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This midterm will be a two hour open book, open notes exam. Do all three problems.
c y
a
x b
a) For the Dirichlet problem in the interior of the box, the Green’s function may be
expanded as
∞ X
∞
X mπx mπx0 nπy nπy 0
G(x, y, z; x0 , y 0 , z 0 ) = gmn (z, z 0 ) sin sin sin sin
m=1 n=1
a a b b
Write down the appropriate differential equation that gmn (z, z 0 ) must satisfy.
Note that sin kx satisfies the completeness relation
∞
X mπx mπx0 a
sin sin = δ(x − x0 )
m=1
a a 2
has an expansion
mπx0 nπy 0
X
2 0 mπx nπy
∇x0 gmn (z, z ) sin sin sin sin
m,n
a a b b
4 X mπx mπx0 nπy nπy 0
= −4πδ(z − z 0 ) sin sin sin sin
ab m,n a a b b
16π
gmn (z, z 0 ) = u(z< )v(z> )
abγmn sinh γmn c
16π
= sinh γmn z< sinh γmn [(c − z> )]
abγmn sinh γmn c
Hence
c) Consider the boundary value problem where the potential on top of the box is
Φ(x, y, c) = V (x, y) while the potential on the other five sides vanish. Using the
Greens’ function obtained above, show that the potential may be written as
∞ X
∞
X mπx nπy
Φ(x, y, z) = Amn sin sin sinh γmn z
m=1 n=1
a b
p
where γmn = π (m/a)2 + (n/b)2 and
Z a Z b
4 mπx nπy
Amn = dx dy V (x, y) sin sin
ab sinh γmn c 0 0 a b
Since we only have to worry about the potential on the top of the box (and since
we assume there is no charge inside the box), the Green’s function solution may
be written
∂G(~x, ~x 0 ) 0
Z
1
Φ(~x ) = − Φ(~x 0 ) da
4π z0 =c ∂n0
(3)
x, ~x 0 ) 0 0
Z
1 0 0 ∂G(~
=− V (x , y ) dz dy
4π z0 =c ∂n0
Noting that the outward-pointing normal n̂0 on the top of the box is in the +ẑ 0
direction, we compute the normal derivative of (2)
∂G(~x, ~x 0 ) ∂G(~x, ~x 0 )
∂n0 0 = ∂z 0 0
z =c z =c
16π X 1 mπx mπx0 nπy nπy 0
= sin sin sin sin
ab m,n γmn sinh γmn c a a b b
× sinh γmn z − γmn cosh γmn [(c − z 0 )]
z 0 =c
X 4 mπx nπy
= −4π sin sin sinh γmn z
m,n
ab sinh γmn c a b
mπx0 nπy 0
× sin sin
a b
Inserting this into (3) then straightforwardly gives the desired result. Note that
the primes may be dropped from the double integral Amn once it has been isolated
from the rest of the expression.
β
0
0, 0≤θ<β
(
V0 V (θ, φ) = V0 , β ≤ θ ≤ π − β
0, π−β <θ ≤π
0
β
where we take P−1 (x) = 0. Note that Legendre polynomials satisfy the relation
0 0
(2l + 1)Pl (x) = Pl+1 (x) − Pl−1 (x).
There are several ways of solving this problem. Perhaps the most straightforward
is to realize from azimuthal symmetry that the potential necessarily admits a
Legendre expansion
X a l+1
Φ(~x ) = αl Pl (cos θ)
r
l
The boundary conditions at r = a gives
X
V (θ) = αl Pl (cos θ)
l
This is clearly a Legendre expansion for V (θ). The legendre orthogonality relation
allows us to write the expansion coefficients αl as
Z 1
2l + 1
αl = V (cos θ) Pl (cos θ) d(cos θ)
2 −1
V0 cos β 0
Z
0
αl = [P (x) − Pl−1 (x)] dx
2 − cos β l+1
V0 h i
= Pl+1 (cos β) − Pl−1 (cos β) − Pl+1 (− cos β) + Pl−1 (− cos β)
2
V0
= (1 + (−)l )[Pl+1 (cos β) − Pl−1 (cos β)]
2
This vanishes unless l is even (which should be obvious from the z → −z sym-
metry of the problem). The result is then
X a l+1
Φ(r, θ) = V0 [Pl+1 (cos β) − Pl−1 (cos β)] Pl (cos θ)
r
l even
Note that l = 0 is allowed, and gives the monopole contribution. (An earlier
version of this practice midterm excluded l = 0 from the sum, and this was a
mistake.)
