# Tag Info

15

This is a general property of waves. If you have waves reflecting off a clamped point (like waves running on a string that you pinch hard at one point), the waves get phase inverted. The reason is the principle of superposition and the condition that the amplitude at the clamped point is zero. The sum of the reflected and transmitted wave must be the ...

13

I) The substitution $f=r\psi$ is the standard substitution to get a radial 3D problem to resemble a 1D problem, see e.g. Ref. 1. II) From the perspective of the normalization of the wavefunction $\psi(r)$, a $1/r$ singularity of $\psi(r)$ at $r=0$ is fine because $|\psi(r)|^2$ is suppressed by a Jacobian factor $r^2$ coming from the measure in 3D spherical ...

9

In general, boundary conditons must be adapted to the real situation. Zero boundary conditions are just for the sake of simplicity. But they are realistic only when the field is really zero for some definite reason. If the boundary is at infinity, zero boundary conditions means that everything of interest happens in a finite domain and cannot be noticed ...

8

Loosely speaking, the gradient of a scalar field (such as the electrostatic potential) points in the direction of that field's greatest change. Since no change occurs in the field when you go along the surface, the gradient shouldn't have a component in that direction. Here is another intuitive explanation: Imagine for a moment that the electric field was ...

7

I) Initial value problems and boundary value problems are two different classes of questions that we can ask about Nature. Example: To be concrete: an initial value problem could be to ask about the classical trajectory of a particle if the initial position $q_i$ and the initial velocity $v_i$ are given, while a boundary value problem could be to ask ...

6

In the Lorentzian case: I am not aware of anyone studying it, and don't know explicit counterexamples off-hand. But I have doubts on the uniqueness. With the Lorentzian case, the nature candidate to draw comparisons with is the wave equation. And we see that on something as simple as the unit square $[0,1]\times [0,1]$, the wave equation with vanishing ...

6

Different boundary conditions represent different models of cooling. The first one states that you have a constant temperature at the boundary.This can be considered as a model of an ideal cooler in a good contact having infinitely large thermal conductivity The second one states that we have a constant heat flux at the boundary. If the flux is equal zero, ...

6

It is a very delicate matter to decide when solutions are unphysical or not. A classic example is Dirac's discovery of anti-particles: he found them as negative energy eigenstates for a relativistic Hamiltonian. A less insightful theorist might have discarded the negative energy solutions as unphysical, although we now know that those solutions mean a great ...

6

The two solutions are different because they have different boundary conditions. In the first case, the equation is indeed $$\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial t^2} = c^2 \nabla^2 u = c^2 \left(\frac{\partial^2}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial y^2} + \frac{\partial^2}{\partial z^2}\right) u.$$ Here though we specify $u(t,x=x_0)$ to be some value ...

6

The reason is the same as why the electric field inside a conductor is zero: if it isn't zero, the free electrons undergo a force and move (rearrange) untill they dont feel a force anymore. If the electrons don't feel a force, the electric field must be zero. At the surface of a conductor, the free electrons feel a force perpendicular to the surface, but ...

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3

This is a typical case of a problem which is clear enough physically speaking, but mathematically messy. Where rigorous results are folkloristically employed to achieve some result which, actually, would need much more care in deriving it... But presumably, mathematical details would not change the physical picture. Here the difference between theoretical ...

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