Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-2/2/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 2 2 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
With , the boundary data have the finite Legendre polynomial expansionInside the sphere, every term is singular at the origin and must be absent. Matching at therefore givesIn the exterior, decay at infinity excludes all terms, including the constant term at . ThusBoth harmonic functions have the prescribed Dirichlet boundary condition, and each is finite throughout its own domain. The interior expression is regular even at the origin because and . Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem identifies these as the respective solutions. Their normal derivatives need not match: the two Dirichlet problems do not require a single harmonic function across the bounding sphere.
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