Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / Paper 2 / 3 / d / Solution

Let the evaluation point be ${\mathbf{r}}_0=(x,y,z)$, $z>0$, and reflect it to ${\mathbf{r}}_0^{\ast }=(x,y,-z)$. The method of images constructsThe two Euclidean distances coincide on the plane, so $G=0$ there. The negative image source lies outside the domain; inside, only the real source contributes to $-{\nabla }_{\mathbf{r}}^{2}G={\delta }^{(3)}(\mathbf{r}-{\mathbf{r}}_0)$. The difference also decays at infinity.

On the plane write $\mathbf{r}=(\xi ,\eta ,s)$ and set $s=0$. The outward unit normal of the upper half-space is $n=-e_z$. Direct differentiation givesSubstituting into the boundary representation from part (c) yields the Poisson kernel for the upper half-space:Its sign is positive, as expected from the maximum principle for nonnegative boundary data. Its normalization can be checked in polar coordinates:As $z\downarrow 0$ the kernel is an approximate identity, recovering $f$ at its continuity points. Boundary data must have the decay and regularity compatible with the stated condition at infinity.