Lecture3.

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Lecture 3 General solution of Poisson's equation

In electrostatics Poisson's equation is the differential form of Gauss's law where eo = 8.85 10-12 F m HC2 Nm2 ) is the permittivity of free space, fHrL is the electrostatic potential (volts), rHrL the charge density (Coulombs per cubic meter) and boundary conditions are given on some closed surface S. In Newtonian mechanics: 2 f = 4 p G r As we found for Laplace's equation, also for Poisson's equation the solution exist and is unique for Dirichlet and mixed boundary condi` tions, while for the von Neumann conditions, n f S = - Eo HrL, the solution is unique only up to an additive constant, meaning that if f is a solution, then f + C is also a solution (and of course it satisfies the same von Neuman boundary conditions). Futhermore, the solution exist only if Gauss's law is satisfied. In other words, if we write Poisson's equation in integral form, we obtain a condition for the gradient of the potential in the direction perpendicular to the surface S (Gauss's law), hence a constraint for the von Neuman boundary condition: 2 f = - r eo

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` 2 S n f r = - Qenc eo

where Qenc = V r 3 r is the charge enclosed by the surface S. As we have done for the heat and wave equations in 1D, we first put Poisson's equation in standard form: r eo fHrL = DfHrL + uHrL 2 Df = -

where uHrL matches the boundary conditions and r = r + eo 2 u.

so now we have a new Poisson's PDE for Df with homogeneous boundary conditions of the same type as the original inhomogeneous ones. Since u(r) is arbitrary it is convenient to choose a simple function. If the inhomogeneous boundary conditions vary rapidly, it would be better to choose u(r) to satisfy Laplace's equation, 2 u = 0, however, this is quite convenient if r = 0, because then we solve Laplace equation only once, otherwise we need to solve Laplace's equation for u(r) and then also Poisson's equation. For the 1D heat and wave equations we expanded the solution in eigenmodes of the spatial operator and then used the Green function to derive a particular solution of the ODE for the generalized Fourier coefficients. Here we instead expand the Green function directly. That makes it easier to deal with the source term. The Green's function of the standard form is:

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r 2 gHr, ro L = dHr - ro L with the same homogeneous boundary conditions for g as for Df. The 3D d-function is dHr - ro L = dHx - xo L dHy - yo L dHz - zo L

The Green's function is therefore the potential at position r produced by a charge - eo at position ro . If we only specify that the potential is zero at infinity, we already know that the Green's function must be the 1/r Coulomb potential:
1 gHr, ro L = - 4 pr-r
o

But in general the Green's function is not this simple, because, even if the boundary conditions are homogeneous (like for the potential in the standard form) they may be specified on a finite surface of some shape. Once the Green's function is determined, then:
1 DfHrL = - gHr, ro L r Hro L 3 ro eo V

We have never seen this in 3D, but you can easily verify this: r 2 DfHrL =
r HrL 3 3 2 1 1 g H r , r L r H r L r = d H r r L r H r L r = - r o o o o o o eo V eo V eo

and since g satisfies homogeneous boundary conditions so does Df.

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The above solution for Df based on the Green's function is the integral of all contributions of the charge distribution r from all points within the volume V. For a discrete charge distribution:
N ej r HrL = N e d H r r L Df H r L = gHr, r j L j j j =1 j =1 eo

So now we are left with the problem of finding the Greens function. We will use a generalized Fourier series, like we did for the standard form of the wave and heat equations in 1D. Of course we will use eigenmodes of the Laplacian operator for the expansion.

Expansion of g and f in Eigenmodes of the Laplacian Operator

The eigenvalue problem is: 2 ya HrL = la ya HrL

called the Helmholtz equation, with homogeneous boundary conditions. We then define the inner product: Hf , gL = V f * HrL gHrL 3 r

and we can show that the Laplacian operator is Hermitian with respect to this inner product and to functions that satisfy homogeneous boundary conditions.

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PROOF:

Hf , 2 gL = V f * HrL 2 gHrL 3 r Remember the Greens theorem: ` 2 2 2 3 V @f HrL gHrL - gHrL f HrLD r =S @f HrL gHrL - gHrL f HrLD n r

Applying Green's theorem:

` Hf , 2 gL = S @Hf * g - g f * LD n 2 r + V gHrL 2 f * HrL 3 r The surface term vanishes for homogeneous boundary conditions * Q.E.D. and the volume term is Hg, 2 f L . Since the Laplacian is Hermitian with respect to the above inner product and to functions that satisfy homogeneous boundary conditions, its eigenfunctions form a complete and orthogonal set. This guarantees that we can use the eigenfunctions of the Laplacian operator to express the Green's function as a generalized Fourier series: gHr, ro L = a ca Hro L ya HrL

Notice the coefficients do not denpend on r. We then substitute this series into the definition of the Green's function of Poisson's equation: a ca Hro L r 2 ya HrL = dHr - ro L

and find the coefficients of the Fourier series by doing the inner product with respect to one of the eigenmodes, y b HrL:

