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The method of images replaces the earthed plane by an image charge $-q$ at $(-a,0,0)$. The two Coulomb potentials cancel at $x=0$, so uniqueness for the Dirichlet problem makes the resulting field the physical field in $x>0$. With $\mathbf{r}=(x,y,z)$ and ${\mathbf{e}}_x=(1,0,0)$,and

The electric multipole expansion from part (a) gives, for $r\gg a$,Thus the leading field is that of an electric dipole.

On the plane,Taking the plane normal to be $+{\mathbf{e}}_x$ and using polar coordinates,With the outward normal of the region $x>0$, the sign is reversed. This is consistent with Gauss's law: all electric flux from the real charge terminates on the grounded conductor.

The electrostatic boundary condition gives the induced surface charge densityand its integral isIn the plane $z=0$, the field lines leave the positive charge, meet the conductor normally, and are the right-half-plane portions of the field lines joining the real charge to its negative image.

Write $s=\log r$, so the two circular boundaries are $s=0$ and $s=2$. The zero angular mode must interpolate between $-1$ and $1$, giving $s-1=\log r-1$.

For the $n$th cosine mode, the radial factor has equal value $A_n$ at both boundaries. The unique harmonic function with those data isHence the solution of the annular Dirichlet problem isAt $r=1$ and $r=e^2$, the hyperbolic cosine quotient equals one, so the boundary conditions are satisfied term by term.

WriteThis is the harmonic measure of $A$ viewed from $z$, and is a bounded harmonic function outside the closed target disc. The disc is contained in $B(0,r_2)$. In the half-plane cut out by a line $L$ through the origin, the probability of reaching $B(0,r_2)$ before $L$, from a point of modulus $R$, is $O(r_2/R)$ uniformly in the direction. One sees this by mapping the half-plane outside the disc with $z\mapsto \log (z/r_2)$ to a half-strip and solving the corresponding Dirichlet problem by a sine series.

Part (b) consequently shows that the angular oscillation of $H_A$ on a large circle tends to zero, uniformly in the Borel set $A$. The same half-strip estimate in the annulus $R-|a|\le |z|\le R+|a|$ shows that shifting the center of that circle by the fixed vector $a$ changes the average of $H_A$ by $o(1)$, uniformly in $A$. Hence, for every $\epsilon >0$, all sufficiently large $R$ satisfyfor every Borel subset $A$ of the target disc.

The covariance isIndeed, the killed-walk Green function satisfiesOn the other hand, the conditional mean from part 2 makes the covariance harmonic in $x\ne y,a$. At $x=y$, the conditional variance $1/2$ gives the same equation with source $\frac{1}{2}{1}_{\{x=y\}}$. Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem therefore identifies the covariance with $G_{\{a\}}/2$. The factor $1/2$ comes from the coefficient $1/(2d)$ in this paper's energy density.

Fix a closed ball $\overline{B_R(a)}\subset \Omega$, and let $v$ solve the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation in this ball with boundary data $u$. Put $w=u-v$. The function $w$ is continuous, vanishes on the boundary, and inherits the restricted spherical mean identity because $v$ has the full mean value property for harmonic functions.

Suppose $M={\max }_{\overline{B_R(a)}}w>0$. Its maximum set $E$ is a nonempty compact subset of the open ball. Choose $x\in E$ maximizing $|x-a|$. For every sufficiently small radius in the sequence attached to $x$,Equality of the average with the maximum and continuity imply that the whole sphere belongs to $E$. Its point in the direction from $a$ through $x$ lies farther from $a$ than $x$ does; if $x=a$, any point on the sphere does. Both cases contradict the choice of $x$. Hence $w\le 0$, and applying the same argument to $-w$ gives $w=0$.

Fix $v\in C^{1,\beta }(\overline{\Omega })$. Its jet map $x\mapsto (x,v(x),Dv(x))$ is $C^{0,\beta }$, while the barred coefficients are $C^{0,\alpha }$ in all their variables. Composition therefore makes$C^{0,\alpha \beta }$. The image of the jet map is compact, so strict ellipticity on the coefficient domain has a positive uniform lower bound on this image. The assumed linear Dirichlet problem theory now gives a uniquesolving ${\bar{a}}^{ij}(x,v,Dv)D_{ij}u+\bar{b}(x,v,Dv)=0$ with boundary value $\phi$. Thus $T:C^{1,\beta }\to C^{1,\beta }$ is well defined.

