0 and y~l) = q~ and
y1^2 l = k q~ can be declared to be linearly independent particular solutions.
Indeed, substituting yf^2 l = k q~ into (45) we obtain by minor changes
by1~ 1 -cy1
2
l+ay1
2
] 1 = [b(k+l)q;-ckq 0 +a(k-l)] q~-I
=q~-I k(bq;-cq 0 +a)+q~-I (bq~-a)=q~-I (bq~-a)=O,
since bq;-a= b[c/(2b)]2-a= D/(4b) = 0. The discriminant
q~ k q~
q~+l (k + 1) q~+I
assures us that q~ and k q; are linearly independent and can be chosen as
a basis for constructing the general solution of ( 45):