CHBE3521: 2014F

bessel1.pdf

Bessel Function
Bessels equation
A general form of Bessels equation is
x2


 2 2 2p

d2 y 
2 dy
2 2
2
2 2
+
(1

2m)x

2x
+
p

x
+

x
+
(2m

1)x
+
m

p
n
y = 0.
dx
dx2

The general solution is

y(x) = xm ex [AJn (xp ) + BYn (xp )] ,
where A and B are constants to be determined by boundary conditions. Jn is the Bessel function
of the first kind of order n and Yn is the Bessel function of the second kind of order n.

Some useful Bessel function relations

1.

2.

3.

4.

n
dJn (x)
= Jn (x) Jn+1 (x)
dx
x
dIn (x)
n
= In (x) + In+1 (x)
dx
x
n
dKn (x)
= Kn (x) Kn+1 (x)
dx
x
dYn (x)
n
= Yn (x) Yn+1 (x)
dx
x

5.
Jn (ix) = in In (x)
6.
Yn (ix) = i

2
iIn (x) (1)n Kn (x)

In items 5 and 6, i = 1, In is the modified Bessel function of the first kind of order n, and Kn
is the modified Bessel function of the second kind of order n.
If you ever care to know more about the Bessel functions or any other so-called special functions, NIST have a very comprehensive resources. Just visit http://dlmf.nist.gov. The Bessel
functions are in Chapter 10 (http://dlmf.nist.gov/10)

CHBE3521: 2014F

bessel1.pdf

1
J0
J1
J2

0.8

Y0
Y1
Y2

0.5

0.6
0
0.4
0.2

-0.5

0
-1
-0.2
-1.5
-0.4
-0.6

-2
0

10

12

10

12

5
I0
I1
I2

K0
K1
K2

0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

0.5

1.5

2.5