Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/paper-2/19/b/solution

For a separated harmonic function , Laplace's equation gives . Bounded periodic dependence in has ; decay on each half-plane selects for , when the potential is matched continuously at the sheet. These are the separated decaying modes. General decaying solutions can be superpositions of them; decay alone does not force a single value of .
The prescribed cosine density selects and . Its normal derivative jump is . Matching the stated jump gives
This is the gravitational potential of a sinusoidal sheet in the normalization of the question. It is continuous at the sheet and decays on both sides. Since changes sign, it can physically describe a Fourier component of a density perturbation rather than an everywhere positive isolated mass sheet.

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