UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

MSci/BSc EXAMINATION 2007

For Internal Students of Royal Holloway

DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN

PH2130D: MATHEMATICAL METHODS Time Allowed: TWO hours Answer QUESTION 1 and TWO other questions. No credit will be given for attempting any further questions.

Approximate part-marks for questions are given in the right-hand margin

Only CASIO fx85WA Calculators or CASIO fx85MS Calculators are permitted

PH2130D/100
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College 2007

2006 -07

GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS Permeability of vacuum Permittivity of vacuum

0 0
1/40

= = = = = = = = = = =

4 10-7 8.85 10-12 9.0 109 3.00 108 1.60 10-19 9.11 10-31 1.66 10-27 1.67 10-27 1.67 10-27 1.76 1011 6.63 10-34 1.05 10-34 1.38 10-23 5.67 10-8 8.31 6.02 1023 6.67 10-11 9.81 2.24 10-2 1.01 105

H m-1 F m-1 m F-1 m s-1 C kg kg kg kg C kg-1 Js Js J K-1 W m-2 K-4 J mol-1 K-1 mol-1 N m2 kg-2 m s-2 m3 N m-2

Speed of light in vacuum Elementary charge Electron (rest) mass Unified atomic mass constant Proton rest mass Neutron rest mass Ratio of electronic charge to mass Planck constant

c e me mu mp mn e/me h = h/2

= = = = = = = =

Boltzmann constant Stefan-Boltzmann constant Gas constant Avogadro constant Gravitational constant Acceleration due to gravity Volume of one mole of an ideal gas at STP One standard atmosphere

R NA G g

P0

MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS e 2.718 3.142 loge10 2.303

 page 1

PH2130
PART MARKS

ANSWER ONLY FIVE sections of Question One. You are advised not to spend more than 40 minutes answering Question One. The Fourier series for the function f ( x ) = x , which is defined over the interval L x L is x =
L 2L + 2 n =1 n 2 2

1.

(a)

{( 1) 1} cos ( n x / L ) .
n

Sketch the periodic function, and use the series to show that 2 1 1 1 1 = + + + + . 8 12 32 52 7 2 [4] (b)

Use the substitutions x = ya and E = / 2, where a =

m the Schrdinger equation for a quantum harmonic oscillator

, to convert

d 2 ( x ) 2m m 2 2 2 + 2 E 2 x ( x ) = 0 dx 2
into the dimensionless form:

d 2 + ( y 2 ) = 0. 2 dy

[4] (c) The following summation holds for the spherical harmonics

m = l

Y ( , )
m l

m =l

2l + 1 . 4

Show that the relation is true for the l = 1 orbitals:

Y10 =

1 3 cos , 2

Y11 =

1 3 sin e i 2 2

[4]

What does this result say about the symmetry of filled p-orbitals?

(d)

Use the separation of variables can be used to convert the partial

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 page 2 differential equation

PH2130
PART MARKS

2 2 = 2 + 2 =0 x y
2

into two ordinary differential equations. Show all the steps carefully, but do not solve the resulting differential equations.

[4]

(e)

Use Stirlings approximation,

ln N ! N ln N N ,
to calculate the number of different ways that 100 footballs may be picked out of a box containing 150 identical balls. [4] (f) The function can written as a superposition of basis functions
( x ) = ai i ( x ) .
i =1 n

The basis functions i ( x ) obey the orthogonality condition

[4]

( x ) ( x ) dx =
b a i j b a

ij

, where ij is the Kronecker delta.

Show that ai = i ( x ) ( x ) dx.

TURN OVER

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PH2130
PART MARKS

2.

(a)

The equation of motion for a damped simple harmonic oscillator is

2 x + x + 0 x = 0.

What are the dimensions of and 0 ? Using x ( t ) = Ae pt is a trial solution to the differential equation, show that there are two solutions p+ and p given by p = 2 402 . 2

[2]

(b)

[4] (c) Obtain the given solutions for the following three cases: (a) 0 (b) 0

, x ( t ) = et / { A sin 0t + B cos 0t} , , x ( t ) = Aet /1 + Bet / 2 ,

(c) 0 = / 2. x ( t ) = ( A + Bt ) et / . For each case sketch a typical solution, and identify critical damping, light damping, and heavy damping. [14]

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PH2130
PART MARKS

3.

The function F ( x ) is given by

F ( x) = 1/ a =0

for x a / 2 otherwise.

(a)

Sketch the function F ( x ) .

[2]

(b)

Write down the Maclaurins series (the Taylor series about x = 0 ) for a function g ( x ) , and hence show that lim g ( x ) F ( x ) dx = g ( 0 ) .
a 0

[6]

Comment on how this result is related to the properties of the Dirac delta function ( x ) .

[3]

(c)

Find the Fourier transform of F ( x ) , which is given by

[5]

f ( k ) = F ( x ) eikx dx.

Sketch f ( k ) and find a measure of its width k , and describe what happens to f ( k ) in the limit a 0.

[4]

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 page 5

PH2130
PART MARKS

4.

(a)

Write down the auxiliary function of the following second order differential equation y + 4 y = 0, and hence find the general solution.

[3]

(b)

Solve the same differential equation using a simple series

y = an x n ,
n =0

and compare how your solutions compare to this obtained in part (a).

[13]

(c)

Describe how the Frobenius technique is a powerful extension of the simple series solution for solving differential equations. Describe the type of solutions that can be obtained.

[4]

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PH2130
PART MARKS

5.

(a)

Write down the diffusion equation and the wave equation in one dimension. What is the essential difference between the solutions to these [4] equations?

We wish to solve the following equation 2 f f = . x 2 t (b) Verify that a solution to this equation is f ( x, t ) = 1 x 2 / 4t . e t [3]

Sketch the solution for different times t , for example t = 1, 10,100,... What does f ( x, t ) look like in the limit when t 0? (c) Suppose that the equation is modified to 2 f f f = , x 2 t t and the solution is of the form f ( x, t ) = g ( t ) 1 x2 / 4t e t Eq.1

[3] [3]

Show that the first order ordinary differential equation satisfied by g ( t ) is

dg g = , dt t

[6] [2]

Solve this differential equation and hence find the general solution to Eq. 1.

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