SECTION 46

BESSEL FUNCTIONS
CHAPTER 8
THE GAMMA
FUNCTION
 Section - 46
• Bessel’s equation:

Where ‘p’ is a non negative constant.

• The solutions of Bessel’s equations are called Bessel
functions.
• For this equation xP(x) = 1 and x2Q(x) = -p2 + x2. So
the origin is a regular singular point and the indicial
equation is m2 - p2 = 0 implying m1 = -p and m2 = p.
 Section - 46
• So (1) has a solution of the form
• By finding y’ and y”, substituting them in (1) and
equating the coefficient of xn+p, we get
n(2p+n) an + an-2 = 0.
• And the solution is
 Section - 46
• So, the Bessel function of the first kind of order p
denoted by Jp(x) is defined by putting a0 = 1/ 2pp! :
 Section - 46
• Substitute p = 0, 1 to get J0(x), J1(x) respectively
 Section - 46
• The gamma function Γ(p):

• It is easy to see that Γ(p+1) = pΓ(p).

• For any integer ‘n ≥ 0’ Γ(n+1) = n!
• We can define Γ(p) for many negative p’s by rewriting
the above formula as

• We also find that Γ(1/2) = √π

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• We can write p! = Γ(p+1) for all values of p except
negative integers.
• Now to find the general solution of Bessel’s equation,
we need to construct a second independent solution.
Any such solution is called Bessel equation of second
kind.
• When ‘p’ is not an integer, we get the second
solution as
 Section - 46
• Jp(x) and J-p(x) are independent and so the general
solution of Bessel’s equation is y = c1 Jp(x) + c2 J-p(x), p
is not an integer.
• When p is an integer, m ≥ 0 we get
J-m(x) = (-1)mJm(x)
Which shows that Jm(x) and J-m(x) are not independent.
• So in the case p is an integer y = c1 Jm(x) + c2 J-m(x) is
not a general solution.
 Section - 46
• The standard Bessel function of the second type is
defined by

• After detailed analysis, it is found that

y = c1 Jp(x) + c2 Yp(x),
is the general solution of the Bessel’s equation in all
cases, whether p is an integer or not.
 SECTION 46
BESSEL FUNCTIONS
THE GAMMA CHAPTER 8
FUNCTION
PROBLEMS
 Section - 46
1.Use the expansions of J0(x) and J1(x) to show that
Section - 46
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 SECTION 47
PROPERTIES OF CHAPTER 8
BESSEL FUNCTIONS
 Section - 47
• The Bessel function Jp(x) has been defined for any
real number ‘p’ by

• Identities:
 Section - 47
• By slight modifications, the identities become

• Add and subtract the above identities to get

 Section - 47
• A few formulae:

• By using these, we can derive the following:

 Section - 47

• Changing the previous formulae to integral form:

• p = 1 implies:
Orthogonality Property:
Let λm and λn are the roots of Jp(x)=0. Then,
 Section – 47
Bessel Series Representation
We can define any function f(x) on the interval 0≤x ≤1

Where λn are the positive zeros of some fixed Bessel

function Jp(x) with p ≥ 0.
•We have the fact that:
 Section - 47
• By multiplying the expansion of f(x) (11) by x Jp(λmx)
and integrating term by term from 0 to 1 by using
(12), we get:

• Replacing m by n, we obtain an as

• The series (11) with its coefficients calculated by (13),

is called the Bessel series or Fourier-Bessel series.
 Section - 47
• The following theorem gives conditions where the
series converges:

• At x = 1, the series converges to zero regardless of

the function as every Jp(λn) is zero.
• The series also converges at x = 0 to zero if p > 0 and
f(0+) if p = 0.
 Section - 47
• Computing the Bessel series of the function f(x) = 1 in
terms of the functions J0(λnx) where it is understood
that the λn are the positive zeros of J0(x):

• Therefore the desired Bessel series is:

 SECTION 47
PROPERTIES OF
CHAPTER 8
BESSEL FUNCTIONS
PROBLEMS
Section - 47
Section - 47