0
$\begingroup$

I came across a problem in electrostatics that I couldn't find a solution for, so I was hoping someone could answer my problem.

The setting is a usual mirror charge problem, with a point charge $q$ at a distance $z$ from a half-space conductor (that fills the whole space at $z\le 0$), but with the half-space conductor at a potential $V_0$. It seems that the problem cannot be solved using a simple mirror charge, as the boundary conditions will not hold. Is there a way, perhaps, that uses an infinite mirror charge? I tried solving Poisson's equation at $z>0$ as a sum of Laplace's equation with the boundary condition $V=0$ at $z\le0$ and the potential by a point charge, but I could not reach a good solution. Can anyone help with this?

$\endgroup$
7
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ By the superposition principle, just add to the usual virtual charge solution a solution with no external charge and potential $V_0$ at $z=0$. $\endgroup$
    – LPZ
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ @lpz: Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but how do you find a solution where $V = V_0$ at $z = 0$ and $V \to 0$ as $|\vec{r}| \to \infty$ in the upper half-space? I'm not 100% sure such a solution exists. Or (to the OP) is it OK if $V \to V_0$ as $|\vec{r}| \to \infty$ (in which case the solution is trivial)? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 20:02
  • $\begingroup$ Like the comment above, the solution when the potential at infinity goes to $V_0$ will be trivial - I suspect the problem is asking when the potential goes to $0$. Solving Laplace's equation doesn't work, so I'm not entirely sure what to do. $\endgroup$
    – cognition
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 23:47
  • $\begingroup$ To clarify: this wasn't an actual problem, it was a situation that was made up in our classroom, so there is the possibility that a good solution does not exist. If it doesn't, I'm still curious as to what the physical problem is with the situation. Perhaps there's something wrong with the discontinuity of the potential at $z = 0$, but I'm not entirely sure. $\endgroup$
    – cognition
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 23:51
  • $\begingroup$ One approach would be to use the method of images to solve for a point charge a distance $z$ from the surface of a sphere of radius $r$ held at $V_0$ (this is a standard image charge problem). Then take the limit as $r\to\infty$ while holding $z$ constant. I think, however, that the result will just be $V_0$ plus the "grounded plane" solution. $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 12:37

1 Answer 1

1
$\begingroup$

As explained in the comments, the issue is not due to the presence of the charge. By superposition with the usual virtual charge solution, you are back to the case with no charges. More precisely, the real problem is a Laplace problem with $V(z=0)=1$ and $V(\infty)=0$ (normalising $V_0=1$).

You can already anticipate the problem. Due to invariance along the $x,y$ directions, the solution should be invariant along these directions as well. In order to match the boundary conditions at infinity, $V(z>0)=0$.

You can start to build intuition by making a dimension finite, breaking translational invariance to escape from the previous inconsistency. For example, say that $x\in[-L/2,L/2]$ with $V(x=-L/2,L/2)=0$ as well. You should recover the original problem when $L\to\infty$. By separation of variables (and translation invariance along $y$), you get: $$ V = \frac{4}{\pi}\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{\sin[(2n+1)\pi (x/L+1/2)]e^{-(2n+1)\pi z/L}}{2n+1} $$ The limit case $L\to \infty$ is not obvious from this expression as the simple limit is not summable. In this case, the fastest way to get the correct asymptotic behaviour is to express the sum in close form, using: $$ \sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{Z^{2n+1}}{2n+1} =\frac{1}{2} \ln\left(\frac{1+Z}{1-Z}\right) $$ You get with $Z = ie^{\pi(ix-z)/L}$: $$ V = \frac{4}{\pi}\Im\left[\frac{1}{2} \ln\left(\frac{1+Z}{1-Z}\right)\right] $$ The branch of the logarithm is chosen from the boundary condition, i.e. when $Z = ie^{i\pi x}$, $V(Z)=1$ (geometrically, along the semicircle linking the two singularities at $Z=\pm1$). In the limit $L\to \infty$: $$Z\to i$$ You therefore get the trivial limit as expected, since it is equivalent to fixing $L$ and sending $x,z\to 0$: $$ V\to 1 $$ The solution is trivially harmonic, however, the boundary conditions at infinity did not "survive" the limit process. Mathematically, this is merely due to the fact that the convergence is not uniform on the entire domain. There is another way to understand this limit. From scaling invariance, fixing $x,y,z$ and sending $L\to\infty$ is the same as fixing $L$ and sending $x,y,z\to 0$. You are therefore sent to the boundary, and cannot detect the grounded boundary conditions.

One way to get a non-trivial limit would be to rescale $z$ as well, $z=L\tilde z$. Intuitively, this amounts to looking far from the grounded plane. In this case, $$ Z\to ie^{-\pi \tilde z} $$ so you get: $$ V\to \frac{4}{\pi}\arctan(e^{-\pi\tilde z}) $$ Note that the solution is not harmonic anymore due to the non-isotropic scaling and the same phenomenon is observed for the boundary conditions at $x\to\infty$. However, it captures the correct exponential decay in the $z$ direction.

You could do a similar analysis with an insulated, grounded hemisphere or cube (minus a face) and sending the characteristic length to infinity. The scaling argument still applies, and shows that sending $L\to\infty$ amounts to looking at these solutions with $x,y,z\to0$. You will only see the boundary condition at $z=0$, so $V\to1$. In particular, you will observe the similar "disappearing" of boundary conditions.

These kind of non uniform limits are expected and illustrate that there is no natural consistent way of setting the boundary condition to $0$ at infinity. By some careful rescaling, you could get some interesting limiting behaviours, which could be useful depending on the problem at hand.

Hope this helps.

$\endgroup$

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.