On a class of Robin boundary value problems in physical geodesy

Stefan Ritter

Citation: Journal of Mathematical Physics 39, 3916 (1998); doi: 10.1063/1.532475

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 JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS VOLUME 39, NUMBER 7 JULY 1998

On a class of Robin boundary value problems in physical

geodesy
Stefan Rittera)
Mathematisches Institut II, Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe, Germany
~Received 23 October 1997; accepted for publication 2 March 1998!
In physical geodesy one considers several ~exterior! Robin boundary value prob-
lems for the Laplace equation in three dimensions. The ellipsoidal Stokes problem,
which occurs in context of gravimetric determination of the geoid, belongs to this
class. Up to now, this and related problems have been treated with high order series
expansions of spherical and spheroidal harmonics. In this article we investigate the
nullfield method for this class of boundary value problems. An integral equation
formulation is achieved, and existence and uniqueness conditions are attained in
view of the Fredholm alternative. For the case that the underlying surface is a
triaxial ellipsoid or an oblate spheroid, explicit expressions for the eigenvalues and
eigenfunctions for the boundary integral operator are provided. © 1998 American
Institute of Physics. @S0022-2488~98!02707-8#

I. INTRODUCTION

The ellipsoidal Stokes problem is an exterior Robin ~third! boundary value problem ~BVP! for
the Laplace equation in three dimensions. It arises in physical geodesy as one possible form of
linearized BVP in the context of gravimetric determination of the geoid and is therefore of
considerable interest. The ellipsoidal approach to the geoid reflects the real situation much better
than the spherical approach.
Let D denote an ~open! triaxial ellipsoid with semi-axes a.b.c and boundary ] D with outer
unit normal n ~see the Appendix!. The Stokes problem is to find a solution u on ] D of

Du50, in R3 \D̄, ~1!

]u
1lpu5k, on ] D, ~2!
]n

u ~ x ! 5O S D
1
uxu
, u x u →`. ~3!

Here, lPR, p(x):5(n(x),x), xP ] D, is the distance of the tangent plane in xP ] D from the
origin, and kPC( ] D). In the mathematical literature the function p is known as the support
function of D.
The solution u has the physical meaning of the anomalous potential, i.e., the difference
between the gravity potential of the Earth and a reference gravity potential. By lp we introduce
a variety of boundary conditions. In applications, l will be determined such that lp shall be a
fairly good approximation of 2(1/g )( ] g / ] n), where g is the normal gravity. The right-hand side
k is the negative gravity anomaly.
There are several papers about this and related problems: in Ref. 1 solutions of the ellipsoidal
Stokes problem are considered in terms of an infinite series; and in Refs. 2 and 3, Zagrebin’s
problem, which differs only slightly ~in one term of the boundary condition! from our problem are
studied. All of these papers refer to oblate spheroids.
For convenience we introduce the notations

a!
Electronic mail: Stefan.Ritter@math.uni-karlsruhe.de

0022-2488/98/39(7)/3916/11/$15.00 3916 © 1998 American Institute of Physics

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 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter 3917

u ~ x ! u 6 :5 lim u ~ x1t n ~ x !!
t→06
and
]u~ x !
]n~ x !
U 6
:5 lim ~ n ~ x ! ,grad u ~ x1t n ~ x !!! ,
t→06

for xP ] D.
For l<0, the first Green theorem for the solution u of the homogeneous problem (k50)
yields

2 ER3 \D̄
u grad u ~ y ! u 2 dy5 E ]D
u~ y !u 1
]u~ y !
]n~ y !
U 1
ds ~ y ! 52l E ]D
p ~ y ! u u ~ y ! u 1 u 2 ds ~ y ! ,

