Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 70 / 1 / a / Solution

Put ${\rho }^{\prime }=\rho -{\rho }_0$, and take the retarded acoustic Green function for ${\partial }_t^2-c_0^2{\nabla }^2$:This selects the causal, outgoing acoustic density perturbation, with no additional incoming homogeneous wave equation solution. Convolving the acoustic dipole forcing with this Green function and moving its spatial derivative outside the integral givesThe surface delta distribution converts the spatial integral to the moving surface. At fixed surface labels $(p,q)$, setThe radial Mach number enters the moving-surface retarded Jacobian, because $dr/d\tau =-\hat{r}\cdot v$ and henceLet ${\tau }^{\ast }$ be a root of the retarded time equationThe delta change-of-variable rule now givesHere $h_p{h}_q$ is the surface-area factor from the orthogonal surface coordinates. For a subsonic surface, $|v|<c_0$, the retarded equation is monotone in $\tau$ and has one root when the motion is defined for the required past times. For more general motion, sum the displayed contribution over all simple retarded roots. A root with $1-M_r=0$ requires a separate limiting treatment; the simple-root formula does not apply there.