Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 79 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The angles from part (i) have sinesBy Snell law for elastic and acoustic waves, . Both angles lie in , so . The outgoing fluid ray tilts away from the inward-tilted normal by exactly its tilt from vertical; it therefore travels vertically upwards. This is hyperbolic interface collimation of P-waves.
The source-to-interface distance satisfiesOne can verify this by squaring, using . ConsequentlyAdding the vertical fluid travel time from the interface to height givesThus surfaces of equal arrival time in the fluid are horizontal planes. Their leading wave amplitude may vary with : a planar wavefront does not imply a spatially uniform plane-wave solution at every order.
The spherical source potential gives leading longitudinal displacement field . Apply the local solid-fluid P-wave transmission coefficient to its potential at a smooth interface. In hyperbolic interface collimation of P-waves, transmitted rays are parallel, so ray-tube conservation for a P-wave jump makes the leading coefficient constant along each vertical ray. This yields the displayed jump for the first nonzero derivative discontinuity of the waveform. Smooth transverse derivatives multiply rather than and are one order more regular. The construction presupposes the indicated one-sided derivative jump exists; a source smooth to every order may have no jump.