A sinusoidal surface-density component on , with and translational invariance in the remaining direction, produces the displayed gravitational potential. Laplace's equation away from the sheet separates into a cosine in and a decaying exponential in . Continuity across the sheet excludes a potential jump, while integrating Poisson equation for Newtonian gravity across it gives . For a potential that derivative jump is , giving .
More generally a specified jump gives potential . Each spatial Fourier mode decays on the length scale , so fine density structure has a shorter-range field. The sinusoid changes sign and is naturally interpreted as a density perturbation component. General sheet distributions are built by superposing their Fourier modes; decay alone does not restrict a harmonic potential to a single mode.
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