Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/ia/paper-3/11a/i/solution

Let be two solutions with the same Neumann boundary condition, and set . Then
Multiplying by and applying Green's first identity gives
The integrand is nonnegative. If , both terms can vanish only when , so the solution of the modified Helmholtz equation is unique.
If , the identity only forces . On a connected region, may be any constant. Thus solutions of the Laplace equation with prescribed normal derivative are unique only up to an additive constant, so

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