Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-electromagnetism-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/1/c/i/solution
Past exam of the electromagnetism course of the University of Oxford 2023 1 c i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Let and let describe its direction in spherical coordinates; write . The given Dirichlet Green function between concentric spheres has normalization , so the electric potential is . On the inner sphere the unit normal from metal into the gap is , hence its induced surface charge density isNear this boundary and . The needed radial derivative isIt cancels the factor in the Dirichlet Green function. Therefore the answer in spherical harmonics isThis spherical harmonic expansion converges on the boundary: after the angular sum, the two radial factors decay geometrically with ratios and , while the angular factors grow at most polynomially. This justifies the boundary derivative and the subsequent surface integral.
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