The Jacobi polynomials are defined via the hypergeometric function as follows:23: IV.1
where ( α + 1 ) n {\displaystyle (\alpha +1)_{n}} is Pochhammer's symbol (for the rising factorial). In this case, the series for the hypergeometric function is finite, therefore one obtains the following equivalent expression:
An equivalent definition is given by Rodrigues' formula:4: IV.3 5
If α = β = 0 {\displaystyle \alpha =\beta =0} , then it reduces to the Legendre polynomials:
For real x {\displaystyle x} the Jacobi polynomial can alternatively be written as
and for integer n {\displaystyle n}
where Γ ( z ) {\displaystyle \Gamma (z)} is the gamma function.
In the special case that the four quantities n {\displaystyle n} , n + α {\displaystyle n+\alpha } , n + β {\displaystyle n+\beta } , n + α + β {\displaystyle n+\alpha +\beta } are nonnegative integers, the Jacobi polynomial can be written as
The sum extends over all integer values of s {\displaystyle s} for which the arguments of the factorials are nonnegative.
The Jacobi polynomials satisfy the orthogonality condition
As defined, they do not have unit norm with respect to the weight. This can be corrected by dividing by the square root of the right hand side of the equation above, when n = m {\displaystyle n=m} .
Although it does not yield an orthonormal basis, an alternative normalization is sometimes preferred due to its simplicity:
The polynomials have the symmetry relation
thus the other terminal value is
The k {\displaystyle k} th derivative of the explicit expression leads to
The Jacobi polynomial P n ( α , β ) {\displaystyle P_{n}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}} is a solution of the second order linear homogeneous differential equation6: IV.2
The recurrence relation for the Jacobi polynomials of fixed α {\displaystyle \alpha } , β {\displaystyle \beta } is:7: IV.5
for n = 2 , 3 , … {\displaystyle n=2,3,\ldots } . Writing for brevity a := n + α {\displaystyle a:=n+\alpha } , b := n + β {\displaystyle b:=n+\beta } and c := a + b = 2 n + α + β {\displaystyle c:=a+b=2n+\alpha +\beta } , this becomes in terms of a , b , c {\displaystyle a,b,c}
Since the Jacobi polynomials can be described in terms of the hypergeometric function, recurrences of the hypergeometric function give equivalent recurrences of the Jacobi polynomials. In particular, Gauss' contiguous relations correspond to the identities8: Appx.B
The generating function of the Jacobi polynomials is given by
where
and the branch of square root is chosen so that R ( z , 0 ) = 1 {\displaystyle R(z,0)=1} .9: IV.4
For x {\displaystyle x} in the interior of [ − 1 , 1 ] {\displaystyle [-1,1]} , the asymptotics of P n ( α , β ) {\displaystyle P_{n}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}} for large n {\displaystyle n} is given by the Darboux formula10: VIII.2
and the " O {\displaystyle O} " term is uniform on the interval [ ε , π − ε ] {\displaystyle [\varepsilon ,\pi -\varepsilon ]} for every ε > 0 {\displaystyle \varepsilon >0} .
The asymptotics of the Jacobi polynomials near the points ± 1 {\displaystyle \pm 1} is given by the Mehler–Heine formula
where the limits are uniform for z {\displaystyle z} in a bounded domain.
The asymptotics outside [ − 1 , 1 ] {\displaystyle [-1,1]} is less explicit.
The expression (1) allows the expression of the Wigner d-matrix d m ′ , m j ( ϕ ) {\displaystyle d_{m',m}^{j}(\phi )} (for 0 ≤ ϕ ≤ 4 π {\displaystyle 0\leq \phi \leq 4\pi } ) in terms of Jacobi polynomials:11
d m ′ m j ( ϕ ) = ( − 1 ) m − m ′ − | m − m ′ | 2 [ ( j + M ) ! ( j − M ) ! ( j + N ) ! ( j − N ) ! ] 1 2 ( sin ϕ 2 ) | m − m ′ | ( cos ϕ 2 ) | m + m ′ | P j − M ( | m − m ′ | , | m + m ′ | ) ( cos ϕ ) , {\displaystyle d_{m'm}^{j}(\phi )=(-1)^{\frac {m-m'-|m-m'|}{2}}\left[{\frac {(j+M)!(j-M)!}{(j+N)!(j-N)!}}\right]^{\frac {1}{2}}\left(\sin {\tfrac {\phi }{2}}\right)^{|m-m'|}\left(\cos {\tfrac {\phi }{2}}\right)^{|m+m'|}P_{j-M}^{(|m-m'|,|m+m'|)}(\cos \phi ),}
where M = max ( | m | , | m ′ | ) , N = min ( | m | , | m ′ | ) {\displaystyle M=\max(|m|,|m'|),N=\min(|m|,|m'|)} .
Szegő, Gábor (1939). "IV. Jacobi polynomials.". Orthogonal Polynomials. Colloquium Publications. Vol. XXIII. American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-1023-1. MR 0372517. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) 978-0-8218-1023-1 ↩
Abramowitz, Milton; Stegun, Irene Ann, eds. (1983) [June 1964]. "Chapter 22". Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. Applied Mathematics Series. Vol. 55 (Ninth reprint with additional corrections of tenth original printing with corrections (December 1972); first ed.). Washington D.C.; New York: United States Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards; Dover Publications. p. 561. ISBN 978-0-486-61272-0. LCCN 64-60036. MR 0167642. LCCN 65-12253. 978-0-486-61272-0 ↩
P.K. Suetin (2001) [1994], "Jacobi polynomials", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Jacobi_polynomials ↩
Creasey, P. E. "A Unitary BRDF for Surfaces with Gaussian Deviations". https://github.com/pec27/urdf ↩
Biedenharn, L.C.; Louck, J.D. (1981). Angular Momentum in Quantum Physics. Reading: Addison-Wesley. ↩