Article 6J9B6 Bessel zero spacing

Bessel zero spacing

by
John
from John D. Cook on (#6J9B6)

Bessel functions are to polar coordinates what sines and cosines are to rectangular coordinates. This is why Bessel function often arise in applications with radial symmetry.

The locations of the zeros of Bessel functions are important in application, and so you can find software for computing these zeros in mathematical libraries. In days gone by you could find them in printed tables, such as Table 9.5 in A&S.

Bessel functions are solutions to Bessel's differential equation,

bessel_equation.svg

For each the functions J and Y, known as the Bessel functions of the first and second kind respectively, form a basis for the solutions to Bessel's equation. These functions are analogous to cosine and sine

As x , Bessel functions asymptotically behave like damped sinusoidal waves. Specifically,

bessel_asymp.svg

So if for large x Bessel functions of order behave something like sin(x), you'd expect the spacing between the zeros of the Bessel functions to approach , and this is indeed the case.

We can say more. If ^2 > 1/4 then the spacing between zeros decreases toward , and if ^2 < 1/4 the spacing between zeros increases toward . This is not just true of J and Y but also of their linear combinations, i.e. to any solution of Bessel's equation with parameter .

If you look carefully, you can see this in the plots of J0 and J1 below. The solid blue curve, the plot of J0, crosses the x-axis at points closer together than , and dashed orange curve, the plot of J1, crosses the x-axis at points further apart than .

bessel_j01.png

For more on the spacing of Bessel zeros see [1].

Related posts

[1] F. T. Metcalf and Milos Zlamal. On the Zeros of Solutions to Bessel's Equation. The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 73, No. 7, pp. 746-749

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