and hence u5const in R3 \D̄ and with ~3! it follows u50 in R3 \D̄. Unfortunately for l.0, which
is the very interesting case in geodesy, uniqueness of u cannot be obtained.
A classical approach is to discuss a single-layer potential ansatz for ~1!, ~2!, ~3!. This leads to
an integral equation for an unknown density which is of mediate interest, and, the final solution is
obtained in an additional step by evaluating the potential on the boundary.
In this paper the nullfield method is applied. By use of suitable representation formulas for
harmonic functions, the BVP is transformed to a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind.
Since the accompanying integral operators are compact, the Fredholm alternative gives existence
and uniqueness conditions for the solution of the integral equation and for the BVP itself. In
contrast to the single-layer approach the nullfield method leads directly to an integral equation for
the required boundary values.
The plan is as follows: in Sec. II, the nullfield method is introduced and the integral equation
formulation for ~1!–~3! is derived. In Sec. III, we study the integral equation for the case of the
triaxial ellipsoid in detail and work out the consequences of Fredholm’s alternative for the case
l.0. Then we discuss the important ~degenerate! case of ] D being an oblate spheroid and we
provide plots of the eigenvalues of the boundary integral operator. We finish the paper by pre-
senting uniqueness-conditions for u.

II. THE NULLFIELD METHOD

We study the BVP ~1!–~3! by an integral equation approach using the so-called nullfield
method ~see Ref. 4!: Choose a suitable representation formula for harmonic functions in R3 \D̄ that
vanishes for xPD. Then insert the given boundary data into this formula and take it as ansatz for
the unknown boundary parameters. Assure for this ansatz the complementary nullfield condition
which leads to an integral equation. Then the equivalence of the integral equation and the BVP is
to be verified and the integral equation is to be solved.
In the first step we take the representation theorem for a function u which is ~i! continuously
differentiable in R3 \ ] D, ~ii! harmonic in R3 ø`\ ] D, and ~iii! converges uniformly to zero for
u x u →` ~see Ref. 5, p. 146!,

u ~ x ! 52
1
4p
E]D
HS ]u~ y !
]n~ y !
U 1
2
]u~ y !
]n~ y !
UD
2
1
u x2y u
2(u(y) u 1 2u(y) u 2 )
1
u x2y u
] n(y)
]
ds ~ y ! , J
xPR3 \ ] D. ~4!

Then the nullfield condition u50 in D yields u(x) u 2 50 on ] D and hence ] u/ ] n u 2 50 on ] D.

The ansatz m :5u u 1 and ~2! lead to

]u~ y !
]n~ y !
U 1
5k ~ y ! 2lp ~ y ! m ~ y ! , yP ] D, ~5!

and for u(x) in R3 \D̄ we obtain

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 3918 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter

1
]
u ~ x ! 52
1
E
4 p ]D
k ~ y ! 2lp ~ y ! m ~ y !
u x2y u
ds ~ y ! 1
1
4 p ]D
E
m~ y !
u x2y u
]n~ y !
ds ~ y ! . ~6!

By straightforward use of the continuity of single-layer potentials and the limiting relation for the
double-layer potentials ~see, e.g., Ref. 4!,

1 1
] ]
lim
1
D{x→x P ] D 4 p
0
E]D
«~ y !
u x2y u
]n~ y !
ds ~ y ! 5
1
4p
E ]D
«~ y !
u x 0 2y u
]n~ y !
1
ds ~ y ! 2 « ~ x 0 ! ,
2
~7!

for «PC( ] D), the nullfield condition u(x) u 2 50, xP ] D, leads to the Fredholm integral equation
of the second kind,

m ~ x ! 2A8 m ~ x ! 52Sk ~ x ! , xP ] D, ~8!

with the integral operator

1
]
A8 m ~ x ! :5
1
E
2 p ]D
m~ y !
u x2y u
]n~ y !
ds ~ y ! 1l
1
2p
E p~ y !m~ y !
] D u x2y u
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D, ~9!

and the single-layer potential operator,

Sk ~ x ! :5
1
2p
E k~ y !
] D u x2y u
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D, ~10!

