Laguerre Differential Equation

Lesson: Laguerre Differential Equation

Lesson Developer: Sushil Kumar Singh

College/ Department: S.G.T.B Khalsa College, University of

Delhi

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 Laguerre Differential Equation

Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Laguerre’s Differential Equation

 6.1 Introduction
 6.2 Laguerre’s Polynomials
 6.3 Rodrigues Formula for Laguerre’s Polynomials
 6.4 Generating Function of Laguerre’s Polynomials
 6.5 Orthogonal Properties of Laguerre’s Polynomials
 6.6 Recurrence Formulae for Laguerre’s Polynomials
 6.7 Applications
 Summary
 Exercise/ Practice
 Glossary
 References/ Bibliography/ Further Reading

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Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter the student will be able to learn

It is an important equation as in quantum mechanics it serves as the

equation for the ‘radial part’ for the ‘energy states’ in the hydrogen atom
problem.

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Laguerre’s Differential Equation

6.1 Introduction

The Second Order Laguerre’s Differential Equation is

6.1.1

The general solution of in case where is a positive integer given by

6.1.2

where are the Laguerre polynomials (Laguerre functions of first kind ) and are
Laguerre functions of second kind. Dividing by we get Laguerre’s differential
equation in Standard Form as

6.1.3

which can be compared to the General Standard Form

6.1.4

The functions and are analytic everywhere except at the point . The
singularity occurs in the Laguerre’s equation due to the sitting in the denominator of
these functions. Thus, we study the general solution on an interval which is the
range.
A Frobenius series method can be applied to achieve a solution to a second order
differential equation only for an ordinary point or a regular singular point. We see that
on comparing the two and we have

the behaviour of the coefficients and at is,

Since the conditions for regular singular point are satisfied at , we can have a power
series solution with as running index and as the index (to be obtained from indicial
equation), as

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 Laguerre Differential Equation

From where we find that

which we substitute back into the to get

Collect the coefficients of (the lowest power of ) to get the recurrence relation

6.1.5

We put to get the Indicial Equation

Since as we have our series solution starting , and also but an arbitrary
constant so

6.1.6

the roots are thus .

We have a case of repeated indices or Double roots case.

6.2 Laguerre’s Polynomials

The Second Order Laguerre’s Differential Equation is

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 Laguerre Differential Equation

6.2.1

which will have the parameter as a non-negative integer in many applications.

Further, the recurrence relation (obtained above)

6.2.2

will yield the first solution for the first root taken as so that we have

6.2.3

by replacing in the above relation.

Now we observe as the running index starts counting from it reaches the value
value if is a positive integer; this implies that as . Obviously as the
recurrence relation relates the present coefficient with the previous one, it means that all
coefficients beyond it are zero ( ). Thus we can write the first
solution as

6.2.4

Thus, the Laguerre’s Polynomial is a polynomial of degree .

We now embark upon to determine its form by using the ‘backward’ recurrence relation
wherein the lower coefficient is expressed in terms of higher coefficient . Thus, using
the relation

6.2.5

And we analyse a few coefficients by using in the above recurrence

relation

Similarly repeating the steps in general when , we can write the coefficient
as

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6.2.6

Thus, we write the first solution as

6.2.7

6.2.8

where we have put .

The plots of a first six Laguerre’s Polynomials are shown in figure 1

Figure 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguerre_polynomials#mediaviewer/File:Laguerre_poly.svg

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6.3 Rodrigues Formula for Laguerre’s Polynomials

Rodrigues Formula for Laguerre’s Polynomials is expressed as

6.3.1

By Leibnitz theorem we know that for two functions and the differential is expressed
as

6.3.2

where is differentiation performed times. We can also represent Leibnitz theorem for
two functions as

6.3.3

where the function represents th differential. We have determined the form of the
Laguerre’s polynomial above as

6.3.4

Let us assume that there exists a function given by such that and
. Using we get

6.3.5

Now we can understand that

Substituting this in back we get

6.3.6

and thus

6.3.7

Rearranging we get the Rodrigues formula

Laguerre’s polynomials can be easily determined on substituting to get

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6.4 Generating Function of Laguerre’s Polynomials

The Laguerre polynomial can be expressed as coefficients of in a series summation

which represents the expansion of

6.4.1

We can express the function as

6.4.2

Now we know that

6.4.3

We compare the term in with , and substitute in

to get

6.4.4

Substituting back in we get

6.4.5

If we compare and we see that we need to compare the coefficient of .

Therefore we replace by in to get

6.4.6

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Here one must note that in the variable has positive integral powers and in
we want to collect the powers of together. So while doing so we have to limit from
to otherwise we would get negative powers of . Also, if then the factorial
will be undefined for negative values of . So can be expressed as

6.4.7

We compare back with the Laguerre polynomial to see that

Thus can finally be expressed as

6.4.8

Which is hence the generating function for the Laguerre Polynomial.

6.5 Orthogonal Properties of Legendre’s Polynomials

The Laguerre polynomials do not themselves form an orthogonal set. However, we use
a related set of functions as and to form an
orthonormal set for the interval . We recall that we choose this interval because
referring back to the Laguerre equation we know that

will have the first solution given by the Laguerre polynomial for being positive
interger. Further when we compared to the standard form

we found that

And thus we concluded that the functions and were analytic everywhere except
at the point . The singularity occurs in the Laguerre equation due to the sitting in the
denominator. Thus, we choose the interval .

