PH2130C/36

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College 2001

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
BSc and MSci EXAMINATION 2001
For Internal Students of
Royal Holloway
DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL TOLD TO BEGIN
PH2130C: MATHEMATICAL METHODS
Time Allowed: TWO hours
Answer QUESTION ONE 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 ARE permitted
GENERAL PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
Permeability of vacuum
0
= 4 10
-7
H m
-1
Permittivity of vacuum
0
= 8.85 10
-12
F m
-1
1/4
0
= 9.0 10
9
m F
-1
Speed of light in vacuum c = 3.00 10
8
m s
-1
Elementary charge e = 1.60 10
-19
C
Electron (rest) mass m
e
= 9.11 10
-31
kg
Unified atomic mass constant m
u
= 1.66 10
-27
kg
Proton rest mass m
p
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Neutron rest mass m
n
= 1.67 10
-27
kg
Ratio of electronic charge to mass e/m
e
= 1.76 10
11
C kg
-1
Planck constant h = 6.63 10
-34
J s
h = h/2
= 1.05 10
-34
J s
Boltzmann constant k = 1.38 10
-23
J K
-1
Stefan-Boltzmann constant

= 5.67 10
-8
W m
-2
K
-4
Gas constant R = 8.31 J mol
-1
K
-1
Avogadro constant N
A
= 6.02 10
23
mol
-1
Gravitational constant G = 6.67 10
-11
N m
2
kg
-2
Acceleration due to gravity g = 9.81 m s
-2
Volume of one mole of an ideal gas at STP = 2.24 10
-2
m
3
One standard atmosphere P
0
= 1.01 10
5
N m
-2
MATHEMATICAL CONSTANTS
e 2.718 3.142 log
e
10 2.303
page 1 PH2130C
PART
MARKS
TURN OVER
ANSWER ONLY FIVE sections of Question One.
You are advised not to spend more than 40 minutes answering Question One.
1. (a) Explain the terms order, degree, linear, nonlinear, homogeneous, and
inhomogeneous as applied to differential equations. When does the
principle of superposition apply to differential equations? [4]
(b)
Eulers Gamma function ( ) x obeys the recurrence relation
( ) ( ) 1 x x x + ,
and it has the special value ( ) 1 1 . Write down the value of the function
for 1, 2, 3, 4 x . What is the connection between this function and the
factorial function? Comment on the behaviour of ( ) x for negative
integer arguments. [4]
(c)
Given that the Fourier transform of the function ( ) F t is defined as
( ) ( )
i
d
t
f F t e t

show, using integration by parts or otherwise, that the Fourier transform

of the derivative ( ) d d F t t is given by ( ) i f . Comment on any
requirements on the boundary conditions of ( ) F t .
[4]
(d)
The Laplacian operator
2
often appears in differential equations
representing physical systems. Write down the form this operator takes in
rectangular Cartesian coordinates and explain briefly the physical
information that
2
gives about a scalar field. [4]
(e) Give a definition of the Kronecker delta function
ij
. Explain the reason
for the result
j i ij
i
a a

.
[4]
(f) When using the method of separation of variables to solve partial
differential equations in cylindrical or spherical polar coordinates the
azimuthal function ( ) is often written as a complex exponential
in
e

.
Explain clearly the reason for requiring n to take integral values. [4]
page 2 PH2130C
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2. A wire of length L is held under tension with its ends fixed. The
transverse displacement ( ) , x t obeys the equation
2 2
2 2 2
1
0
x v t



.
(a) What is the parameter v in this equation? [3]
(b)
What are the boundary conditions imposed upon ( ) , x t ?
[3]
(c) Use the method of separation of variables to show that the general
solution can be written as
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) { }
, sin cos sin
n n n n n
n
x t k x P k vt Q k vt +

[7]
and explain the meaning of k
n
.
(d)
Show how the initial shape and transverse speed, ( ) ,0 x and ( ) ,0 x
&
,
are determined by the coefficients P
n
and Q
n
. [4]
(e) Describe, in principle, how the coefficients P
n
and Q
n
may be determined
from knowledge of the initial conditions ( ) ,0 x and ( ) ,0 x
&
.
[3]
page 3 PH2130C
PART
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3. The second order Cauchy-Euler differential equation has the form
2
2
2
d d
0
d d
y y
x ax bx
x x
+ +
where a and b are constants.
(a)
Show that solutions of this equation are of the form y x

.
[4]
(b) Show that the exponent has the two possible values
( ) ( )
2
1 1 4
2
a a b

t
.
[4]
(c) The following differential equation arises when solving the Laplace
equation in spherical coordinates:
( )
( ) ( )
2
d d
1 0
d d
R r
r l l R r
r r
_
+

,
.
Demonstrate that this equation is of the Cauchy-Euler form and show that
in this case the exponent takes the values l and ( ) 1 l + .
[7]
(d) Comment on the possible attempt to find solutions to the Cauchy-Euler
equation using a power series expansion. [5]
page 4 PH2130C
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4. The Schrdinger equation for a simple harmonic oscillator may be
written, in terms of a dimensionless length variable y as
( )
( ) ( )
2
2
2
d
0
d
y
y y
y

+
where is a constant. The conventional method of solution is to make the
substitution ( ) ( )
2
/ 2 y
y f y e

, giving the equation
( )
2
2
d d
2 1 0
d d
f f
y f
y y
+ .
(a) What is the reason for making this substitution? [4]
(b) Using the simple series method of solution with
( )
0
l
l
l
f y a y

show that the coefficients a

l
obey the recurrence relation
( )( )
2
2 1
1 2
l l
l
a a
l l

+
+

+ +
.
[6]
(c) Explain clearly the reasons why one might require the series to terminate,
as a polynomial. [4]
(d) Discuss the conditions under which the series will terminate and show
how this restricts the allowed value of the parameter . [6]
page 5 PH2130C
PART
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END BPC
5. The sine and cosine functions satisfy the following integral relations:
mn
L
L
L x x
L
m
x
L
n

,
_

,
_

d cos cos
mn
L
L
L x x
L
m
x
L
n

,
_

,
_

d sin sin
0 d sin cos

,
_

,
_

L
L
x x
L
m
x
L
n
where

mn
m n
m n


1
0
when
when
and the case m n 0 is specifically excluded.
(a) The function f(x) may be expressed as the Fourier series
( )

'

,
_

,
_

x
L
m
b x
L
m
a
a
x f
m m
m
sin cos
2
1
0
over the interval L x L . Show how the above integral relations
allow the coefficients a
m
, b
m
to be found (for nonzero m) as:

,
_

L
L
n
dx x
L
n
x f
L
a cos ) (
1

,
_

L
L
n
dx x
L
n
x f
L
b sin ) (
1
[6]
(b)
Sketch the triangular function ( ) f x specified by
( ) 1 , 0
1 , 0 .
x
f x L x
L
x
x L
L
+

[2]
(c)
Obtain an expression for the Fourier components of ( ) f x .
[4]
(d) You should find that the b
n
vanish; explain this. [2]
(e) Sketch the Fourier approximation as more terms are added to the series. [3]
(f) The coefficient a
0
has a finite value in this case. Explain under what
circumstances this coefficient vanishes. [3]