Suppose $v_k\to v$ in $C^{1,\beta }$ and write $u_k=T(v_k)$. The preceding uniform Schauder estimate bounds $(u_k)$ in $C^{2,\alpha \beta }$. Every subsequence therefore has a further subsequence converging in $C^{1,\beta }$ by the compact embedding of Hölder spaces. The composed coefficients converge uniformly, and lower-exponent Hölder compactness provides enough convergence of the second derivatives to pass to the linear equation. Every subsequential limit solves the problem defining $T(v)$.

Uniqueness of that linear Dirichlet problem forces every such limit to equal $T(v)$. Since every subsequence has a further subsequence with this same limit, the whole sequence converges to $T(v)$ in $C^{1,\beta }$. Thus $T$ is continuous.

The boundary data consist of the third angular Fourier mode. Its regular radial factor in the harmonic expansion on a disk is $r^3$, soFor a direct check of Laplace's equation,Also $T(1,\theta )=\sin (3\theta )$. At the origin the apparent coordinate singularity is harmless: this is the harmonic polynomial $3x^{2}y-y^3$. The allowed uniqueness for the Dirichlet problem completes the identification.

The constant function satisfies Laplace's equation and the prescribed Dirichlet boundary condition. In the harmonic expansion on a disk, its only nonzero coefficient is $A_0=1$. By the allowed uniqueness for the Dirichlet problem,

Expand the constant right-edge value in a Fourier sine series. Its coefficients areThe superposition principle combines the normalized modes, givingThis is a harmonic function in a rectangle with one constant boundary value, with the coordinate roles interchanged. The series and its derivatives converge uniformly on compact subsets of $0<x<\pi$, so it satisfies Laplace's equation there. It vanishes on the other three edges and approaches one at every interior point of the right edge. At the two right corners the one-sided prescribed values disagree; no continuous extension can satisfy both. The stated open-edge condition avoids that incompatibility, and isolated corner assignments do not change the bounded interior Dirichlet problem.

Use separation of variables, $\Phi =F(r)H(\theta )$, in the Laplace equation in polar coordinates. Dividing by $FH/r^2$ givesSingle-valued $2\pi$-periodic angular factors have integer $n\ge 0$. For $n\ge 1$, they are $\cos n\theta ,\sin n\theta$, and the radial equation $r^2{F}^{\prime \prime }+r{F}^{\prime }-n^{2}F=0$ has solutions $r^n,r^{-n}$. The zero angular mode gives $F=a_0+b_0\log r$. These separated products give the requested solutions; arbitrary sums may use independent coefficients for each radial-angular combination.

Boundedness at the origin removes the logarithm and all negative radial powers. The boundary function is even, so its sine Fourier coefficients vanish. With the convention $f(\theta )=a_0+{\sum }_{n\ge 1}{a}_n\cos n\theta$, its Fourier coefficients areThus the bounded interior harmonic extension isFor $r<R$ the series and its derivatives converge locally uniformly, so it is harmonic. It is a rotated and scaled instance of the harmonic measure of a semicircle in a disk. For example, summing the power series for the complex arctangent, or differentiating the following expression, gives the equivalent real formThis also proves boundedness directly.

At the two jumps, the boundary interpretation matters. At every continuity point the radial limit equals the prescribed value. At $\theta =\pm \pi /2$, the radial limit is $C/2$, the midpoint of the two one-sided values. Consequently for $C\ne 0$ there is no harmonic solution continuous on the closed disk with exactly the printed boundary values. The standard bounded Dirichlet problem imposes the trace away from the jumps, or almost everywhere; assigning zero separately at those two boundary points does not alter the interior solution.

For uniqueness let $w=\tilde{\Phi }-\Phi$. Formally the divergence theorem applied to $w\nabla w$ givesFor continuous zero boundary data, this immediately forces $w=0$. With the actual discontinuous data, one should justify the two exceptional points rather than assume finite Dirichlet energy there. Let $|w|\le M$ and choose a cutoff ${\eta }_{ϵ}$ which is zero within ${ϵ}^2$ of those points, one beyond $ϵ$, and linear in logarithmic distance between. Its gradient satisfies $\int |\nabla {\eta }_{ϵ}{|}^2=O(1/|\log ϵ|)$. Applying the divergence theorem to ${\eta }_{ϵ}^{2}w\nabla w$ givesThe resulting energy tends to zero. Hence $\nabla w=0$ on every compact subset and $w$ is constant; its zero boundary trace on the open arcs makes it zero. This is the logarithmic cutoff proof of harmonic uniqueness with finitely many boundary exceptions.

