Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ib/paper-4/17b/a/solution

With the positive logarithmic fundamental solution used here, a Dirichlet Green function for an interior pole satisfies
Equivalently, is harmonic near the pole, is harmonic away from it, and it has the specified logarithmic singularity. Regularity up to the remaining boundary is understood; on an unbounded domain impose the appropriate condition at infinity as well.
Apply Green second identity with and . Since is a harmonic function, the volume integral is . The term vanishes on the boundary by the Dirichlet boundary condition. Therefore
One may equivalently excise a small disc around the pole and take its radius to zero. The sign is positive because this question uses , not the alternative negative-Laplacian convention.

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