# Monopoles and free space Green’s Functions#

Author: Nick Ovenden

In a quiescent medium of constant sound speed $$c$$, any spherically symmetric time-harmonic source centred at a point $$\mathbf{x_s}$$ of angular frequency $$\omega$$ produces an externally outgoing acoustic field of the form

$p(\mathbf{x})=\mbox{Re} \left( \mathcal{S} \frac{e^{i\omega |\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x_s}|/c}}{|\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x_s}|} \right),$

where $$\mathcal{S}$$ is a complex number representing the strength and phase of the source. As one might expect, this expression is the solution everywhere to the following PDE

$\left(\nabla^2 + \frac{\omega^2}{c^2} \right) p = -4\pi \mathcal{S} \delta(\mathbf{x} -\mathbf{x_s})$

in an external unbounded domain with no incoming waves from infinity and where $$\delta(\mathbf{x})$$ is the delta-dirac function. Setting $$\mathcal{S}= -\frac{1}{4\pi}$$ leads to the so-called free-field Green’s function

$G_f(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{x_s})= -\frac{1}{4 \pi} \frac{e^{i\omega |\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x_s}|/c}}{|\mathbf{x} - \mathbf{x_s}|},$

that solves

$\left(\nabla^2 + \frac{\omega^2}{c^2} \right) G_f = \delta(\mathbf{x} -\mathbf{x_s})$

in an externally unbounded domain.