Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/s1/1/4/solution

Along a level curve, , with and . Therefore
In the intended upper half-plane , the slope is positive for , vertical at , and negative for . At the positive real boundary the slope is zero except at the stationary point , where both derivatives vanish and the quotient is indeterminate. More generally, outside the chosen half-plane its sign is the sign of , with the argument branch held fixed. A convenient parametric description of the curves to sketch is .
Figure 1.
Equipotentials for the upper-half-plane logarithm branch and illustrative square-well transmission
. Details.

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