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30 Spheroidal Wave FunctionsComputation

§30.16 Methods of Computation

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§30.16(i) Eigenvalues

For small |\gamma^{2}| we can use the power-series expansion (30.3.8). Schäfke and Groh (1962) gives corresponding error bounds. If |\gamma^{2}| is large we can use the asymptotic expansions in §30.9. Approximations to eigenvalues can be improved by using the continued-fraction equations from §30.3(iii) and §30.8; see Bouwkamp (1947) and Meixner and Schäfke (1954, §3.93).

Another method is as follows. Let n-m be even. For d sufficiently large, construct the d\times d tridiagonal matrix \mathbf{A}=[A_{{j,k}}] with nonzero elements

and real eigenvalues \alpha_{{1,d}}, \alpha_{{2,d}}, \dots, \alpha_{{d,d}}, arranged in ascending order of magnitude. Then

30.16.2\alpha_{{j,d+1}}\leq\alpha_{{j,d}},

and

The eigenvalues of \mathbf{A} can be computed by methods indicated in §§3.2(vi), 3.2(vii). The error satisfies

Example

For m=2, n=4, \gamma^{2}=10,

30.16.5
\alpha_{{2,2}}=14.18833\;246,
\alpha_{{2,3}}=13.98002\;013,
\alpha_{{2,4}}=13.97907\;459,
\alpha_{{2,5}}=13.97907\;345,
\alpha_{{2,6}}=13.97907\;345,

which yields \mathop{\lambda^{{2}}_{{4}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(10\right)=13.97907\;345. If n-m is odd, then (30.16.1) is replaced by

§30.16(ii) Spheroidal Wave Functions of the First Kind

If |\gamma^{2}| is large, then we can use the asymptotic expansions referred to in §30.9 to approximate \mathop{\mathsf{Ps}^{{m}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(x,\gamma^{2}\right).

If \mathop{\lambda^{{m}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(\gamma^{2}\right) is known, then we can compute \mathop{\mathsf{Ps}^{{m}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(x,\gamma^{2}\right) (not normalized) by solving the differential equation (30.2.1) numerically with initial conditions w(0)=1, w^{{\prime}}(0)=0 if n-m is even, or w(0)=0, w^{{\prime}}(0)=1 if n-m is odd.

If \mathop{\lambda^{{m}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(\gamma^{2}\right) is known, then \mathop{\mathsf{Ps}^{{m}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(x,\gamma^{2}\right) can be found by summing (30.8.1). The coefficients a^{m}_{{n,r}}(\gamma^{2}) are computed as the recessive solution of (30.8.4) (§3.6), and normalized via (30.8.5).

A fourth method, based on the expansion (30.8.1), is as follows. Let \mathbf{A} be the d\times d matrix given by (30.16.1) if n-m is even, or by (30.16.6) if n-m is odd. Form the eigenvector [e_{{1,d}},e_{{2,d}},\dots,e_{{d,d}}]^{{\mathrm{T}}} of \mathbf{A} associated with the eigenvalue \alpha_{{p,d}}, p=\left\lfloor\frac{1}{2}(n-m)\right\rfloor+1, normalized according to

Then

For error estimates see Volkmer (2004a).

§30.16(iii) Radial Spheroidal Wave Functions

The coefficients a_{{n,k}}^{m}(\gamma^{2}) calculated in §30.16(ii) can be used to compute \mathop{S^{{m(j)}}_{{n}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(z,\gamma\right), j=1,2,3,4 from (30.11.3) as well as the connection coefficients K_{n}^{m}(\gamma) from (30.11.10) and (30.11.11).

For other methods see Van Buren and Boisvert (2002, 2004).