for m ,kPC( ] D). Conversely, by subsequent use of the limiting properties of single-layer and
double-layer potentials ~see, e.g., Ref. 4! we see that u from ~6! with m from ~8! is a solution of
the boundary value problem.
The nullfield condition u50 in D, or, equivalently, u50 on ] D may seem artificial because
it prescribes u in D which is the complementary domain of the boundary value problem. But, due
to the representation formula, this is not a restriction for u in the domain of our interest. On the
other hand this condition yields an integral equation of second kind for u u 1 in a direct way.
Integral equation ~8! can be solved numerically in various ways, e.g., by boundary element
techniques such as Galerkin- and collocation methods. Spectral methods are also appropriate
because we obtain a complete system of eigenfunctions of the integral operators A8 and S.
In what follows we investigate the theory of ~8!, i.e., we study solvability and give uniqueness
conditions for its solutions.
First we note that A8 is a linear combination of two classical potential operators, namely the
adjoint electrostatic operator,

1
]
K8 m ~ x ! :5
1
2p
E ]D
m~ y !
u x2y u
]n~ y !
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D, ~11!

and the single-layer operator,

T8 m ~ x ! :5
1
2p
E p~ y !m~ y !
] D u x2y u
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D, ~12!

say

A8 m 5K8 m 1lT8 m . ~13!

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 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter 3919

Both K8 and T8 are well known to be compact in the Banach space C( ] D) of continuous complex
valued functions on ] D equipped with the maximum norm. Hence A8 is compact in C( ] D). For
kPC( ] D) we have that Sk is continuous on ] D and therefore the right-hand side of ~8! is
continuous.
Let ^ C( ] D),C( ] D) & denote the dual system corresponding to the nondegenerate bilinear
form

^ u, v & :5 E ]D
u ~ y !v~ y ! ds ~ y ! . ~14!

By interchanging the order of integration, it is readily seen that the adjoint A of A8 with respect
to ~14! is given by

Am 5Km 1lTm , ~15!

where K is the electrostatic integral operator and T is a single-layer operator, given by

1
]
Km ~ x ! :5
1
2p
E]D
m~ y !
u x2y u
]n~ x !
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D, ~16!

Tm ~ x ! :5
1
2p
p~ x ! E m~ y !
] D u x2y u
ds ~ y ! , xP ] D. ~17!

Hence, ^ Am ,« & 5 ^ m ,A8 « & , for m ,«PC( ] D).

Because of the Fredholm alternative we have to study the homogeneous adjoint equation

m 2Am 50, m PC ~ ] D ! . ~18!

If ~18! has only the trivial solution m 50, then ~8! is uniquely solvable for arbitrary kPC( ] D). If
there exist nontrivial solutions m 1 , m 2 , . . . , m n of ~18!, integral equation ~8! is solvable for k that
satisfies

^ 2Sk, m j & 50, j51,2, . . . ,n. ~19!

In this case the solution of ~8! is given as sum of a special ~inhomogeneous! solution and an
arbitrary linear combination of m 1 , m 2 , . . . , m n .

III. THE STOKES INTEGRAL OPERATOR FOR THE TRIAXIAL ELLIPSOID

Now we study the homogeneous equation ~18! for the case of ] D being a triaxial ellipsoid
with semi-axes a.b.c. We derive both eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of A in terms of Lamé
functions and surface ellipsoidal harmonics.
In ellipsoidal coordinates ( r , m , n ) ~see the Appendix!, ] D is given as parametric surface r50.
From Ref. 6, we have the following result.
The functions p(x)Mm n (x), xP ] D, with p(x)5(n(x),x) and Mn from ~A9! are eigenfunc-
m

tions of K with eigenvalues

2abc m
km
n :5 @ L # 8~ 0 ! K m
n ~ 0 ! 21, ~20!
2n11 n

say

n ! 5k n pMn ,
K~ pMm ~21!
m m

for nPN, m50,...,2n. Note that each k m n has multiplicity one.

Again, by Ref. 6, it is seen that the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of K8 are given by

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 3920 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter

K8 ~ M m
n ! 5k n Mn ,
m m
~22!

for nPN, m50,...,2n, and k m n from ~20!. From the completeness of the Mn in L ( ] D), it follows
m 2

that there are no other eigenfunctions of K8 and K in C( ] D).

For T from ~17! we have the following.
Lemma 1: The functions pMm n are eigenfunctions of T,

n ! 5t n pMn ,
T~ pMm ~23!
m m

with eigenvalues

abc m
tm
n :5 n ~ 0 !5
L ~ 0 !Km ” 0, ~24!
2n11 n

for nPN, m50,...,2n.

