Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-64/1/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 64 1 c Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the Rayleigh-Jeans spectrum of a finite blackbody disk, the Rayleigh-Jeans law replaces by . Here is the Planck constant and the Boltzmann constant. The multitemperature blackbody disk therefore hasFor example, setting makes its frequency-independent coefficient proportional to the finite dimensionless integralAlthough the exact effective temperature vanishes at the inner edge, the very narrow cold rim where the Rayleigh-Jeans law fails makes a negligible contribution in this limit. More formally, after dividing the integrand by , the inequality bounds it by , so dominated convergence justifies the result even at that edge.
At large radius, , and the contribution per logarithmic interval is . The outer disk dominates the low-frequency emission because its much greater area outweighs its lower effective temperature.
For intermediate frequencies use the allowed power-law approximation to the effective temperature and introduceThensoThe lower limit is much smaller than one and the upper limit much larger than one. Extending them to zero and infinity leaves a constant: near zero the integrand behaves as , and at infinity it decays exponentially. Hence the intermediate spectrum isThis is the one-third spectrum of a multitemperature disk. Much of the emission comes from radii where is of order , moving inward as the frequency rises. With the exact inner-edge profile, a broad intermediate interval also requires frequency well below ; the supplied approximation captures its slope away from the hottest annuli.
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