29/12/2019 calculus - conversion of laplacian from cartesian to spherical coordinates - Mathematics Stack Exchange

conversion of laplacian from cartesian to spherical coordinates

Asked 4 years, 4 months ago Active 3 years, 2 months ago Viewed 5k times

In cartesian coordinates, the Laplacian is

2 2 2

2 2
∂ ∂ ∂
∇ = + + (1)
2 2 2
∂𝑥 ∂𝑦 ∂𝑧

If it's converted to spherical coordinates, we get

2
2 2
1 ∂ 2
∂ 1 ∂ ∂ 1 ∂
∇ = 𝑟 + 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 + (2)
𝑟
2
∂𝑟 ( ∂𝑟 ) 2
𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 ∂𝜃
( ∂𝜃 ) 2
𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃 ∂𝜙
2 2

I am following the derivation (i.e. the method of conversion from cartesian to spherical) in
"Quantum physics of atoms, molecules, solids, nuclei and particles" by Eisberg and Resnick (it's
2
∂ 𝜓
in Appendix M). Their method is to first consider a function of only 𝑟, 𝜓 (𝑟) , then calculate ,
∂𝑥2
2 2
∂ 𝜓 ∂ 𝜓
, . After plugging into (1) and simplifying we end up with ∇ 2
=
1 ∂

∂𝑟
(𝑟
2 ∂

∂𝑟
) which is,
∂𝑦 2 ∂𝑧2 𝑟
2

indeed the first term in (2).

For the second (and third) term they don't show the derivation, they just say "the second and
third terms can be obtained by taking 𝜓 = 𝜓 (𝜃) and 𝜓 = 𝜓 (𝜙).

I am trying to complete the derivation for the other terms, but I don't know how to proceed. Here
is what I have so far:

∂𝜓 ∂𝜓 ∂𝜃
= (3)
∂𝑥 ∂𝜃 ∂𝑥

∂𝜃 𝑥𝑧
= (4)
∂𝑥 2 2 2 3/2 ‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
𝑧 ‾‾
2

(𝑥 + 𝑦 + 𝑧 ) 1 −
√ 2
𝑥 +𝑦 +𝑧
2 2

putting (4) into (3) and substituting for 𝑟:

∂𝜓 ∂𝜓 𝑥𝑧
=
∂𝑥 ∂𝜃 3 ‾‾‾‾‾
𝑧‾
2

𝑟 1 −
√ 𝑟
2

Now, making the conversions 𝑥 = 𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙 and 𝑧 = 𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃 and simplifying I get

∂𝜓 ∂𝜓 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙
=
∂𝑥 ∂𝜃 𝑟

My question is how do I proceed?

calculus coordinate-systems spherical-coordinates laplacian

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367 3 10

1 Shouldn't we have (𝑥 2
+ 𝑦
2
+ 𝑧 )
2 3/2
= 𝑟
3
? – Fly by Night Aug 9 '15 at 19:24

@FlybyNight oh thnx I think youre right I will edit. – user35687 Aug 9 '15 at 19:25

1 I don't think your "first term" is correct. If you do dimensional analysis it has units of 1/length while the
Laplacian operator should have units of 1/length^2 – Tucker Aug 9 '15 at 19:43

@Tucker Indeed. That's because he/she has a derivative with respect to 𝜃 in the first term when it should
be a derivative with respect to 𝑟 . – wltrup Aug 9 '15 at 20:06

1 @Tucker There's an identical mistake in the sentence that starts with "After plugging into..." I'd fix it
myself but then you're already on it so I'll let you do it. :) – wltrup Aug 9 '15 at 20:11

2 Answers

You're on the right track. Now do what you did for ∂𝜓 /∂𝑦 and ∂𝜓 /∂𝑧 , then compute the second
derivatives and add them up. Note that when computing the second derivatives, you will be able
4 to reuse the results from computing the first derivatives. For example,
2
∂ 𝜓 ∂ ∂𝜓 ∂ cos 𝜃 cos 𝜙 ∂𝜓
= =
∂𝑥2 ∂𝑥 ∂𝑥 ∂𝑥 ( 𝑟 ∂𝜃 )

