Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematical-methods-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019-resit/8/b/ii/solution

On an outward-oriented sphere of radius , the electric field is normal with constant magnitude . Thus its flux is
It is independent of . There is no contradiction with solution: the classical divergence theorem cannot be applied to a full ball while pretending that is smooth at its center. On a punctured ball the outer flux and the inward-normal inner flux cancel, in agreement with zero ordinary divergence there.
The three-dimensional Dirac delta distribution is supported at the origin and satisfies the sampling identity
for smooth compactly supported test functions . It is not an ordinary function with a finite value at zero; its total integral is one, and translating it moves the point at which the test function is sampled.
The globally valid source equation is
For a direct weak verification, excise a ball of radius and integrate outside it. Since the ordinary divergence vanishes there, the result is . This is precisely the displayed distributional divergence and restores the divergence theorem with the point charge included.

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