11.

Poissons Integral Formula for the Upper Half-Plane

439

11.3 POISSONS INTEGRAL FORMULA FOR

THE UPPER HALF-PLANE
The Dirichlet problem for the upper half-plane Im (z) > 0 is to nd a function
(x, y) that is harmonic in the upper half-plane and has the boundary values
(x, 0) = U (x), where U (x) is a real-valued function of the real variable x.
Theorem 11.3 (Poissons integral formula) Let U (t) be a real-valued function that is piecewise continuous and bounded for all real t. The function
y
(x, y) =

U (t) dt
2

(x t) + y 2

(11-12)

is harmonic in the upper half-plane Im (z) > 0 and has the boundary values
(x, 0) = U (x)
wherever U is continuous.
Proof Equation (11-12) is easy to determine from the results of Theorem
11.2 regarding the Dirichlet problem. Let t1 < t2 < < tN denote N points
that lie along the x-axis. Let t0 < t1 < < tN be N + 1 points chosen so
that tk1 < tk < tk , for k = 1, 2, . . . , N , and that U (t) is continuous at each
value tk . Then according to Theorem 11.2, the function
(x, y) = U (tN ) +

N

1   
U tk1 U (tk ) Arg (z tk )

k=1

(11-13)

440

Chapter 11

Applications of Harmonic Functions

is harmonic in the upper half-plane and takes on the boundary values

(x, 0) = U (t0 ) ,
(x, 0) = U (tk ) ,
(x, 0) = U (tN ) ,

for x < t1 ;
for tk < x < tk+1 ;
for x > tN ,

and

as shown in Figure 11.13.

We use properties of the argument of a complex number (see Section 1.4)
to write Equation (11-13) in the form

(x, y) =



N 1
1
1 
z tk+1
U (tk ) Arg
U (t0 ) Arg (z t1 ) +

z tk
k=1

1
+ U (tN ) [ Arg (z tN )].

Hence the value is given by the weighted mean

(x, y) =

N
1
U (tk ) k ,

(11-14)

k=0

where the angles k , for k = 0, 1, . . . , N , sum to and are also shown in

Figure 11.13.
Using the substitutions
= Arg (z t) = Arctan

y
xt

and

d =

y dt
2

(x t) + y 2

(11-15)

y
(x, y)
N

0
1

t0*

t1

t1*

t2

N 1

t2*

t3

= U(t0*)

Figure 11.13

= U(t1*)

= U(t2*)

Boundary values for .

tN 1

t*N 1

tN

t*N

= U(t*N 1) = U(t*N)

11.3

Poissons Integral Formula for the Upper Half-Plane

we write Equation (11-14) as

(x, y) =

N
y  U (tk ) tk
.
2

(x tk ) + y 2
k=0

The limit of this Riemann sum becomes the improper integral


y
U (t) dt
(x, y) =
,
(x t)2 + y 2
and the result is established.

441