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29 Lamé FunctionsLamé Polynomials

§29.12 Definitions

Contents

§29.12(i) Elliptic-Function Form

Throughout §§29.1229.16 the order \nu in the differential equation (29.2.1) is assumed to be a nonnegative integer.

The Lamé functions \mathop{\mathit{Ec}^{{m}}_{{\nu}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right), m=0,1,\dots,\nu, and \mathop{\mathit{Es}^{{m}}_{{\nu}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right), m=1,2,\dots,\nu, are called the Lamé polynomials. There are eight types of Lamé polynomials, defined as follows:

29.12.1\mathop{\mathit{uE}^{{m}}_{{2n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right)=\mathop{%
\mathit{Ec}^{{2m}}_{{2n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right),
29.12.8\mathop{\mathit{scdE}^{{m}}_{{2n+3}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right)=\mathop%
{\mathit{Es}^{{2m+2}}_{{2n+3}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,k^{2}\right),

where n=0,1,2,\dots, m=0,1,2,\dots,n. These functions are polynomials in \mathop{\mathrm{sn}\/}\nolimits\left(z,k\right), \mathop{\mathrm{cn}\/}\nolimits\left(z,k\right), and \mathop{\mathrm{dn}\/}\nolimits\left(z,k\right). In consequence they are doubly-periodic meromorphic functions of z.

The superscript m on the left-hand sides of (29.12.1)–(29.12.8) agrees with the number of z-zeros of each Lamé polynomial in the interval (0,\!\mathop{K\/}\nolimits\!), while n-m is the number of z-zeros in the open line segment from \!\mathop{K\/}\nolimits\! to \!\mathop{K\/}\nolimits\!+i\!\mathop{{K^{{\prime}}}\/}\nolimits\!.

The prefixes \mathit{u}, \mathit{s}, \mathit{c}, \mathit{d}, \mathit{sc}, \mathit{sd}, \mathit{cd}, \mathit{scd} indicate the type of the polynomial form of the Lamé polynomial; compare the 3rd and 4th columns in Table 29.12.1. In the fourth column the variable z and modulus k of the Jacobian elliptic functions have been suppressed, and P({\mathop{\mathrm{sn}\/}\nolimits^{{2}}}) denotes a polynomial of degree n in {\mathop{\mathrm{sn}\/}\nolimits^{{2}}}\left(z,k\right) (different for each type). For the determination of the coefficients of the P’s see §29.15(ii).

§29.12(ii) Algebraic Form

With the substitution \xi={\mathop{\mathrm{sn}\/}\nolimits^{{2}}}\left(z,k\right) every Lamé polynomial in Table 29.12.1 can be written in the form

where \rho, \sigma, \tau are either 0 or \frac{1}{2}. The polynomial P(\xi) is of degree n and has m zeros (all simple) in (0,1) and n-m zeros (all simple) in (1,k^{{-2}}). The functions (29.12.9) satisfy (29.2.2).

§29.12(iii) Zeros

Let \xi_{1},\xi_{2},\dots,\xi_{n} denote the zeros of the polynomial P in (29.12.9) arranged according to

Then the function

defined for (t_{1},t_{2},\dots,t_{n}) with

attains its absolute maximum iff t_{j}=\xi_{j}, j=1,2,\dots,n. Moreover,

This result admits the following electrostatic interpretation: Given three point masses fixed at t=0, t=1, and t=k^{{-2}} with positive charges \rho+\tfrac{1}{4}, \sigma+\tfrac{1}{4}, and \tau+\tfrac{1}{4}, respectively, and n movable point masses at t_{1},t_{2},\dots,t_{n} arranged according to (29.12.12) with unit positive charges, the equilibrium position is attained when t_{j}=\xi_{j} for j=1,2,\dots,n.