Calculating Laplacian after substituting polar coordinates in derivation of fundamental solution to Laplace's Equation

240 Views Asked by At

I'm following the derivation of the fundamental solution to Laplace's equation in section 2.2.1 of Evans's PDE book.

It's the standard approach. We assume a radially symmetric solution $v(r)$ and do the necessary substitution for $r = |x| = (x_1^2 + \dots + x_n^2)^{1/2}$ in $u(x)$.

I understand why $u_{x_i} = v'(r)\frac{x_i}{r}$, but the book says $u_{x_ix_i} = v''(r) \frac{x_i^2}{r^2} + v'(r)\left(\frac{1}{r} - \frac{x_i^2}{r^3}\right)$, and I'm not sure how we produce the final $\frac{x_i^2}{r^3}$ term after applying the chain and product rules.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

This comes from differentiating $x_i/r$ (which stands next to $v'(r)$ in the first derivative $u'_{x_i}$), when you use the product rule. With $r=(x_1^2+\cdots+x_i^2+\cdots+x_n^2)^{1/2}$, the quotient rule gives $$ \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i}\frac{x_i}{r}=\frac{1\cdot r-x_i \cdot r'_{x_i}}{r^2}. $$ Now, $$ r'_{x_i}=\frac{1}{2}=(x_1^2+\cdots+x_i^2+\cdots+x_n^2)^{-1/2}\cdot (2x_i)=\frac{x_i}{r}, $$ so $$ \frac{\partial}{\partial x_i}\frac{x_i}{r}=\frac{1}{r}-\frac{x_i^2}{r^3}. $$

PS: Are you missing a square on the $r$ in the part with the second derivative?