For the exterior harmonic extension of disk boundary data, boundedness instead excludes $r^n$ and the logarithm. The same boundary coefficients giveThis is ${\Phi }_{\mathrm{in}}(R^2/r,\theta )$, using inversion in a circle. Its limit at infinity is $C/2$. To see why that value is forced independently of this construction, average any bounded exterior harmonic function over a circle. The mean satisfies $(r{\overline{\Phi }}^{\prime }{)}^{\prime }=0$, hence is $A+B\log r$. Boundedness forces $B=0$, and the boundary mean fixes $A=C/2$. A constant limit at infinity must therefore be $C/2$.

Finally suppose two bounded exterior solutions have this limit. Their difference $w$ tends to zero. Under planar inversion in a circle, it is bounded and harmonic near the origin, so the isolated point there is removable. Its local expansion gives $w=O(r^{-1})$, ${\partial }_{r}w=O(r^{-2})$ in the original exterior. Apply the preceding divergence theorem energy argument on $R<r<L$, with logarithmic cutoffs at the two boundary jumps. After removing those cutoffs, the inner boundary term vanishes; the outer one is ${\int }_{r=L}w{\partial }_{r}wds=O(L^{-2})$. Letting $L\to \infty$ forces $\nabla w=0$, and the zero limit gives $w=0$. Thus the bounded exterior solution is unique as well.

With $u=\cos \theta$, the boundary data have the finite Legendre polynomial expansionInside the sphere, every $r^{-\ell -1}$ term is singular at the origin and must be absent. Matching at $r=a$ therefore givesIn the exterior, decay at infinity excludes all $r^{\ell }$ terms, including the constant term at $\ell =0$. 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 $r\cos \theta =z$ and $r^2(3{\cos }^2\theta -1)=2z^2-x^2-y^2$. 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.

In a charge-free region of homogeneous permittivity, Gauss's law and $\mathbf{E}=-\nabla V$ give Laplace's equation, ${\nabla }^{2}V=0$. Prescribed surface electric potentials specify a Dirichlet problem. Its Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem permits replacing conductors by fictitious charges outside the physical solution region: a harmonic candidate with the same boundary conditions is the physical solution. For an exterior problem its behaviour at infinity must also be prescribed. For a proof, subtract two candidate potentials to obtain $u$ with zero boundary values. Green's first identity gives $\int |\nabla u{|}^2{d}^{3}x=0$, so $u$ is constant and its boundary value fixes it to zero. Conditions on a normal electric field instead determine a potential only up to an additive constant when the usual compatibility condition holds.

A cylindrical Gaussian surface around an infinite line charge gives $E_r=\lambda /(2\pi {ϵ}_{0}r)$. The electric potential difference is thereforeAn isolated infinite line charge has no finite potential zero at infinity. For the opposite pair, however, the logarithmic growth terms cancel and one can choose $V\to 0$ there. Define $r_b^2=(x-b{)}^2+y^2$ and $r_c^2=(x-c{)}^2+y^2$. superposition givesOn $x^2+y^2=bc$,Thus the circle, and its cylindrical extension, is an equipotential. This is an Apollonius circle: a constant ratio of distances gives a circle rather than a constant distance from either charge.

For the cylinder above the plane, call its centre height $H>a$ and set $s=\sqrt{H^2-a^2}$. The cylinder-plane image charges are $+\lambda$ at height $s$ and $-\lambda$ at height $-s$. Their distances are equal on the grounded plane, while their distance ratio is $(H+s)/a$ on the circular surface. The positive fictitious line lies inside the metal, so the exterior is charge-free and Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem applies. A Gaussian surface enclosing the physical cylinder confirms that its charge per unit length is indeed $\lambda$. Its voltage isThe physical field energy per unit length at fixed cylinder charge is $U^{\prime }=\lambda V_c/2$. Differentiate with respect to height, keeping $a$ and $\lambda$ fixed:The electrostatic attraction per unit length of a cylinder above a plane is downward for either sign of charge. Placing the fictitious line at the cylinder centre would give the wrong answer at this separation. The long-cylinder approximation neglects the ends.

