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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).
Let be a domain (an open and connected set) in .Let be the Laplace operator, let be a bounded function on the boundary, and consider the problem: {() =, = (),It can be shown that if a solution exists, then () is the expected value of () at the (random) first exit point from for a canonical Brownian motion starting at .
The solution's behavior changes continuously with the initial conditions; Examples of archetypal well-posed problems include the Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation, and the heat equation with specified initial conditions. These might be regarded as 'natural' problems in that there are physical processes modelled by these problems.
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 ...
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.
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 ...
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.