Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-v/7/b/iii/solution

For the thin spherical charge layer limit, smoothness of gives
Thus the shell's total electric charge tends to while its thickness tends to zero. At each fixed , the observation point eventually lies outside the shell, whereas at each fixed the interior electric field is unchanged. The limiting electric field away from the sphere is therefore
Its outward-minus-inward jump is
Physically, the limit is a uniformly charged ball of charge density , together with an infinitesimally thin spherical shell of uniform surface charge density
Indeed its electric charge is , and the standard normal electric field jump is . The surface charge density can have either sign, or vanish, according to .
The order of limits matters. For every finite , taking the two one-sided limits at first gives zero jump. The displayed nonzero jump is obtained by first taking at fixed points on either side, then approaching . The value at the surface itself need not coincide with either trace of the limiting electric field.

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