The orthogonal properties of Laguerre’s Polynomials are expressed as

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6.5.1a

6.5.1b

The two conditions can be combined and written equivalently in the form of a single
equation as:

6.5.2a

here is the Kronecker delta and has the values accordingly as

6.5.2b

We now prove these properties:

From Laguerre’s Differential equation we have for any two Laguerre polynomials and
we have
6.5.3a
6.5.3b
We multiply by and by and subtract to get

on division by throughout we get

which can be re-expressed as

6.5.4

Multiplying the above equation by the integrating factor given by which is

6.5.5

is rewritten as

6.5.6

Integrating from to we get by writing the RHS first

6.5.7

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for

6.5.8

For we use the Rodrigues formula for the Laguerre

polynomials and get

6.5.9

From the we can write

which on substitution we get

6.5.10

The integral is easy to calculate

6.5.11

Thus,

6.5.12

6.6 Recurrence Formulae for Laguerre’s Polynomials

A few important recurrence relations used frequently are

6.6.1

We prove by using the generating function of the Laguerre polynomial which is

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Differentiate this equation with respect to to get

6.6.2

We substitute for the generating function again in the form of the summation series on LHS
and cross multiply with

6.6.3

Appropriately collecting the coefficients of on both the sides of the above equation and
equating them we get

6.6.4

Multiply throughout by to get

6.6.5

which on re-arranging gives the first recurrence relation as

The second recurrence relation is

6.6.6

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We prove by using the generating function of the Laguerre polynomial which is

Differentiate this equation with respect to to get

6.6.7

We substitute for the generating function again in the form of the summation series on LHS
and cross multiply by

6.6.8

Collecting the power of

6.6.9

and multiplying throughout by we get

6.6.10

Example 1 Show that the functions generated by satisfy the

Laguerre Differential Equation

E.1.1

Step 1: The second recurrence relation is written as,

E.1.2a

Differentiate w.r.t to get

E.1.2b

Step 2: From the first recurrence relation we have

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Differentiate w.r.t to get

E.1.3

Differentiate w.r.t. again to get

E.1.4

Subtract and to get

Using which is on the LHS we have

E.1.5

We use the second recurrence relation to write values of and

from and on substituting by .

Thus on substituting the values of and in we get

which is nothing but the relation we need

6.7 Applications

Let be the solution of the Schrodinger equation with as the

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radial part and as the angular part. Show that one of the
solutions to the following Schrodinger equation has the Laguerre
Differential Equation giving the solution to the radial part.

A.1

The 3D time-independent Schrodinger equation is written as

A.2

Using the trial solution in which variables can be separated as

. Substituting we get,

And divide by thoughout to get

A.3

The LHS is a function of while the RHS is a function of . Any change

in the LHS should produce a corresponding change in RHS. Thus we equate
them to a constant . Hence,

A.4

Separately we write the radial equation from A.4 as

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A.5

If we write the equation reduces to

where knowing that for bound states is . Using

we get

where . For large values of or we get

While for small values of or we get

So the complete solution will be

In terms of the new dependent variable (with certain amount of effort) the
Schrodinger equation reduces to

known as the Associated Laguerre Equation. The solution to this is known as the
Associated Laguerre Polynomial with the condition that

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Are the energy of the energy states.

Summary
 The Second Order Laguerre’s Differential Equation is

The general solution where is a positive integer given by

where are the Laguerre polynomials (Laguerre functions of first kind ) and are
Laguerre functions of second kind.
 Since the conditions for regular singular point are satisfied at , we can have a
power series solution with as running index and as the index (to be obtained
from indicial equation), as

 Collect the coefficients of (the lowest power of ) to get the recurrence

relation

 We put to get the Indicial Equation

Since as we have our series solution starting , and also but an arbitrary
constant so the roots are thus . We have a case of repeated indices or Double
roots case.
Further, the recurrence relation (obtained above) will yield the first solution for the first

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 Laguerre Differential Equation

root taken as so that we have

by replacing in the above relation.

 We can write the first solution as

where we have put

 Rodrigues Formula for Laguerre’s Polynomials is expressed as

 Generating Function of Laguerre’s Polynomials: The Laguerre polynomial can

be expressed as coefficients of in a series summation which represents the

expansion of

 The orthogonal properties of Laguerre’s Polynomials are expressed as

The two conditions can be combined and written equivalently in the form of a single
equation as:

here is the Kronecker delta and has the values accordingly as

 A few important recurrence relations used frequently are

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Bibliography/ References / Glossary

1. Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Erwin Kreysig
2. Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Michael D. Greenberg
3. Schaum's Outline: Theory and Problems of Advanced Calculus by Murray R. Spiegel
4. Mathematical Methods in Physical Sciences by Mary L. Boas
5. Calculus & Analytic Geometry by Fobes & Smyth
6. Essential Mathematical Methods by K.F. Riley & M.P. Hobson
7. Schaum's Outline: Theory and Problems of Differential Equations by Richard Bronson
8. Schaum's Outline: Theory and Problems of Differential Equations by Frank Ayres
9. Introductory Course in Differential Equations by Daniel A. Murray
10. Differential Equations by N.M. Kapoor
11. Higher Engineering Mathematics by B S Grewal
12. A Treatise on Differential Equations by A. R. Forsyth
13. Reference: Griffiths, David J. (2005), Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 2nd Edition;
Pearson Education – Sec 4.2.1

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