To continue from the above, use the chain rule,

2
∂ 𝜓 ∂ ∂𝑟 ∂ ∂𝜃 ∂ ∂𝜙 ∂
= (⋅) = (⋅) + (⋅) + (⋅)
∂𝑥2 ∂𝑥 ∂𝑥 ∂𝑟 ∂𝑥 ∂𝜃 ∂𝑥 ∂𝜙

where the ⋅ is the term within the parentheses in the first equation above. Note that, in addition
to the mixed-coordinate derivatives (∂𝑟/∂𝑥, etc), you'll need to compute the derivative of a
product of functions. For example,
2
∂ cos 𝜃 cos 𝜙 ∂𝜓 cos 𝜃 cos 𝜙 ∂𝜓 cos 𝜃 cos 𝜙 ∂ 𝜓
= − +
( ) 2
∂𝑟 𝑟 ∂𝜃 𝑟 ∂𝜃 𝑟 ∂𝑟 ∂𝜃

Of course, because (in this case) you chose 𝜓 to be a function of only 𝜃, the last term above is zero
(since 𝜓 does not depend on 𝑟).

This problem is not difficult per se but it requires a lot of derivative computations and good
organisation. It's a great exercise to improve your computational and organisational skills but
you'll learn in the future other methods to find the Laplacian in another coordinate system that
are far more efficient and economical.

Oh, and here's a trick to avoid having to deal with that pesky square root in 𝑟 as a function of
𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 :

2
∂𝑟
= 2𝑥
∂𝑥

but also
2
∂𝑟 ∂𝑟
= 2𝑟
∂𝑥 ∂𝑥
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29/12/2019 calculus - conversion of laplacian from cartesian to spherical coordinates - Mathematics Stack Exchange
∂𝑟 𝑥
=
∂𝑥 𝑟

Finally, kudos for wanting to do the extra work on your own. Also, the book you mentioned is
excellent. If you have your own copy, you might want to keep it. I still have mine (though not with
me here), even after 30 years!

answered Aug 9 '15 at 20:04

wltrup
3,232 1 11 25

Thanks! I will need to find time to work it out, but this was very helpful. – user35687 Aug 10 '15 at 23:01

You're most welcome. I'm glad you find it helpful. If you need clarification about any step of my answer,
feel free to post more comments to this answer, asking more questions, and I'll write a response in a timely
fashion. – wltrup Aug 10 '15 at 23:24

Let 𝐹 be a scalar field on ℝ defined in Cartesian coordinates. Let 𝑀 : ℝ → ℝ be the mapping

3 3 3

from spherical coordinates to Cartesian coordinates. Then 𝑆 = 𝐹 ∘ 𝑀 is 𝐹 in spherical

0 coordinates. Using the chain rule for vector fields,
𝑗
𝑆𝑖 = 𝐹𝑗 𝑀 .
𝑖

Repeated indices (in this case 𝑗) are summed over the values 1,2, and 3, subscript 𝑖 means partial
differentiation with respect to variable 𝑖, and superscript 𝑗 means coordinate 𝑗 of the vector field
𝑀 . This is a system of three linear equations in the three unknowns 𝐹 that could also be written 𝑗

as 𝐷𝑆 = (𝐷𝐹 )(𝐷𝑀 ), where 𝐷𝐺 is the total derivative matrix of the vector or scalar field 𝐺. The
solution is 𝐷𝐹 = (𝐷𝑆)(𝐷𝑀 ) . −1

Another application of the chain rule yields

𝑙 𝑗 𝑗
𝑆𝑖𝑘 = 𝐹𝑗𝑙 𝑀 𝑀 + 𝐹𝑗 𝑀 .
𝑘 𝑖 𝑖𝑘

This is a linear system of nine equations in nine unknowns (the 𝐹 ). Solving for the 𝐹 using a 𝑗𝑙 𝑗𝑙

computer algebra system and computing 𝐹 + 𝐹 + 𝐹 gives the Laplacian as a function of the
11 22 33

𝑆 and 𝑆 . Each individual term 𝐹

𝑖 𝑖𝑘 is extremely complicated, but the sum 𝐹 + 𝐹 + 𝐹 is
𝑖𝑗 11 22 33

much simpler.

It is also possible to write the equation for the 𝐹 in matrix form: 𝑗𝑙

2 −T 2 2 𝑗 −1
𝐷 𝐹 = (𝐷𝑀 ) (𝐷 𝑆 − 𝐹𝑗 (𝐷 𝑀 ))(𝐷𝑀 )

where 𝐷 2
𝐺 is the Hessian matrix of second partial derivatives of the scalar field 𝐺.

answered Oct 4 '16 at 0:19

J. Heller
1,064 3 13

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