This equation is obtained from Bessel’s equation (10.2.1) on
replacing
by
, and it has the same kinds of singularities. Its
solutions are called modified Bessel functions or Bessel functions
of imaginary argument.
This solution has properties analogous to those of
, defined
in §10.2(ii). In particular, the principal branch of
is defined in a similar way: it corresponds to the principal
value of
, is analytic in
,
and two-valued and discontinuous on the cut
.
The defining property of the second standard solution
of
(10.25.1) is
as
in
.
It has a branch point at
for all
. The
principal branch corresponds to the principal value of the square root
in (10.25.3), is analytic in
,
and two-valued and discontinuous on the cut
.
Both
and
are real when
is real
and
.
For fixed
each branch of
and
is entire in
.
Except where indicated otherwise it is assumed throughout the DLMF
that the symbols
and
denote the
principal values of these functions.
Corresponding to the symbol
introduced in
§10.2(ii), we sometimes use
to denote
,
, or any nontrivial linear
combination of these functions, the coefficients in which are independent of
and
.