Appendix: Some Special Functi ons and Their
Properties
“One of the properties inherent in mathematics is that any real progress is
accompanied by the discovery and development of new methods and sim-
plifications of previous procedures ... The unified character of mathematics
lies in its very nature; indeed, mathematics is the foundation of all exact
natural sciences.”
David Hilbert
This appendix is a short introduction to some special functions used in
the book. These functions include gamma, beta, error, and Airy functions
and their main properties. Also included are Hermite and Webber–Hermite
functions and their properties. Our discussion is brief since we assume that
the reader is already familiar with this material. For more details, the reader
is referred to appropriate books listed in the bibliography.
A-1 Gamma, Beta, Error, and Airy Functions
The Gamma function (also called the factorial function) is defined by a
definite integral in which a variable appears as a parameter
Γ (x)=
∞
0
e
−t
t
x−1
dt, x > 0. (A-1.1)
In view of the fact that the integral (A-1.1) is uniformly convergent for all
x in [a, b]where0<a≤ b<∞, Γ (x) is a continuous function for all x>0.
Integrating (A-1.1) by parts, we obtain the fundamental property of
Γ (x)