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Electrostatics Green's Function

The document summarizes the derivation of the general, free-space Green's function for two dimensional electrostatics. It begins by defining the integral to be evaluated and introduces the variables ρ and ζ. The integral is evaluated using trigonometric substitution, yielding a function of ρ. It is then shown that the Green's function can be expressed as a Fourier series in the azimuthal coordinate φ. Finally, the explicit form of the Green's function is determined by considering the behavior of the radial Green's functions gm(ρ,ρ') and determining the coefficients.

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166 views2 pages

Electrostatics Green's Function

The document summarizes the derivation of the general, free-space Green's function for two dimensional electrostatics. It begins by defining the integral to be evaluated and introduces the variables ρ and ζ. The integral is evaluated using trigonometric substitution, yielding a function of ρ. It is then shown that the Green's function can be expressed as a Fourier series in the azimuthal coordinate φ. Finally, the explicit form of the Green's function is determined by considering the behavior of the radial Green's functions gm(ρ,ρ') and determining the coefficients.

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2 JACOB LEWIS BOURJAILY

2.17 a) We are to construct a the general, free-space Greens function for two dimensional electrostatics
by integrating 1/R with respect to (z z

) between the limits Z where |Z| 1. We may


neglect constant terms that do not depend on the planar coordinates.
Let us dene the variable
_
(x x

)
2
+ (y y

)
2
_
1/2
. We are to determine the
general, electrostatic Greens function by performing the integration
G(,

)
_
Z
Z
d
(
2
+
2
)
1/2
,
in the limit where Z is large.
The above integral is easily evaluated using the method of trigonometric substitution,
_
Z
Z
d
(
2
+
2
)
1/2
= 2 arcsinh
_
Z

_
.
Notice that this implies that arcsinh(Z/) = /2. If we take the hyperbolic sine of
both sides, we obtain
1
2
_
e
/2
e
/2
_
= Z/.
Because we are assuming that Z , we may set e
/2
0, at least to leading
order in /Z. Therefore, we see
e
/2
2Z/,
which implies that
2 log 2 + 2 log Z 2 log log
2
.
Therefore, up to constants independent on the planar coordinates, we have shown that
G(,

) = log
2
= log
_
(x x

)
2
+ (y y

)
2

= log
_

2
+
2
2

cos(

o


b) We are to show explicitly that the Greens function can be expressed as a Fourier series in the
azimuthal coordinate,
G(,

) =
1
2

m=
e
im(

)
g
m
(,

),
where the radial Greens functions satisfy
_
1

m
2

2
_
g
m
=
2
g
m
= 4
(

.
Let us show that the Greens function G(,

) given above is in fact a Greens function.


This can be demonstrated by the following, mindless calculation

2
G(,

) =
1
2

m=
e
im(

)
g
m
(,

),
=
1
2

m=
e
im(

2
g
m
(,

),
= 2
(

m=
e
im(

)
,
= 4
(

)(

.
This is precisely the form desired for a general Greens function in polar coordinates
because
_

2
G(,

)dd

=
_

_
4
(

)(

_
dd

= 4.
Therefore, the Greens function can be expressed as a Fourier series in the azimuthal
coordinate.
PHYSICS 505: CLASSICAL ELECTRODYNAMICS HOMEWORK 3 3
c) We are to complete the expression above to determine an explicit form of the free-space Greens
function in polar coordinates.
We will use the notation
+
(

) to be the larger (smaller) of and

.
Noting that when =

, g
m
is a solution to the Laplace equation, we immediately see
that it is given by
g
m
(,

) =
_

m

<

>
,
where the coecients
m
and
m
will be set by continuity and derivative conditions.
Because when =

the two functions must agree, we have

m
=
m

m
,

m
=
m

m
, and
m
=
m

m
.
Using our notation described above, we see that
g
m
(,

) =
m
_

+
_
m
.
To nd the value of
m
, we simply note that when =

, there is a discontinuity in the


derivative of g
m
which is characterized by the d-function. Specically, we have that

=
dg
m
d

dg
m
d

=
,
= 2m

,

m
=
2
m
.
Let us briey describe the g
0
function. In Jackson, we have shown that this term
will be of the form
0
log(

) =
0
log(
+
). To determine the unknown coecient,
we note that the discontinuity in the derivative of g
m
requires that

=

0

,
and so we see that
0
= 4.
Therefore, we can see that in general,
G(,

) = log(
2
+
) +

m(=0)=
1
|m|
_

+
_
|m|
e
im(

)
,
= log(
2
+
) +
1

m=

1
m
_

+
_
m
e
im(

)
+

m=1
1
m
_

+
_
m
e
im(

)
,
= log(
2
+
) +

m=1
1
m
_

+
_
m
e
im(

)
+

m=1
1
m
_

+
_
m
e
im(

)
,
= log(
2
+
) + 2

m=1
1
m
_

+
_
m
cos [m(

)] .
G(,

) = log(
2
+
) + 2

m=1
1
m
_

+
_
m
cos [m(

)] .

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