Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/paper-2/19/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2011 Paper 2 19 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Simplify the real component to . Thus is the unit circle with excluded from the mapping's domain. Its upper semicircle has and its lower semicircle has ; the point maps to . Inside the disk, , so the principal arctangent is unambiguous. Setting givesThe Laplace equation follows from (b). Approaching an open upper boundary arc makes the ratio tend to , giving ; the lower arc gives . This solution is in terms of the harmonic measure of a semicircle in a disk .
The boundary data jump at , so no path-independent continuous boundary value can be imposed at those two junctions. The displayed bounded harmonic function is the solution with the specified limits on the open arcs; those endpoint discontinuities are part of the idealized capacitor geometry.
Harmonic ray contours in the right half-plane and the potential in a disk with opposite semicircle boundary values
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