Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / iii / Paper 328 / 3 / i / Solution

The formal adjoint of $\mathcal{L}=\Delta -k^2$ is itself. With the bilinear convention used in Green second identity, take any complex-valued $v$ satisfying $\mathcal{L}v=0$. The product rule for divergence gives the familyEquivalently, the differential one-formis a closed differential form. Arbitrary linear combinations of adjoint solutions give further members of this family. One can also write it as $\nabla \cdot [v^2\nabla (u/v)]=0$ wherever $v\ne 0$, but the first formula has no division and remains valid at zeros of $v$. For a sesquilinear convention replace $v$ by $\overline{v}$; no such conjugation is built into the bilinear identity used below.