Proof of Rayleigh Formula

Elroy Wang
May 31, 2008∗

1 Problem:
A plane wave can be expanded in a series of spherical waves by the Rayleigh
equation
∞
ikr cos θ
X
e = an jn (kr)Pn (cos θ) (1)
n=0
, where jn (kr) is the spherical Bessel function of oder n

Show that an = in (2n + 1)

2 Solution:
First we multiply both sides of equation (1) by Pl (cos θ) sin θ dθ, l 6= n and
integrate with respect to θ . We have
Z π ∞ Z π
ikr cos θ
X
e Pl (cos θ) sin θ dθ = an jn (kr) Pn (cos θ)Pl (cos θ) sin θ dθ (2)
0 n=0 0

Using the orthonormality of Legendre polynomial, RHS of equation (2)

reduces to
∞
X 2
an jn (kr) δn,l
n=0 2n + 1
2
= al jl (kr)
2l + 1
∗
typeset by LATEX

1
 Since we are interested in the limit kr → 0, expansion of the spherical
2l l!
Bessel function in this limit must be made(i.e. jl (kr) ≈ (2l+1)! (kr)l ).
Differentiate equation (2) with respect to (kr) l times, then take the limit
of (kr) → 0 , we have, for the spherical Bessel part,

dl al 2l+1 l!l!
!
2al
lim jl (kr) = (3)
2l + 1 kr→0 d(kr)l 2l + 1 (2l + 1)!
On the other hand,RHS of equation (2) now has the form

dl Z π ikr cos θ
!
lim e Pl (cos θ) sin θ dθ
(kr)→0 d(kr)l 0
Z π
= (i cos θ)l Pl (cos θ) sin θ dθ (4)
0
2l+1
The last equality can be further simplified to il 2(2l+1)!
l!l!
by the following
formula (proved in Arfken, Exercise 12.4.4)
Z 1
22n+1 n!n!
xPn (x) dx = (5)
−1 (2n + 1)!

Comparing (3) and the simplified version of (4), we get

an = in (2n + 1) (6)

, thus completes our proof.