Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2018 4 d Solution 2026-10-18
For , defineThe simple poles are . In the inverse transform , close the contour below for . Its clockwise orientation gives times the sum of residues. That sum isFor , close above; there are no poles. The residue theorem therefore givesHere is the Heaviside step function. At the continuous retarded limit is . At critical damping, likewise replaces by ; beyond the stated oscillatory range an imaginary converts it to a hyperbolic sine. These continuations retain decaying temporal exponents.
For each fixed , taking givesFor , invert in space and set :The correctly normalized sinc function transform isFor instance, , and Fourier inversion immediately gives the factor . The PDF's prefactor is inconsistent with its top hat of unit height; it would give height . Using the normalized identity yieldsas a distribution. The values assigned precisely at a wave front do not change that distribution. This is the negative of the standard one-dimensional retarded wave Green function, because the PDF's differential operator is .
The sign and initial data can be checked without any contour calculation. Integrating the spatial-Fourier equation through the impulse givesIn real space these are and . In particular,for a smooth test function , confirming the negative delta-function initial velocity. Before the impulse the displacement and velocity are zero. The disturbance fills the forward causal cone for the constant-speed wave equation, whose fronts move at unit speed, consistent with . The final question's printed is interpreted as , referring to the elastic constant, not to the Fourier wavevector. No initial conditions were otherwise specified, so the causal choice has been made explicitly.
