The Dirac delta function

Notes by JERM–Facultad de Fı́sica, UV

The Dirac delta function is one of the most fundamental concepts in the study of microscopic systems and
will probably be covered in greater detail in your course of quantum mechanics.

On the mathematical side, the Dirac delta function is, in some sense, a generalization of the Kronecker delta to
the case of continuous indices. In three dimensions it is denoted by δ 3 (~r − ~r 0 ) and is defined such that
Z
d3 r0 f (~r 0 ) δ 3 (~r − ~r 0 ) = f (~r), (1)
Z
d3 r0 δ 3 (~r − ~r 0 ) = 1, (2)

for any well behaved function f (~r).

Comments:
• The relation (2) follows from the relation (1) if we choose f (~r) = 1.

• The relations (1) and (2) imply that the delta function must vanish at points where its argument does
not vanish and that at points where its argument vanishes, it must diverge in such a way that its integral
is unity (namely, the area under the curve is normalized).

This does not correspond to the behaviour of any simple function that we know of. In fact, the Dirac delta
function is truly not a function, rather it can be thought of as a limit of a sequence of functions.

On the physical side, the Dirac delta function is used to model the density of a charge point (or of an idealized
point mass) as a function equal to to zero everywhere except for ~r 0 and whose integral over the entire space is
equal to one.

Some important representations.

Without going into detail, let us note some explicit useful representations for the δ-function in one dimension,

1
for simplicity.

1 sin n(x − x0 )
δ(x − x0 ) = lim , (3)
n→∞ π (x − x0 )
r
α −α(x−x0 )2
δ(x − x0 ) = lim e , (4)
α→∞ π
Z +∞
1 0
δ(x − x0 ) = dk eik(x−x ) , (5)
2π −∞
dΘ(x − x0 )
δ(x − x0 ) = , (6)
dx
where Θ(x − x0 ) is the step function defined to be
(
1, for x − x0 > 0,
Θ(x − x0 ) = (7)
0, for x − x0 < 0,

The one-dimensional representations given above can be easily generalized to higher dimensions. For example,
in Cartesian coordinates, δ 3 (~r − ~r 0 ) = δ(x − x0 )δ(y − y 0 )δ(z − z 0 ).

Important properties.
Here we list some useful properties for the Dirac delta function (in one dimension, for simplicity)

[δ(x − x0 )]∗ = δ(x − x0 ), (8)

0 0
δ(x − x ) = δ(x − x), (9)
d d
δ(x − x0 ) = − 0 δ(x − x0 ), (10)
dx dx
(x − x0 )δ(x − x0 ) = 0, (11)
d
(x − x0 ) δ(x − x0 ) = −δ(x − x0 ), (12)
dx
1
δ[a(x − x0 )] = δ(x − x0 ), (13)
|a|

and so on.

On the dimensions of the δ-function.

It is important to note that from the defining relation for the delta function, Eq. (1), it has the dimension of a
density (inverse volume of the space on which it is defined).

1
Two important differential relations regarding the factor r
 
1
∇2 = −4πδ(~r), (14)
|~r|
 
1
∇2 = −4πδ(~r − ~r 0 ) (15)
|~r − ~r 0 |