Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 70 2 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the Fourier transform pair , . The point force transforms to . With the dispersion relation defined above, the sheet equation becomesThe point-force radiation from a fluid-loaded sheet is therefore represented exactly byThe causal contour and outgoing acoustic square-root branch are fixed first with , then continued to the desired real frequency. This prescription fixes how poles and the branch points are passed.
For the acoustic far field , , take bounded away from grazing and . The method of steepest descent saddle point is , with . The supplied saddle point rule, including its factor, gives, provided the contour deformation crosses no poles,A convenient simplification, free of division by , isEquivalently, when ,The expression printed in the PDF is missing sound-speed factors for general dimensional . It agrees with this result if in fully normalized units; when is retained as an arbitrary sound speed, the numerator needs and the structural term needs in the last form. These factors arise respectively from cylindrical spreading, the pressure-density relation, and .
A direct countercheck is the transparent-sheet limit . The sheet jump condition then gives , so the saddle point rule requiresThe printed expression, interpreted continuously after multiplying out its structural factor, instead gives times the same phase. It differs by a factor ; for example it is eight times too large when . This limit also verifies the normalization of the corrected density field independently of the sheet's elastic-sheet tension.
To decide about poles, track the roots of on the chosen square-root sheet and deform the original causal contour to the steepest descent contour. A root contributes a residue exactly when it lies in the region swept out by that deformation; its sign is fixed by the contour orientation. Branch cuts must be retained throughout this comparison. Which roots are crossed can depend on observation angle, producing a change of the modal contribution when a pole meets the deformation boundary. A saddle point approaching a pole or a grazing endpoint requires an approximation uniform in that limit, rather than the isolated saddle point formula above.
The crossed poles are the free fluid-sheet modes of the preceding solution. Real subsonic roots represent evanescent acoustic surface waves carrying energy along the sheet, with normal decay; complex continuations represent leaky or radiating modes. Their residues must be added to the saddle point sound when the causal contour selects them. The specification “no poles contribute” is therefore a substantive condition on the contour, not permission to ignore zeros of the dispersion relation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 3 27C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the entire function . The steepest descent contour starting at iswith the cube-root branch starting at . Along it , so the real part decreases and the imaginary part stays constant. It approaches the ray , on which and .
Close a contour using the interval , these two outgoing paths truncated at parameter , and a short connecting arc. The two endpoints differ by , and the integrand on the connector decays exponentially in . Cauchy integral theorem therefore gives .
The specified substitutions giveandExpand near zero, and apply Watson lemma, or split the integral at a fixed small and integrate the Taylor remainder. This gives the first two asymptotic termsKeeping the next term gives . The fractional power comes from the degenerate stationary endpoint at zero; the oscillatory integer-power terms come from the ordinary endpoint at one.