[Math] Method of Undetermined Coefficients with complex root

ordinary differential equations

I'm trying to solve the following ODE and am stuck at the end. The question is:
$$y''+4y=2\sin(2x)+x^2+1 $$
I first solve the homogeneous part. Writing the characteristic equation:
\begin{align*}
r^2 + 4 = 0 \implies r=\pm2i
\end{align*}
So the complementary solution is
$$ Y_c=c_1\cos(2x)+c_2\sin(2x) $$
Next, I guess a particular solution of the form:
$$ Y_p(x)=2A\sin(2x)+2B\cos(2x)+Cx^2+Dx+E. $$
Computing its first and second derivatives yields:
\begin{align*}
Y'_p(x) & =4A\cos(2x)-4B\sin(2x)+2Cx+D \\
Y''_p(x) & =-8A\sin(2x)-8B\cos(2x)+2C.
\end{align*}
Substituting these into the ODE gives:
$$ -8A\sin(2x)-8B\cos(2x)+2C+2A\sin(2x)+2B\cos(2x)+Cx^2+Dx+E $$
$$ = 2C+Cx^2+Dx+E =2\sin(2x)+x^2+1 $$
I know $C=1$ and $E=1$ but then I'm unsure. Any help would be really appreciated

Best Answer

$$ Y_p(x)= \color{red}{2A\sin(2x)+2B\cos(2x)}+Cx^2+Dx+E $$

The red part in your $Y_p$ above can't work because that's already a part of the solution to the homogeneous part $Y_c$ (so that will simplify to $0$...!):

$$ Y_c=c_1\cos(2x)+c_2\sin(2x) $$

The trick is to multiply by $x$, so take:

$$ Y_p(x)= \color{blue}{A\,x\sin(2x)+B\,x\cos(2x)}+Cx^2+Dx+E $$

Note that you can omit the factors $2$ since you still have the undetermined coefficients $A$ and $B$.

Hoover over to see what you should get:

$$\displaystyle Y_p(x)= -\frac{1}{2}\,x\cos(2x)+\frac{x^2}{4}+\frac{1}{8}$$

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