This problem could also have been solved by using the Dirichlet Green’s function
outside a sphere
a2l+1
0
X 1 1 ∗
G(~x, ~x ) = 4π l
r< − l+1 l+1
Ylm (Ω0 )Ylm (Ω)
2l + 1 r< r>
l,m
After slight manipulation, we would have ended up with a similar Legendre poly-
nomial integration.
b) For fixed V0 , what angle β maximizes the quadrupole moment?
The quadrupole is given by l = 2. Hence the quadrupole moment is related to
the α2 term in the expansion. Since we do not care about normalization (we only
care to maximize the moment) it is sufficient to write
3. A line charge on the z axis extends from z = −a to z = +a and has linear charge
density varying as
a
α
λ0z
λ0 z α ,
0<z≤a
y λ(z) = α
−λ0 |z| , −a ≤ z < 0
α
−λ 0 |z |
x
−a
where α is a positive constant. The total charge on the 0 < z ≤ a segment is Q (and
the charge on the −a ≤ z < 0 segment is −Q).
a) Calculate all of the multipole moments of the charge distribution. Make sure to
indicate which moments are non-vanishing.
Noting that a uniformly charged line charge on the +z axis has charge density
λ0
ρ= δ(cosθ − 1)
2πr2
we see that a varying line charge yields
λ(r)
ρ= δ(cos θ − 1)
2πr2
This may be checked by observing
3 2 dφ
dq = ρ d x = ρ r dr dφ d(cos θ) = λ(r)dr
2π cos θ=1
(Note that there is no distinction between r and z for cos θ = 1.) Hence, for the
positive and negative line charge, we have
λ0 r α
ρ= [δ(cos θ − 1) − δ(cos θ + 1)]
2πr2
a a
λ0 aα+1
Z Z
Q= λ(z) dz = λ0 z α dz =
0 0 α+1
Hence
α + 1 r α
ρ=Q [δ(cos θ − 1) − δ(cos θ + 1)]
2πar2 a
The multipole moments are then
Z
∗
qlm = rl Ylm (Ω)ρ r2 dr dΩ
α + 1 a l r α
Z Z
∗ dΩ
=Q r dr Ylm (Ω)[δ(cos θ − 1) − δ(cos θ + 1)]
a 0 a 2π
Z 1r
α + 1 al+1 2l + 1
ql,0 =Q Pl (cos θ)[δ(cos θ − 1) − δ(cos θ + 1)]d(cos θ)
a α + l + 1 −1 4π
r
α + 1 2l + 1
= Qal [Pl (1) − Pl (−1)]
α+l+1 4π
r
l α+1 2l + 1
= Qa [1 − (−)l ]
α+l+1 4π
b) Write down the multipole expansion for the potential in explicit form up to the
first two non-vanishing terms.
The multipole expansion gives
1 X 4π Ylm (θ, φ)
Φ= qlm
4π0 2l + 1 rl+1
l,m
r
1 X 4π Pl (cos θ)
= ql,0
4π0 2l + 1 rl+1
l odd
2Q X α + 1 a l (4)
= Pl (cos θ)
4π0 r α+l+1 r
l odd
2Q (α + 1)a Pl (cos θ) (α + 1)a3 P3 (cos θ)
= + + ···
4π0 α+2 r2 α+4 r4
2Q (α + 1)a cos θ (α + 1)a3 5 cos3 θ − 3 cos θ
= + + ···
4π0 α + 2 r2 2(α + 4) r4
1 2Q(α + 1)a z
Φ=
4π0 α+2 r3
1 p~ · ~x
φ=
4π0 r3
gives
2Q(α + 1)a
p~ = ẑ
α+2
Alternatively, one could compute directly
a
|z|α
Z Z
3
p~ = ~xρ d x = ~xQ(α + 1) α+1 sgn(z) dz
−a a x=y=0