Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lect 20b
Lect 20b
Multipole expansions
Electric multipoles and their moments
• Monopole and dipole, in detail
• Quadrupole, octupole, …
Example use of multipole expansion as approximate
solution to potential from a charge distribution (Griffiths
problem 3.26)
-q q
q q -q q -q
q q -q
-q -q q -q q
1 1
2 2
1 r′ r′ 3 r′ r′
= 1 − − 2 cosθ + − 2 cosθ
r r 2 rr 8 r r
3 3 2
5 r′ r′ r ′ 2 r′
− − 2 cosθ + … = + 4 cos θ − 4 cosθ
16 r r r r
1
2 2 3 4
r′ 1 r′ 3 r′ 3 r ′ 3 r ′
= 1 + cosθ − + cos 2 θ − cosθ +
r r 2 r 2 r 2 r 8 r
5 r′
3 r ′ 3 4r ′ 2 r′
2
r′
3
− + cos θ − 4 cosθ
16 r r r r r
′ 2
r′
r
3 2
−2 cosθ − 8 cos θ + 8 cos θ + …
r r
r ′
5
3
3 3
+ cos θ − cos θ + …
r 2 2
1
2
r′ r′
= P0 ( cos θ ) + P1 ( cosθ ) + P2 ( cosθ )
r r r
′
r
3
+ P3 ( cosθ ) + …
r
21 October 2002 Physics 217, Fall 2002 7
Multipole expansions (continued)
∞ n
1 1 r′
Thus, =
r r n=0 r
∑
Pn ( cos θ )
1 ∞
n
r′
V (r ) =
r n=0
∑∫
ρ ( r ) Pn ( cosθ ) dτ ′
′
r
V
1 1
= ρ ( r ′ ) dτ ′ + 2
∫ ∫ ρ ( r ′) r ′ cosθ dτ ′ Monopole, Dipole
r r
V V
1 3 1
+ 3 ρ ( r ′ ) r cos θ − dτ ′
∫ ′2 2 Quadrupole
r V 2 2
1 35 3 ′
+ 4 ∫
ρ ( )
r ′ r ′ cos 3
θ − cos θ dτ + … Octupole
r V 2 2
21 October 2002 Physics 217, Fall 2002 8
Electric multipoles
kR π R 4
R 4
kπ R 2 5
= ( 2π ) − − = ≠0
2 8 3 2 48
21 October 2002 Physics 217, Fall 2002 16
Example (continued)