Budden's Paradox Resolved

Abstract

Budden's energy nonconservation paradox is dispelled herein by recognizing that pole approach to the spatial origin from below in the complex plane can be resolved into a real principal value plus $-i\pi$ times a Dirac delta, the imaginary coefficient whereof supplies just the right amount of localized dissipation to equilibrate the energy budget precisely, regardless of whether wave incidence be up or down. Only the reflectionless downward wave incidence remains as a counterintuitive challenge to physical anticipation, but at least a challenge liberated from its former onus of energy nonconservation.