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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, [note 1] is the divergence operator (also symbolized "div"), is the gradient operator (also symbolized "grad"), and (,,) is a twice-differentiable real-valued function.
Boundary value problems are similar to initial value problems.A boundary value problem has conditions specified at the extremes ("boundaries") of the independent variable in the equation whereas an initial value problem has all of the conditions specified at the same value of the independent variable (and that value is at the lower boundary of the domain, thus the term "initial" value).
The weak solution of the p-Laplace equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions {= =in an open bounded set is the minimizer of the energy functional = | |among all functions in the Sobolev space, satisfying the boundary conditions in the sense that , (when has a smooth boundary, this is equivalent to require that functions coincide with the boundary datum in trace sense [1]).
Solutions of the Laplace equation, i.e. functions whose Laplacian is identically zero, thus represent possible equilibrium densities under diffusion. The Laplace operator itself has a physical interpretation for non-equilibrium diffusion as the extent to which a point represents a source or sink of chemical concentration, in a sense made ...
The method of separation of variables is also used to solve a wide range of linear partial differential equations with boundary and initial conditions, such as the heat equation, wave equation, Laplace equation, Helmholtz equation and biharmonic equation.
In mathematics, a Dirichlet problem asks for a function which solves a specified partial differential equation (PDE) in the interior of a given region that takes prescribed values on the boundary of the region. [1] The Dirichlet problem can be solved for many PDEs, although originally it was posed for Laplace's equation. In that case the ...
Since the problems in magnetostatics involve solving Laplace's equation or Poisson's equation for the magnetic scalar potential, the boundary condition is a Neumann condition. In spatial ecology , a Neumann boundary condition on a reaction–diffusion system , such as Fisher's equation , can be interpreted as a reflecting boundary, such that ...
Note that the Laplace equation is a well-studied linear partial differential equation. Its solutions are infinite; however, most solutions can be discarded when considering physical systems, as boundary conditions completely determine the velocity potential.