Boundary and Continuity Conditions in 2D Potential Problem

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 1K views
PeteSampras
Messages
43
Reaction score
2
Hello, i had studied the problem in 1D, but i thinking the problem in 2d, an i have the following question:

in a potential -V between (-a,a) an 0 otherwise.

One dimensional case:

One of the boundary condition are :

##\phi_I \in (-a,a)##, and ##\phi_{II} \in (a,\infty)##

## \phi_I(a)=\phi_{II}(a)##

and continuity condition

## \phi_I'(a)=\phi_{II}'(a)##

in two dimensional case , for example with separation variables:

##X_I(x)Y_I(y) \in (x,y) \in (-a,a)##, and ##X_{II}(x) Y_{II}(y) \in (x,y) \in (a,\infty)##

how are the boundary and continuity condition?

I think that

## X_I(x=a)Y_I(y=a)=X_{II}(x=a)Y_{II}(x=a)##

but, ¿how i write the continuity condition?,
 
Physics news on Phys.org
You mean [itex]x \in (-a,a)[/itex] and [itex]y \in (-a,a)[/itex]
You don't have to do much, just match the corresponding solutions. Y,X are independent of x,y respectively, so you can deal with the x,y axis separately as having the 1D case (only twice cause now you have 2 -x,y- 1D )
So
[itex]X_I (a)= X_{II} (a)[/itex]

[itex]Y_I (a)= Y_{II} (a)[/itex]

The same argument:
The only other way to have the continuity of [itex]\Psi[/itex] at those points would be to say:
[itex]X_{I}(a)= Y_{II}(a)[/itex]
[itex]Y_{I}(a)= X_{II}(a)[/itex]
But this wouldn't make any sense, since that's the reason of applying the separation of solutions- to treat each variable independently of the other.
 
Last edited:
ϕI(a,a)=ϕII(a,a) ?