Conformality and analyticity. Use the orientation-preserving convention for a conformal map, with a continuously differentiable, nonzero differential. Its Jacobian matrix must be a positive scale times a rotation,Thus $u_x=v_y$, $u_y=-v_x$, the Cauchy-Riemann equations; continuous partial derivatives then imply that $u+iv$ is a holomorphic function. If angle preservation is allowed to reverse orientation, the statement needs this qualification: $z\mapsto \bar{z}$ preserves unsigned angles but is an anticonformal map and is not a holomorphic function.

The mapping. Put $a=\pi /L$. The displayed components combine to giveIts derivative does not vanish in the open half-strip $x>0$, $0<y<L$, so it is a conformal map there. Also $\mathrm{Im}w=\sinh (ax)\sin (ay)>0$. The lower edge maps to $[1,\infty )$, the upper edge to $(-\infty ,-1]$, and the vertical edge to $[-1,1]$. The open half-strip maps bijectively onto the upper half-plane. Indeed, $\cosh \zeta =\cosh \eta$ implies $\zeta =\pm \eta +2\pi im$; the half-strip allows only equality. Surjectivity follows by solving $t+t^{-1}=2w$ and choosing the root $t=e^{az}$ with $|t|>1$ and $0<\arg t<\pi$. The two corners are boundary critical points, not interior failures of conformality.

Transformed boundary values. A conformal map preserves Laplace's equation up to a positive scale. Thus the transformed Dirichlet problem is to find a real harmonic function $U(u,v)$ on $v>0$ withThe conflicting values at the original corners are interpreted as one-sided edge limits.

Logarithmic solution. Choose the complex logarithms of $w\pm 1$ with arguments between zero and $\pi$ in the upper half-plane. A linear combination $F(w)=\alpha \log (w+1)+\beta \log (w-1)+\gamma$ is a complex-valued harmonic function, since it is a holomorphic function; the real physical potential must be a real or imaginary part. In particular, setThenOn the three real boundary intervals, the argument difference is respectively $0,\pi ,0$, which gives the required values. This is the bounded harmonic solution, with $U\to V_0$ at infinity; uniqueness holds in this bounded class by the maximum principle. Without a boundedness or far-field condition, the edge data alone do not give uniqueness: one may add $C\sinh (\pi x/L)\sin (\pi y/L)$.

Back substitution. Sincethe required continuous argument difference is $2\arctan [\sin (ay)/\sinh (ax)]$ in the open half-strip. ConsequentlyAs $y\to 0,L$ with $x>0$, the arctangent tends to zero; as $x\to 0^{+}$ with $0<y<L$, it tends to $\pi /2$. These limits verify every open edge of the Dirichlet problem.

A mathematician associated with the Dirichlet problem.

For $0\le r<1$, this Poisson kernel for the unit disk has the uniformly convergent Fourier seriesThe identity follows by taking the real part of the geometric series $1+2{\sum }_{n\ge 1}(r{e}^{i\theta }{)}^n$. For integrable $2\pi$-periodic boundary data $f$, its Poisson extension iswhere $a_n,b_n$ are the usual Fourier coefficients. Each term is a harmonic function in the open disk. For continuous boundary data, the extension solves the Dirichlet problem with those boundary values.

Potential theory studies harmonic functions, subharmonic functions, and the Laplace operator, including harmonic measure, regular boundary points, and the Dirichlet problem. The Brownian representation of the Dirichlet problem connects these analytic objects with exit probability distributions.

A trial function is a chosen candidate used to approximate a solution or evaluate a variational principle. For an eigenvalue upper bound from a Rayleigh quotient, it must be nonzero, have finite numerator and denominator, and lie in the appropriate variational domain. In a Dirichlet problem it satisfies the fixed endpoint values. Natural boundary conditions need not always be imposed on a trial in the quadratic-form domain, but a candidate violating an essential boundary condition does not give the stated bound.

The imaginary part of the entire function $e^{z^2}$ is a harmonic function. On the upper half-plane it vanishes at $y=0$ and tends to zero as $y\to \infty$ for every fixed $x$, but is nonzero and grows rapidly in the horizontal direction. Adding it to a Poisson integral preserves those boundary and vertical-decay conditions. A boundedness or suitable transform-growth condition is therefore needed to make the half-plane Dirichlet problem unique.