Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2011 / ii / Paper 1 / 39B / Solution

Use an acoustic velocity potential $\phi$ with $\mathbf{u}=\nabla \phi$ and $p^{\prime }=-{\rho }_0{\phi }_t$. It obeys the wave equation ${\phi }_{tt}=c_0^2{\nabla }^2\phi$. The rigid walls require zero normal velocity, hence Neumann boundary conditions on the transverse variables. Separation givesDefine ${\kappa }_{mn}^2=m^2/{\alpha }^2+n^2/{\beta }^2$. The dispersion relation, phase velocity and group velocity for positive $k,\omega$ areFor a dispersive mode, $\omega (0)=c_0{\kappa }_{mn}>0$, $c$ decreases from infinity to $c_0$, and $c_g$ increases from zero to $c_0$. The $(0,0)$ mode has $\omega =c_{0}k$ and $c=c_g=c_0$: it propagates without dispersion.

Let $\mathcal{A}={\pi }^2\alpha \beta$ be the cross-sectional area. The appropriate time and cross-sectional average at fixed $x$ isWrite $F_{mn}(y,z)$ for the product of cosines and $Q={\mathcal{A}}^{-1}\int F_{mn}^{2}dydz$. Its transverse eigenvalue and wall conditions give $\int |{\nabla }_{\perp }{F}_{mn}{|}^2={\kappa }_{mn}^2\int F_{mn}^2$ by integration by parts. The kinetic energy density and compressive acoustic energy density are ${\rho }_0|\mathbf{u}{|}^2/2$ and $(p^{\prime }{)}^2/(2{\rho }_0{c}_0^2)$. Time averaging each squared real oscillation contributes a factor $1/2$, soThis holds for every dispersive mode, and also for the zero mode.

For localized smooth initial data, a dispersive mode contains integrals of the form $\int a(k)e^{it[kV-\omega (k)]}dk$ along $x=Vt$. When $0<V<c_0$, a stationary point exists at $k_{\ast }={\kappa }_{mn}V/\sqrt{c_0^2-V^2}$. It is nondegenerate because ${\omega }^{\prime \prime }(k)=c_0{\kappa }_{mn}^2/(k^2+{\kappa }_{mn}^2{)}^{3/2}>0$. The stationary phase method therefore gives an oscillatory amplitude $O(t^{-1/2})$ for each excited dispersive mode, and for their sum under sufficient mode summability.

At $V=c_0$, no dispersive mode has a finite stationary wavenumber; with smooth localized data these contributions decay, while the nondispersive right-moving pulse retains its original amplitude. Thus a general disturbance with nonzero zero-mode component has an undiminished $O(1)$ pulse on the sound-speed ray. If that component is absent, this surviving contribution is absent too. For $V>c_0$, finite propagation speed puts a compactly supported initial disturbance outside this ray for all sufficiently large $t$, so the field is eventually zero. Rapidly localized, rather than strictly compact, data give a correspondingly negligible tail instead.