[Math] How to solve 3rd order Ordinary Differential Equation by using Wronskian

ordinary differential equations

The ODE is $$ (D^3-6D^2+11D-6)y=e^{2x}$$
I know how to solve $2$nd order. But, I don't know the formula for $3$rd order.
let the complementary function be
$$y=c_1f_1+c_2f_2+c_3f_3$$
let the particular integral be
$$y=c_1(x)f_1+c_2(x)f_2+c_3(x)f_3$$
After solving the $3$ degree matrix I get the value of $W(f_1,f_2,f_3)$
But what to do next ? What is the formula to find the value of $c_1(x),c_2(x),c_3(x)$

Best Answer

I guess you mean method of variation of parameters for a third Order Differential Equation. And you already have solved the homogeneous equation.

It's $$\pmatrix { c'_1 \\ c'_2 \\c'_3}=W^{-1}\pmatrix { 0 \\ 0 \\e^{2x} }$$ Where $W^{-1}$ is the inverse of Wronskian matrix and $c_i'$ are derivatives.


Edit I added some calculations

$$W=\pmatrix {e^x & e^{2x} &e^{3x} \\ e^x & 2e^{2x} & 3e^{3x} \\ e^x & 4e^{2x} & 9e^{3x}}$$ it's easy to find the determinant $|W|=2e^{6x}$ Now you need the inverse of the Wronskian Matrix ...We don't need all the elements of the matrix. Only the last column is needed: $$W^{-1}=\frac 1 {|W|}\pmatrix {* & * &e^{5x} \\ * & *& -2e^{4x} \\ * & * & e^{3x}}$$ So we have that: $$\pmatrix { c'_1 \\ c'_2 \\c'_3}=\frac 1 {|W|}\pmatrix {* & * &e^{5x} \\ * & *& -2e^{4x} \\ * & * & e^{3x}}\pmatrix { 0 \\ 0 \\e^{2x} }$$ $$\pmatrix { c'_1 \\ c'_2 \\c'_3}=\frac 1 {|W|}\pmatrix { e^{7x}\\ -2e^{6x} \\e^{5x} }$$ $$\pmatrix { c'_1 \\ c'_2 \\c'_3}=\frac 1 {2}\pmatrix { e^{x}\\ -2 \\e^{-x} }$$ Now integrate to find the $c_i$ coefficients: $$\pmatrix { c_1 \\ c_2 \\c_3}=\pmatrix { \frac 1 {2}e^{x}\\ -x \\-\frac 1 {2}e^{-x} }$$ The particular solution is therefore: $$y_p=c_1e^x+c_2e^{2x}+c_3e^{3x}$$ $$y_p=\frac 1 {2}e^{2x}-xe^{2x}-\frac 1 {2}e^{2x}$$ $$y_p=-xe^{2x}$$

Variation of Constants is a much better method for your differential equation. Your guess should be: $$y_p=Axe^{2x}$$

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