Proof: For given n,m consider

u ~ r , m , n ! :5 H u o ~ r , m , n ! 5L m
n ~ 0 ! Kn ~ r , m , n ! ,

u i ~ r , m , n ! 5K m
n ~0!
m

n ~ r,m,n !,
Lm
r <0,
r .0,

with Kmn ,Ln from ~A5!, ~A7! which is continuous in R and harmonic in R \ ] D. Therefore u can
m 3 3

be written as a single-layer potential,

u~ x !5
1
4p
E s~ y !
] D u x2y u
ds ~ y ! , xPR3 ,

with s PC( ] D). From the jump relation for the normal derivative of u on ] D, we obtain by use
of ~A4!

] u o~ x ! ] u i~ x !
2s~ x !5 2 n ~ m , n !~ L n ~ 0 !@ K n # 8 ~ 0 ! 2K n ~ 0 !@ L n # 8 ~ 0 !! ,
52p ~ 0,m , n ! Mm m m m m
]n~ x ! ]n~ x !

with x5x(0,m , n ). From the Wronskian

2n11
n ~ 0 !@ K n # 8 ~ 0 ! 2K n ~ 0 !@ L n # 8 ~ 0 ! 52
Lm m m m
,
abc

we conclude

p ~ 0,m , n ! m
s ~ m , n ! 52 ~ 2n11 ! Mn ~ m , n ! .
abc

Regarding the definition of T ~17!, the assertion follows immediately. From ~A8! we see that
n Þ0 for all n,m.
tm h
As a consequence of Lemma 1 we observe that the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of T8 are
given by

T8 ~ Mm
n ! 5t n Mn ,
m m
~25!

n from ~24!.
for nPN, m50, . . . ,2n, and t m
A combination of the above results yields the spectrum of both A and A8 .
Theorem 1: Let lPR. The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of A5K1lT and of A8 5K8
1lT8 for the triaxial ellipsoid ] D: r 50 are given by

n ! 5a n pMn ,
A~ pMm ~26!
m m

and

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 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter 3921

A8 ~ Mm
n ! 5a n Mn ,
m m
~27!

with

2abc m abc m
n 5k n 1lt n 5
am m m
@ L n # 8~ 0 ! K m
n ~ 0 ! 211l L ~ 0 !Km
n ~ 0 !, ~28!
2n11 2n11 n

for nPN, m50, . . . ,2n.

Now we discuss the consequences of Theorem 1 for the homogeneous adjoint integral equation
~18!. The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of I2A are given by

n ! 5 ~ 12a n ! pMn ,
~ I2A!~ pMm ~29!
m m

for nPN, m50, . . . ,2n.

In order to guarantee solvability of ~8! in view of Fredholm’s alternative, l has either to be
such that
n5
~i! a m ” 1 for all n,m,
or
~ii! there are some n,m with a m
n 51. For those n,m, the right-hand side of ~8! has to be such
that

^ Sk,pMmn & 50. ~30!

By use of Fubini’s theorem and Lemma 1 @note that Sk5(1/p)Tk], this reads as

^ Sk, pMmn & 5 E

]D
k~ y !
1
2p
E]D
p ~ x ! Mm
n ~x!
u x2y u
ds ~ x ! ds ~ y ! 5t m
n E
]D
k ~ y ! Mm
n ~ y ! ds ~ y ! ,

n5
and because of t m ” 0 this is equivalent to

^ k,Mmn & 50. ~31!

