In mathematics and physics, Laplace's equation is a second-order partial differential equation named after Pierre-Simon Laplace, who first studied its properties. This is often written as
or
where is the Laplace operator, is the divergence operator (also symbolized "div"), is the gradient operator (also symbolized "grad"), and is a twice-differentiable real-valued function. The Laplace operator therefore maps a scalar function to another scalar function.
If the right-hand side is specified as a given function, , we have
This is called Poisson's equation, a generalization of Laplace's equation. Laplace's equation and Poisson's equation are the simplest examples of elliptic partial differential equations. Laplace's equation is also a special case of the Helmholtz equation.
The general theory of solutions to Laplace's equation is known as potential theory. The twice continuously differentiable solutions of Laplace's equation are the harmonic functions, which are important in multiple branches of physics, notably electrostatics, gravitation, and fluid dynamics. In the study of heat conduction, the Laplace equation is the steady-state heat equation. In general, Laplace's equation describes situations of equilibrium, or those that do not depend explicitly on time.
In rectangular coordinates,
In cylindrical coordinates,
In spherical coordinates, using the convention,
More generally, in arbitrary curvilinear coordinates (ξi),
or
where gij is the Euclidean metric tensor relative to the new coordinates and Γ denotes its Christoffel symbols.
Boundary value problem
The Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation consists of finding a solution φ on some domain D such that φ on the boundary of D is equal to some given function. Since the Laplace operator appears in the heat equation, one physical interpretation of this problem is as follows: fix the temperature on the boundary of the domain according to the given specification of the boundary condition. Allow heat to flow until a stationary state is reached in which the temperature at each point on the domain doesn't change anymore.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Le cours étudie les concepts fondamentaux de l'analyse vectorielle et l'analyse de Fourier en vue de leur utilisation pour résoudre des problèmes pluridisciplinaires d'ingénierie scientifique.
This is an introductory course on Elliptic Partial Differential Equations. The course will cover the theory of both classical and generalized (weak) solutions of elliptic PDEs.
The course studies the fundamental concepts of vector analysis and Fourier-Laplace analysis with a view to their use in solving multidisciplinary problems in scientific engineering.
In mathematics, the Laplace operator or Laplacian is a differential operator given by the divergence of the gradient of a scalar function on Euclidean space. It is usually denoted by the symbols , (where is the nabla operator), or . In a Cartesian coordinate system, the Laplacian is given by the sum of second partial derivatives of the function with respect to each independent variable. In other coordinate systems, such as cylindrical and spherical coordinates, the Laplacian also has a useful form.
In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which computes a function between various partial derivatives of a multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be solved for, similar to how x is thought of as an unknown number to be solved for in an algebraic equation like x2 − 3x + 2 = 0. However, it is usually impossible to write down explicit formulas for solutions of partial differential equations.
The (two-way) wave equation is a second-order linear partial differential equation for the description of waves or standing wave fields - as they occur in classical physics - such as mechanical waves (e.g. water waves, sound waves and seismic waves) or electromagnetic waves (including light waves). It arises in fields like acoustics, electromagnetism, and fluid dynamics. Single mechanical or electromagnetic waves propagating in a pre-defined direction can also be described with the first-order one-way wave equation, which is much easier to solve and also valid for inhomogeneous media.
Covers the stability analysis of ODEs using numerical methods and discusses stability conditions.
. We study very weak solutions to scalar Euler-Lagrange equations associated with quadratic convex functionals. We investigate whether W1,1 solutions are necessarily W 1,2 Nash and Schauder applicable. We answer this question positively for a suitable clas ...
Amer Mathematical Soc2024
We present outlier-free isogeometric Galerkin discretizations of eigenvalue problems related to the biharmonic and the polyharmonic operator in the univariate setting. These are Galerkin discretizations in certain spline subspaces that provide accurate app ...
We establish shape holomorphy results for general weakly- and hyper-singular boundary integral operators arising from second-order partial differential equations in unbounded two-dimensional domains with multiple finite-length open arcs. After recasting th ...