Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/paper-2/2/grounded-hemisphere/solution

Reflect the source across the equatorial plane and subtract the two ball kernels. This gives the Dirichlet Green function inside a hemisphere . It is zero on the spherical boundary because each ball kernel is zero there, and on the plane because reflection makes their values equal.
For a point charge , Poisson's equation in SI units is , so . Writing for the reflected inverse point gives
The construction uses the real charge, its negative reflected image, a negative inversion image of magnitude , and its positive reflected image. Reflection and inversion commute. All three images lie outside the open upper half-ball, and the prescribed zero boundary values determine the electrostatic potential uniquely.

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