A very important ~degenerate! case of the above analysis is that of D being an oblate spheroid
since the Earth’s surface can be approximated by a suitable spheroid.
In oblate spheroidal coordinates ( j , h , f ) with parameter d.0 ~see the Appendix!, ] D is
given as parametric surface j 5 j 0 .0.
For the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of K and K8 we have

K~ pY6m m 6m
n ! 5k n pYn and K8 ~ Y6m 6m
n ! 5k n Yn ,
m
~32!

with eigenvalues

~ n2m ! ! 2
n :52122 ~ 21 !
km n ~ i j 0 !@ P n # 8 ~ i j 0 ! ,
~ j 11 ! Q m ~33!
m m
~ n1m ! ! 0

for nPN, m50,...,n ~see Ahner Refs. 7 and 6!. The Ym n ( h , f ) are the surface spherical harmonics
from ~A16! and p( j 0 , h ) is given by ~A12!. Analogously, we obtain

T~ pY6m m 6m
n ! 5t n pYn and T8 ~ Y6m 6m
n ! 5t n Yn
m
~34!

with eigenvalues

~ n2m ! ! id 2
n :5 ~ 21 !
tm m
j ~ j 2 11 ! Q mn ~ i j 0 ! P mn ~ i j 0 ! . ~35!
~ n1m ! ! 2 0 0

Note that k 0n ,t 0n have multiplicity one while k m m

n ,t n , m.0, have multiplicity two.
Hence

A~ pY6m m 6m
n ! 5a n pYn and A8 ~ Y6m 6m
n ! 5a n Yn ,
m
~36!

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 3922 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter

with

n 5k n 1lt n
am m m

5211 ~ 21 ! m
~ n2m ! ! 2
~ n1m ! !
~ j 0 11 ! Q m
n ~ i j 0 ! i
2 H
ld 2 j 0 m
n # 8~ i j 0 ! ,
P n ~ i j 0 ! 22 @ P m J ~37!

for nPN, m50,...,n.

The eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of I2A are given by

~ I2A!~ pY6m 6m
n ! 5 ~ 12a n ! pYn ,
m
~38!

for nPN, m50,...,n.

The condition for l and k in view of solvability of ~8! is the following: l has either to be
such that
~i! a m
n5” 1 for all n,m, i.e.,

l5
”2
2i
d j0
2 H 2 ~ 21 ! m
~ n1m ! ! 1
~ n2m ! ! ~ j 20 11 ! Q m
n ~ij0!
n # 8~ i j 0 ! ,
12 @ P m J ~39!

or
n 51. For those n,m, the right-hand side 2Sk has to be such
~ii! there are some n,m with a m
that

^ Sk,pY6m
n & 50. ~40!

This reads as

^ Sk, pY6m
n &5 E ]D
k~ y !
2
1
p
E ]D
p ~ x ! Y6m
n ~x!
u x2y u
ds ~ x ! ds ~ y ! 5t m
n E
]D
k ~ y ! Y6m
n ~ y ! ds ~ y ! ,

n5
and because of t m ” 0 it is equivalent to

^ k,Y6m
n & 50. ~41!

IV. APPLICATION

The classical ellipsoidal Stokes problem which occurs in geoid height determination is BVP
~1!–~3! for an oblate spheroid with

8
l5 . ~42!
d 2 j 20

In the geodetic literature ~see, e.g., Ref. 1! the boundary condition ~2! is often written in the form

]u 2
~ x ! 1 u ~ x ! 52 f ~ x ! , xP ] D, ~43!
]j j0

with

d 2j 0 k~ x !
f ~ x ! 52 , xP ] D. ~44!
4 p~ x !

The eigenvalues of the integral operator I2A are given by

n 521 ~ 21 !
12a m m11
~ n2m ! ! 2
~ j 11 ! Q m
~ n1m ! ! 0 n ~ij0!
4i m
H n # 8~ i j 0 ! .
P ~ i j ! 22 @ P m
j0 n 0 J
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 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter 3923

FIG. 1. Eigenvalues of I2A for n51 ~dashed! and n52,3,4.

Figure 1 depicts some eigenvalues 12a m n . In view of the Stokes problem for a spheroid close to
the Earth’s surface we are interested in the behavior of the eigenvalues for 4/3, j 0 ,`, i.e., for the
axes-ratios 0,8,b/a,1.
For the case 12a mn 50 for some n,m, the right-hand side f of ~43!, in view of ~35!, has to be
such that

K 2
4
d 2j 0
nL
p f ,Y6m 52
4
d 2j 0
E ]D
p ~ y ! f ~ y ! Y6m
n ~ y ! ds ~ y !

