Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-2/3/b/solution

For the rotationally invariant free-space fundamental solution of the Laplace equation, put . Away from the source, the radial Laplacian gives , hence . Integrate its Poisson equation over a disk of radius about the source. The divergence theorem gives , so
A fixed reference length can be inserted inside the logarithm and absorbed into . The resulting electric field decays like .
Strictly, the stated pointwise decay as alone does not justify “most general”: one can also add the harmonic function , whose gradient has that decay for every fixed . This is the same growth issue as a zero-boundary harmonic function with pointwise vertical decay. The displayed answer is the usual isotropic free-space choice; requiring the field to vanish uniformly in every direction at spatial infinity removes these extra harmonic additions. An additive constant remains undetermined.

New to topics? Read the docs here!