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11.3 Poisson's Integral Formula For The Upper Half-Plane

1) Poisson's integral formula provides a solution to the Dirichlet problem of finding a harmonic function in the upper half-plane with given boundary values. 2) The formula expresses the harmonic function φ(x,y) as an integral of the boundary values U(t) over the real line. 3) It can be shown that the function defined by this integral is indeed harmonic in the upper half-plane and takes on the prescribed boundary values U(t).

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430 views3 pages

11.3 Poisson's Integral Formula For The Upper Half-Plane

1) Poisson's integral formula provides a solution to the Dirichlet problem of finding a harmonic function in the upper half-plane with given boundary values. 2) The formula expresses the harmonic function φ(x,y) as an integral of the boundary values U(t) over the real line. 3) It can be shown that the function defined by this integral is indeed harmonic in the upper half-plane and takes on the prescribed boundary values U(t).

Uploaded by

Tushar Gupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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11.

Poissons Integral Formula for the Upper Half-Plane

439

11.3 POISSONS INTEGRAL FORMULA FOR


THE UPPER HALF-PLANE
The Dirichlet problem for the upper half-plane Im (z) > 0 is to nd a function
(x, y) that is harmonic in the upper half-plane and has the boundary values
(x, 0) = U (x), where U (x) is a real-valued function of the real variable x.
Theorem 11.3 (Poissons integral formula) Let U (t) be a real-valued function that is piecewise continuous and bounded for all real t. The function
y
(x, y) =

U (t) dt
2

(x t) + y 2

(11-12)

is harmonic in the upper half-plane Im (z) > 0 and has the boundary values
(x, 0) = U (x)
wherever U is continuous.
Proof Equation (11-12) is easy to determine from the results of Theorem
11.2 regarding the Dirichlet problem. Let t1 < t2 < < tN denote N points
that lie along the x-axis. Let t0 < t1 < < tN be N + 1 points chosen so
that tk1 < tk < tk , for k = 1, 2, . . . , N , and that U (t) is continuous at each
value tk . Then according to Theorem 11.2, the function
(x, y) = U (tN ) +

N

1   
U tk1 U (tk ) Arg (z tk )

k=1

(11-13)

440

Chapter 11

Applications of Harmonic Functions

is harmonic in the upper half-plane and takes on the boundary values


(x, 0) = U (t0 ) ,
(x, 0) = U (tk ) ,
(x, 0) = U (tN ) ,

for x < t1 ;
for tk < x < tk+1 ;
for x > tN ,

and

as shown in Figure 11.13.


We use properties of the argument of a complex number (see Section 1.4)
to write Equation (11-13) in the form

(x, y) =



N 1
1
1 
z tk+1
U (tk ) Arg
U (t0 ) Arg (z t1 ) +

z tk
k=1

1
+ U (tN ) [ Arg (z tN )].

Hence the value is given by the weighted mean


(x, y) =

N
1
U (tk ) k ,

(11-14)

k=0

where the angles k , for k = 0, 1, . . . , N , sum to and are also shown in


Figure 11.13.
Using the substitutions
= Arg (z t) = Arctan

y
xt

and

d =

y dt
2

(x t) + y 2

(11-15)

y
(x, y)
N

0
1

t0*

t1

t1*

t2

N 1

t2*

t3

= U(t0*)

Figure 11.13

= U(t1*)

= U(t2*)

Boundary values for .

tN 1

t*N 1

tN

t*N

= U(t*N 1) = U(t*N)

11.3

Poissons Integral Formula for the Upper Half-Plane

we write Equation (11-14) as


(x, y) =

N
y  U (tk ) tk
.
2

(x tk ) + y 2
k=0

The limit of this Riemann sum becomes the improper integral



y
U (t) dt
(x, y) =
,
(x t)2 + y 2
and the result is established.

441

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