52
d ~ j 20 11 !
2
E E
0
2p 1

21
f ~ h , f ! Y6m
n ~ h,f !dh df

d ~ j 20 11 !
52 ^ f ,Y6m
n & S 2 50;
2

hence the solvability condition is

^ f ,Y6m
n & S 2 50. ~45!

Here ^ •,• & S 2 denotes the usual inner product in L 2 (S 2 ) for the unit sphere S 2 . As indicated in Fig.
1, 12a mn 50 may be true for spheroids with axes-ratio b/a,0.8 for n>2, and in fact is true for
the sphere for n51.
In addition, the condition

u~ x !5
c
uxu
1O
1
S D
uxu3
, u x u →`, ~46!

with arbitrary cPR is imposed. This effect is that f has to satisfy

^ f ,Y1j & S 2 50, j521,0,1, ~47!

in order to guarantee solvability of the integral equation for m .

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 3924 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter

V. CONCLUSIONS
An integral equation formulation for the ellipsoidal Stokes problem has been achieved by the
nullfield method. From explicit expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for (I2A8 ) in
the case of the oblate spheroid we have seen that, apart from ~47!, further assumptions ~45! for the
inhomogeneity have possibly to be imposed for the case that the axes-ratio is less than 0,8 in order
to attain uniqueness of the solution and hence well-posedness of the problem. The results are in
agreement with the numerical treatment presented in Ref. 1. Further work to be done is the
numerical treatment of integral equation ~8! for which the foundation has been presented. This can
be done either by boundary element techniques such as Galerkin schemes or collocation methods.
An alternative approach are spectral methods which are applicable for this problem since we have
a complete set of eigenfunctions for the boundary integral operator.

APPENDIX: ELLIPSOIDAL AND OBLATE SPHEROIDAL COORDINATES

1. Ellipsoidal coordinates and Lamé-functions

The equation of a triaxial ellipsoid D with semi-axes a.b.c is given by

x 21 x 22 x 23
D : 2
1 2
1 <1. ~A1!
a b c2

The ellipsoidal coordinates of x(x 1 ,x 2 ,x 3 ) are defined as the three roots r, m, n of the cubic
equation in u ,

x 21 x 22 x 23
1 1 51, ~A2!
a 21 u b 21 u c 21 u

for fixed values of x 1 , x 2 , x 3 , where

r P @ 2c 2 ,` ! , m P @ 2b 2 ,2c 2 # , n P @ 2a 2 ,2b 2 # . ~A3!

The three families of surfaces r 5const ~ellipsoids!, m 5const ~hyperboloids of one sheet! and n
5const ~hyperboloids of two sheets! form a triply-orthogonal coordinate system in R3 . ] D is
given by r 50, points with r ,0 lie in D, those with r .0 lie in R3 \D. For a differentiable
function u, the normal derivative on ] D is given by

] u ~ 0,m , n !
]n~ m,n !
52 p ~ 0,m , n !
]u~ r,m,n !
]r
U r 50
, p ~ 0,m , n ! 5
abc
Am n
, ~A4!

with the support function p(x):5(n(x),x), xP ] D of the ellipsoid.

The interior ellipsoidal harmonics of order nPN are defined by

n ~ r , m , n ! :5L n ~ r ! L n ~ m ! L n ~ n ! , m50, . . . ,2n,

Lm ~A5!
m m m

with the Lamé-functions of the first kind L m m

n . In Cartesian coordinates the Ln turn out as harmonic
polynomials of order n.
n ( r ), the corresponding function of the second kind is given by
For L m

n ~ r ! :5 ~ 2n11 ! L n ~ r !
Km m
E ` dr8
r @ L n ~ r 8 !# 2 D ~ r 8 !
m
, r .2c 2 , ~A6!

with

D ~ r ! :5 A~ r 1a 2 !~ r 1b 2 !~ r 1c 2 ! .

The second kind Lamé-functions generate the exterior ellipsoidal harmonics of order n,

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 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter 3925

n ~ r , m , n ! :5K n ~ r ! L n ~ m ! L n ~ n ! ,
Km ~A7!
m m m
m50, . . . ,2n,

which are regular at infinity.

