On the completeness and the linear dependence of the Cartesian multipole series in representing the solution to the Helmholtz equation.
The (Cartesian) multipole series, i.e. the series comprising monopole, dipoles, quadrupoles, etc. can be used, as an alternative to the spherical or cylindrical wave series, in representing sound fields in a wide range of problems, such as source radiation, sound scattering, etc. The proofs of the completeness of the spherical and cylindrical wave series in these problems are classical results, and it is also generally agreed that the Cartesian multipole series spans the same space as the spherical waves: a rigorous mathematical proof of that statement has, however, not been presented. In the present work, such a proof of the completeness of the Cartesian multipole series, both in two and three dimensions, is given, and the linear dependence relations among different orders of multipoles are discussed, which then allows one to easily extract a basis from the multipole series. In particular, it is concluded that the multipoles comprising the two highest orders in the series form a basis of the whole series, since the multipoles of all the lower source orders can be expressed as a linear combination of that basis.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America