Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / Paper 2 / 3

For the real decaying Bessel form used here, take $k>0$. The original PDF has $K_m(r)$ as the last factor in its auxiliary differential equation, although both differentiated factors have argument $kr$; that last argument must also be $kr$ for the stated Modified Bessel differential equation.

Put $B(r)=K_m(kr)$. The corrected identity is $B^{\prime \prime }=-B^{\prime }/r+(k^2+m^2/r^2)B$. Since the field is radial, the radial Laplacian givesAway from the point source this must vanish. For $k>0$, a constant ratio of $r{B}^{\prime }$ to $B$ would make $B$ a pure power, incompatible with the $k^2{r}^2$ term of its equation. Therefore both displayed coefficients must vanish:The two orders give the same Modified Bessel function of the second kind: $K_{-1/2}(z)=K_{1/2}(z)=\sqrt{\pi /(2z)}{e}^{-z}$.^[ref]

The source describes $k$ merely as real, but the following displayed real square-root formula implicitly needs $k>0$. For the operator with arbitrary real $k$, its decaying fundamental solution instead uses $\kappa =|k|$; $k=0$ is obtained by a limit. The unmodified real $A{K}_m(kr)$ ansatz is not a real Bessel formula for all negative $k$.

Write $C=A\sqrt{\pi /(2k)}$, so the radial field is $\Phi =C{e}^{-kr}/r$. Integrate its equation over a ball of radius $ϵ$ centred at the source. The divergence theorem givesThe second term is $4\pi k^{2}C{\int }_0^{ϵ}r{e}^{-kr}dr=O({ϵ}^2)$ and vanishes in the limit. MeanwhileThusThe minus sign follows from the convention $(\Delta -k^2)\Phi ={\delta }^{(3)}$, opposite to the positive static Yukawa Green function for $-\Delta +k^2$. For arbitrary real $k$, replace it in the exponential by $|k|$ to select decay at infinity. The $k=0$ limit is $-1/(4\pi r)$.

Reflect the source across the plane, defining ${\mathbf{r}}^{\prime \ast }=(x^{\prime },y^{\prime },-z^{\prime })$ for an interior point $z^{\prime }>0$. Superpose the direct Green function from part (b) and an image of opposite sign:The direct term supplies the delta source in the upper half-space; the image singularity lies outside that domain and contributes no source there. On $z=0$ the two distances are equal, so the terms cancel, giving homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Both decay at infinity, which is the additional condition selecting this half-space solution. This is the method of images realization of the Dirichlet image kernel for the three-dimensional modified Helmholtz equation. It includes the unscreened case $k=0$.