It is shown that certain force distributions applied to a finite portion of an infinitely long string do not produce any excitation outside the region of the applied force. The existence of such nonpropagating excitations is demonstrated by a simple example, and two general theorems concerning their nature are proven. Some analogies between nonpropagating string excitations and fields produced by nonradiating sources are noted.
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© 1998 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1998
American Association of Physics Teachers
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