Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/prelims/mathematics-v/2/c/solution

If two solutions exist, their difference satisfies inside and on the boundary. Suppose has a positive value. Continuity on the closed ball gives a positive maximum at an interior point, where the Hessian matrix is negative semidefinite and hence . But the equation gives , a contradiction. A negative minimum similarly contradicts .
Thus , proving uniqueness by the maximum principle for the modified Helmholtz equation. Here a classical solution is understood to be inside and continuous up to the boundary; mere first differentiability would not define the displayed Laplacian classically. With enough boundary regularity, the alternative Green's first identity proof is .

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