Mathematics is playing an ever more important role in the physical and biological sciences, provoking a blurring of boundaries between scientific disciplines and a resurgence of interest in the modern as well as the clas sical techniques of applied mathematics. This renewal of interest, both in research and teaching, has led to the establishment of the series: Texts in Applied Mathematics (TAM). The development of new courses is a natural consequence of a high level of excitement on the research frontier as newer techniques, such as numerical and symbolic computer systems, dynamical systems, and chaos, mix with and reinforce the traditional methods of applied mathematics. Thus, the purpose of this textbook series is to meet the current and future needs of these advances and encourage the teaching of new courses. TAM will publish textbooks suitable for use in advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses, and will complement the Applied Mathe matical Sciences (AMS) series, which will focus on advanced textbooks and research level monographs. Preface A wide range of problems exists in classical and quantum physics, engi neering, and applied mathematics in which special functions arise. The procedure followed in most texts on these topics (e. g. , quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, modern physics, classical mechanics, etc. ) is to formu late the problem as a differential equation that is related to one of several special differential equations (Hermite's, Bessel's, Laguerre's, Legendre's, etc. ).

With students of Physics chiefly in mind, we have collected the material on special functions that is most important in mathematical physics and quan tum mechanics. We have not attempted to provide the most extensive collec tion possible of information about special functions, but have set ourselves the task of finding an exposition which, based on a unified approach, ensures the possibility of applying the theory in other natural sciences, since it pro vides a simple and effective method for the independent solution of problems that arise in practice in physics, engineering and mathematics. For the American edition we have been able to improve a number of proofs; in particular, we have given a new proof of the basic theorem (§3). This is the fundamental theorem of the book; it has now been extended to cover difference equations of hypergeometric type (§§12, 13). Several sections have been simplified and contain new material. We believe that this is the first time that the theory of classical or thogonal polynomials of a discrete variable on both uniform and nonuniform lattices has been given such a coherent presentation, together with its various applications in physics.

Special functions arise in many problems of pure and applied mathematics, mathematical statistics, physics, and engineering. This book provides an up-to-date overview of numerical methods for computing special functions and discusses when to use these methods depending on the function and the range of parameters. Not only are standard and simple parameter domains considered, but methods valid for large and complex parameters are described as well. The first part of the book (basic methods) covers convergent and divergent series, Chebyshev expansions, numerical quadrature, and recurrence relations. Its focus is on the computation of special functions; however, it is suitable for general numerical courses. Pseudoalgorithms are given to help students write their own algorithms. In addition to these basic tools, the authors discuss other useful and efficient methods, such as methods for computing zeros of special functions, uniform asymptotic expansions, Padé approximations, and sequence transformations. The book also provides specific algorithms for computing several special functions (like Airy functions and parabolic cylinder functions, among others).

Modern engineering and physical science applications demand a thorough knowledge of applied mathematics, particularly special functions. These typically arise in applications such as communication systems, electro-optics, nonlinear wave propagation, electromagnetic theory, electric circuit theory, and quantum mechanics. This text systematically introduces special functions and explores their properties and applications in engineering and science.

An overview of special functions, focusing on the hypergeometric functions and the associated hypergeometric series.

This handbook focuses on special functions in physics in the real and complex domain. It covers more than 170 different functions with additional numerical hints for efficient computation, which are useful to anyone who needs to program with other programming languages as well. The book comes with MATLAB-based programs for each of these functions and a detailed html-based documentation. Some of the explained functions are: Gamma and Beta functions; Legendre functions, which are linked to quantum mechanics and electrodynamics; Bessel functions; hypergeometric functions, which play an important role in mathematical physics; orthogonal polynomials, which are largely used in computational physics; and Riemann zeta functions, which play an important role, e.g., in quantum chaos or string theory. The book’s primary audience are scientists, professionals working in research areas of industries, and advanced students in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering.