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Jackson 35

Jackson is showing that as a approaches 0, an integral equation for the electric potential Φa(x) becomes the Poisson equation ∇2Φ = -ρ/ε0. He divides space into a region inside a sphere of radius R centered at x, and the exterior. The contribution from the exterior vanishes as a2. Within the sphere, he performs a Taylor expansion of the charge density ρ(x0) around x0=x. After direct integration, in the limit a→0 he obtains the Poisson equation. However, the author notes some steps in Jackson's working are unclear, such as the form of the Taylor expansion and how the second equation follows from the first.

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bandiger
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165 views1 page

Jackson 35

Jackson is showing that as a approaches 0, an integral equation for the electric potential Φa(x) becomes the Poisson equation ∇2Φ = -ρ/ε0. He divides space into a region inside a sphere of radius R centered at x, and the exterior. The contribution from the exterior vanishes as a2. Within the sphere, he performs a Taylor expansion of the charge density ρ(x0) around x0=x. After direct integration, in the limit a→0 he obtains the Poisson equation. However, the author notes some steps in Jackson's working are unclear, such as the form of the Taylor expansion and how the second equation follows from the first.

Uploaded by

bandiger
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Here Jackson is trying to show that as a → 0, the equation

!
ρ(x0 )
Z
2 2 1 3 0
∇ Φa (x) = ∇ p dx
4π0 (x − x0 )2 + a2
Z  
1 0 1
= ρ(x )∇ √2
d 3 x0
4π0 r 2 + a2
3a2
Z  
1 0
= − ρ(x ) d 3 x0 ,
4π0 (r2 + a2 )5/2

where r = |x − x0 |, becomes the Poisson equation ∇2 Φ = −ρ/0 . He uses a limiting procedure to


overcome the fact that the integrand is singular for x0 = x.
He now divides space into two regions by a sphere of fixed radius R centered on x, where R is
such that ρ(x0 ) varies little over the interior of the sphere. Furthermore, imagine a is much smaller
than R and tending toward zero. The contribution to the integral above from the exterior of the
sphere vanishes as a2 .
The focus now is on the contribution from inside the sphere. He writes (J.D. Jackson. Classical
Electrodynamics, 3rd Ed. Section 1.7: Poisson and Laplace Equations, page 35.)

With a Taylor series expansion of the well-behaved ρ(x0 ) around x0 = x, one finds

1 R 3a2 r2 2
Z  
2
∇ Φa (x) = − 2 2 5/2
ρ(x) + ∇ ρ + · · · r2 dr + O(a2 )
0 0 (r + a ) 6

Direct integration yields


1
∇2 Φa (x) = − ρ(x)(1 + O(a2 /R2 )) + O(a2 , a2 log a)∇2 ρ + · · ·
0
In the limit a → 0, we obtain the Poisson equation (1.28).

These last two equations are a mystery to me. In the first of them, how did he get the alleged
”Taylor series expansion” within the square brackets? As you can look up on Wolfram Mathworld,
the Taylor series in vector form is
∞  
X 1 j 0
f (r + a) = (a · ∇r0 ) f (r ) .
j=0
j! r0 =r

I don’t see the connection between this formula and the expansion of ρ(x0 ) in the square brackets.
I also don’t see how he got the second equation given the first. For one thing, what does
O(a2 , a2 log a) mean?
I should probably mention, as Jackson does, that
Z 2π Z π Z ∞
3a2
2 + a2 )5/2
r2 dr sin θdθdφ = 4π.
0 0 0 (r

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