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a ca Hro L la Hy b, ya L = Hy b HrL, dHr - ro LL = y* b Hro L and take advanteg of the orthogonality: c b Hro L = y* b Hro L @l b Hy b , y b LD

y* a Hro L ya HrL gHr, roL = l H y , y L a a a a

The eigenmode expansion for the Greens function is therefore:

which is called the bilinear equation and is a general expression for the Green's function of the Poisson equation. The potential is therefore given by:

Df r =

1 - eo

Hya, rL a la Hya,yaL

ya r

This is a truly general solution, for any boundary conditions (inhomogeneous ones are taken care by the new expression for the charge density and the choice of the function u) on surfaces of any geometry. Notice that going formally through the Green function has given us, in the end, an dexpansion for our solution, where the generalized Fourier coefficients are:

However, we have not computed the eigenmodes ya HrL and their eigenvalues la yet, and that is more easily achieved when the bound-

Hya, rL 1 Ca=- eo la Hya,yaL

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ary conditions satisfy certain symmetries. Notice that the general solution should exist only if Gauss's law is satisfied, and in fact this form of the solution works only if the eigenvalues la are not equal to zero. For Dirichlet and mixed boundary conditions la 0 for all modes, so the solution always exist, as it should because those boundary conditions cannot violate Gauss's law; while for the von Neuman conditions la 0 only if Gauss's law is satisfied. PROOF: la = 0 2 ya = 0, with homogeneous Dirichlet or mixed boundary conditions. But we had already found that Laplace's equation with those homogeneous boundary conditions has only the trivial solution ya = 0. So la 0 for all nontrivial modes. ` For the homogeneous von Neumann boundary conditions, n ya = 0, the eigenfunction yo = 1 clearly satisfies both the boundary condition and 2 yo = 0, so the eigenvalue is lo = 0. The only way our general solution can work is if this eigenmode is dropped thanks to Hyo , rL = 0 3 V r r = 0, which, through the divergence theorem, gives Gauss's theorem. Q.E.D. So now we are left with the final problem of finding the eigenmodes. We will consider only thre special symmetries (many other are possible): Rectangular, cylindrical and spherical geometries. With these geometries we can take advantage of the method of separation of variables to solve the eigenvalue problem, so the PDE (the Helmholtz equation) is turned into ODEs.

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Rectangular Geometry We consider homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions at the surface. Nothing changes in the z direction, so we take a slice at z=constant. So this is like a long tube with rectangula cross section, made of conducting material and grounded: f S = 0.

We write:

yaHx , y L = X Hx L Y Hy L Hence:
1 X 1 Y + = la X Hx L x 2 Y Hy L y 2
2 2

Then we can "separate" into two ODEs, with the separation constant k:
2 1 X = k 2 X Hx L x
2 2

Y 1 = la + k 2 Y Hy L y 2

Boundary conditions : X H0L = X HaL = Y H0L = Y HbL = 0

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Solutions:

k = n p a, X Hx L = sinHn p x aL, n = 1, 2, 3, ...,

Y Hy L = sinHm p y bL, m = 1, 2, 3, ..., with eigenvalues

np 2 mp 2 la = - H L - H L , a b

la + k 2 = - Hm p bL2 m = 1, 2, 3, ..., n = 1, 2, 3, ....

The eigenfunctions of Laplace's equation are therefore:

yaHx , y L = sinHn p x aL sinHm p y bL, m = 1, 2, 3, ..., n = 1, 2, 3, ..., with a = Hm, nL.

The eigenmodes form a complete orthogonal set with respect a b to the inner product 0 x 0 y Example 1 Constat charge densit: r = ro Boundary conditions: fHx , 0L = b x Ha - x L f(x,a)=f(0,y)f(b,y)=0 u = b x Ha - x L H1 - y bL

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We need: Hym n , ro eo + 2 uL = 0 x 0 y ym n *H ro eo + 2 uL:

a b
u@x_, y_ D = x Ha xL H1 y bL; my nx @m_, n_ D = IntegrateASinA E SinA E b a Ho o + D@u@x, yD, 8x, 2<D + D@u@x, yD, 8y, 2<DL, 8x, 0, a<, 8y, 0, b<E; @m_, n_ D = Simplify@@m, nD, m Integers && n IntegersD H 1 + H 1Ln L a b H2 o + H 1 + H 1Lm L o L m n 2 o

Hya, ya L = a b 4 We assume: ro -12 2 3 a = b = 1 meter , = 3 b = 1 Volt m (--> r = 8.85 10 C m ): o e

o

Hya, ya L is easy :

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a = 1; b = 1; o = o ; = 1 3; m 2 n 2 N ; @m_, n_ D = J N J b a @x_, y_ D =
9 9 m=1 n=1

@m, nD Sin@ @m,

Plot3D@@x, yD, 8x, 0, a<, 8y, 0, b<, AxesLabel 8"x", "y", ""<, PlotLabel " in a chargefilled square enclosure"D;
in a chargefilled square enclosure

y nx D Sin@ m b a ab nD 1 4

+ u@x, yD;

0.075 0.05 0.025 0 0 0.2 0.4 x 0.6 0.8 10 0.2

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 y