16.1 Harmonic Functions
16.1 Harmonic Functions
Harmonic Functions
Dan Sloughter
Furman University
Mathematics 39
and u and v have continuous partial derivatives of all orders. From the
Cauchy-Riemann equations we know that
uxx (x, y) = vyx (x, y) and uyx (x, y) = −vxx (x, y);
uxy (x, y) = vyy (x, y) and uyy (x, y) = −vxy (x, y).
Hence
uxx (x, y) + uyy (x, y) = vyx (x, y) − vxy (x, y) = vxy (x, y) − vxy (x, y) = 0
vxx (x, y) + vyy (x, y) = −uyx (x, y) + uxy (x, y) = −uxy (x, y) + uxy (x, y) = 0
for all x + iy ∈ D.
1
Definition 16.1. Suppose H : R2 → R has continuous second partial deriva-
tives on a domain D. We say H is harmonic in D if for all (x, y) ∈ D,
it follows that u(x, y) = ex cos(y) and v(x, y) = ex sin(y) are both harmonic
in C (which is also easily checked directly).
Example 16.2. We know that
1
f (z) =
z2
is analytic in {z ∈ C : z 6= 0}. Now
1 1 z̄ 2 x2 − y 2 − 2xyi
= = ,
z2 z 2 z̄ 2 (x2 + y 2 )2
so
x2 − y 2
u(x, y) =
(x2 + y 2 )2
and
2xy
v(x, y) = −
(x2 + y 2 )2
are harmonic in {(x, y) ∈ R2 : (x, y) 6= (0, 0)}.
2
Definition 16.2. If u and v are harmonic in a domain D and satisfy the
Cauchy-Riemann equations, then we say v is a harmonic conjugate of u.
u(x, y) = x3 − 3xy 2
ux (x, y) = vy (x, y)
and
uy (x, y) = −vx (x, y).
From the first we have
vy (x, y) = 3x2 − 3y 2 ,
from which it follows that
for some function ϕ of x. It now follows from the second equation that
v(x, y) = 3x2 y − y 3 + c
is a harmonic conjugate of u.