Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2008 Paper 2 19 b Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For a separated harmonic function , Laplace's equation gives . Bounded periodic dependence in has ; decay on each half-plane selects for , when the potential is matched continuously at the sheet. These are the separated decaying modes. General decaying solutions can be superpositions of them; decay alone does not force a single value of .
The prescribed cosine density selects and . Its normal derivative jump is . Matching the stated jump givesThis is the gravitational potential of a sinusoidal sheet in the normalization of the question. It is continuous at the sheet and decays on both sides. Since changes sign, it can physically describe a Fourier component of a density perturbation rather than an everywhere positive isolated mass sheet.