A Theorem due to Stieltjes implies that the zeros of L m
n (l) are simple and contained in
(2a 2 ,2c 2 ) ~see Ref. 8!. Hence we have

n ~ 0 !Kn ~ 0 !5
Lm ~A8!
m
” 0, nPN, m50, . . . ,2n.

The system of ellipsoidal surface harmonics of order nPN, defined by

n ~ m , n ! :5L n ~ m ! L n ~ n ! ,
Mm ~A9!
m m
m50, . . . ,2n,

forms a complete orthogonal system in L 2 ( ] D).

2. Oblate spheroidal coordinates

For the oblate spheroid D with semi-axes a.b we introduce the system of oblate spheroidal
coordinates ( j , h , f ) by

d
x 1 5 @~ j 2 11 !~ 12 h 2 !# 1/2 cos f ,
2

d
x 2 5 @~ j 2 11 !~ 12 h 2 !# 1/2 sin f , ~A10!
2

d
x 35 j h ,
2

with j P @ 0,`), h P @ 21,1# , f P @ 0,2p # and parameter d.0. The surfaces j 5constant.0 repre-
sent oblate spheroids with semi-axes a5(d/2)( j 2 11) 1/2, b5(d/2) j . The degenerate case j 50
corresponds to the circular disk of radius r5d/2 which lies in the x 1 /x 2 -plane and is centered at
the origin. Hence ] D is given by

j 5 j 05 S D
a2
b2
21
21/2

. ~A11!

For p(x)5(n(x),x) we have

d j 2 11
p~ j,h !5 j 2
2 j 1h2 S D 1/2

. ~A12!

The normal derivative of a differentiable function u on j 5const is given by

]u 4 ]u
5 2 p~ j,h ! , ~A13!
]n d j ]j

and for the surface element on j 5const we have

ds5 SDd
2
3
j ~ j 2 11 !
1
p~ j,h !
dh df. ~A14!

The interior and exterior spheroidal harmonics are defined by

n ~ j , h , f ! 5 P n ~ i j ! Yn ~ h , f !
Pm n ~ j , h , f ! 5Q n ~ i j ! Yn ~ h , f ! , ~A15!
m m
and Qm m m

where

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 3926 J. Math. Phys., Vol. 39, No. 7, July 1998 Stefan Ritter

umu im f
n ~ h,f !5 Pn ~ h ! e
Ym ~A16!

denote the surface spherical harmonics of order n and degree m,nPN, m52n, . . . ,n. They form
a complete orthogonal system in the Hilbert space L 2 ( ] D) with inner product

~ u, v ! 5 E
]D
p ~ y ! u ~ y !v~ y ! ds ~ y ! . ~A17!

1
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Geoph. Geod. 41, 103–129 ~1997!.
2
J. Otero and J. Capdevila, ‘‘A series solution for Zagrebin’s problem,’’ in Geodetic Theory Today, Int. Assoc. of
Geodesy Symposia, Symposium No. 114, edited by F. Sanso ~Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995!, pp. 280–293.
3
J. Otero, ‘‘A uniqueness theorem for a Robin boundary value problem of physical geodesy,’’ Quart. Appl. Math. ~to
appear!.
4
D. Colton and R. Kress, Integral Equation Methods in Scattering Theory ~Wiley, New York, 1983!.
5
E. Martensen, Potentialtheorie ~Teubner, Stuttgart, 1968!.
6
S. Ritter, ‘‘The spectrum of the electrostatic integral operator for an ellipsoid,’’ in Inverse Scattering and Potential
Problems in Mathematical Physics, Methoden und Verfahren der Mathematischen Physik 40, edited by R. Kleinman, R.
Kress, and E. Martensen ~Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M./Bern, 1994!, pp. 157–167.
7
J. F. Ahner, ‘‘On the eigenvalues of the electrostatic integral operator II,’’ J. Math. Anal. Appl. 181, 328–334 ~1994!.
8
E. W. Hobson, The Theory of Spherical and Ellipsoidal Harmonics ~Chelsea, New York, 1955!.

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