Solve Tricky Double Integral for Charge Density Distribution in Symmetric Disc

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on solving a double integral to model the potential field around a symmetrically charged disc with an exponentially decaying charge density. The integral in question is defined as ∫_{0}^{2\pi} ∫_{0}^{\infty} \frac{r e^{-r/b} (a - r \sin \theta)}{(r^2 + a^2 - 2ra \cos \theta)^{3/2}} dr d\theta, where a represents the observation radius and b is the scalar length of the charge density distribution. The user seeks a symbolic solution rather than a numerical one and is clarifying the context of the electric field versus the electrostatic potential.

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  • Understanding of double integrals in polar coordinates
  • Familiarity with electrostatics, particularly potential fields and charge density distributions
  • Knowledge of substitution methods in integral calculus
  • Experience with symbolic computation tools for solving integrals
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TheMan112
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Homework Statement


I'm trying to model the potential field in and around a symmetrically charged disc where the charge density drops exponentially from the center.

Homework Equations


This can be done by solving the double integral:

\int ^{2 \pi} _{0} \int ^{\infty} _{0} \frac{r e^{-r/b} (a-r sin \theta)}{(r^2 + a^2 - 2 r a cos \theta)^{3/2}} dr d \theta

a is the observation radius, b is the scalar length of the charge density distribution, r and theta are polar coordinates. So essentially I'm looking for a result of the form V(a).

The Attempt at a Solution


I've been trying to attack this using substitution of variables without much result. It could be done numerically but I would greatly prefer a symbolic solution.
 
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TheMan112 said:
I'm trying to model the potential field[/color] in and around a symmetrically charged disc where the charge density drops exponentially from the center.

Huh?:confused: Are you modeling the electrostatic potential, or the electric field? Does your disk extend out to infinity? Are you only looking the model the potential (or field) at point on the disk, or also at points not on the disk?



\int ^{2 \pi} _{0} \int ^{\infty} _{0} \frac{r e^{-r/b} (a-r sin \theta)}{(r^2 + a^2 - 2 r a cos \theta)^{3/2}} dr d \theta

Even if you are just looking for the electric field at points on the disk, this integral doesn't look quite right to me... how did you get a-r\sin\theta in your numerator?
 

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