Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 35D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Ignoring magnetization, electric polarization charge transport gives bound current . The assumed weak dielectric contrast therefore gives inside the sphere. This is the first Born approximation: the incident field supplies the electric polarization to leading order in .
For , the far-distance expansions are and . Substitute the retarded time into the phase in the Lorenz gauge vector potential. The phase becomes , so, using ,The assumptions and control amplitude and phase errors respectively. In the radiation zone the supplied electric and magnetic fields satisfy . Complex phasors therefore give the time-averaged radial Poynting flux . The incident flux is , soOrient spherical coordinates along to evaluate the form factor:ConsequentlyAt the bracket is interpreted by its limit , not a singularity. The transverse factor accounts for polarization of an electromagnetic wave; for complex polarization of an electromagnetic wave its squared norm means the Hermitian norm.